looking for a good backup program for a small Windows network

[SoftDux-Rudi]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for a decent backup program to backup 13 Windows XP / 7 PC's on a LAN.

For now they use Comodo Backup since the interface is easy enough for the staff to understand and manage themselves.

The problem I now have is that I need better security for the backups. Currently all the user's data is being backed up to a shared folder on a Windows XP "server". It's a server with shared docs which everyone uses for various company documents. This Windows XP machine then gets backed up to another one, in a different building. So there's always 3 copies of every document on the network. I had to work with what the client had due to a limited budget.


The question is, does anyone know of a backup solution where I can setup different user accounts and secure each user's data individually? I know this is a typical Windows server type question, but the client doesn't want to fork-out the money for Windows server. And Linux, although it's my first suggestion, isn't option for them either. They need simplicity and don't want to use technology which someone else may not be able to take over and run with.


Any suggestions would be highly appreciated.

Many of the systems I found, start @ $599 for a server license, and then $50 per user licence which is simply too expensive for this client.

I don't need to backup Exchange, SQL, SharePoint or anything like that. Just files, documents, Pastel and emails - all which can be backed up without anything fancy.

 

[BostonDan]

Backup Suggestion

Hi SoftDux-Rudi,

I don't know if this will address your needs, but in my case, it was very tight budget so I did the following:

1) Each user was setup with a designated network share on a Synology DS209 for backups. All computers are running Oops!Backup and backup realtime to their designated network share. Oops!Backup has versioning so you can go back to any prior version.

2) The DS209 also contains a common shares: (General, Marketing, Sales, Finance, etc...)

3) The DS209 backs up its entire contents to a ReadyNAS Duo nightly.

I wouldn't consider this best ideal solution, but it serves the purpose with minimal investment.

Best- BostonDan

 

[claykin]

To further BostonDan's comments

You can use a NAS as the local backup destination. Creating password protected shares for each users backup data is a great idea. You can also encrypt the contents of the backup if you're worried (QNAP offers volume encryption if you like that idea).

Backup the local NAS to a remote NAS using RSYNC. Very efficient. Uses delta backup technology to backup only changes in files.

I like using a NAS as the backup destination (in non Win Server environments) because the NAS does a good job of communicating state/condition/problems). You can often catch problems before they take down the box. Way better than a Windows client box.

For backup, Oops is decent. I tried it out and kinda liked it.

I often use Syncback Pro. Pretty much never fails me. The only negative is that it doesn't easily run as a service. Syncback is a bargain for what they sell it for.

 

[SoftDux-Rudi]

Does anyone have any experience with smaller NAS devices, i.e. something with 2 drives that can cater for 14 PC's? I've only ever worked on large SAN's & NAS devices so I'm not sure how well these small ones operate with something like 14 PC's, which will backup to it on a daily basis.

 

[claykin]

Does anyone have any experience with smaller NAS devices, i.e. something with 2 drives that can cater for 14 PC's? I've only ever worked on large SAN's & NAS devices so I'm not sure how well these small ones operate with something like 14 PC's, which will backup to it on a daily basis.

How much data are you talking about?

How do you wish/plan to schedule the backup job(s) on the14 PC's.

Are you OK with non centralized management of your backup apps?

Or do you really need a centralized dash to review status, etc..?

How fast is your LAN?

 

[SoftDux-Rudi]

How much data are you talking about?

I honestly don't know, but I don't think it would be more than 250GB

How do you wish/plan to schedule the backup job(s) on the14 PC's.

daily would be fine, but since it's incremental it should be lightweight on the LAN & NAS after the initial backup

Are you OK with non centralized management of your backup apps?

Or do you really need a centralized dash to review status, etc..?

Do NAS devices offer this?

How fast is your LAN?

100MB/s

 

[claykin]

You may be a good candidate for the forthcoming Windows SBS 2011 Essentials. Its like a big boy version of Home Server with support for 25 users and Active Directory. Includes the fairly robust client and server backup features that are in WHS and centralized dashboard. Its not your only option, but its probably the cleanest and one of the simplest options to deploy.


http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2010/11/02/announcing-windows-small-business-server-2011.aspx

NOTE: SBS 2011 Standard does not include the client backup option that you'll probably like.

Another option is Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery 2010 Desktop edition. Purchase a license for each client and push the backups to your destination device (NAS, etc.). From any one of the clients you can connect and manage the other clients (I believe the clients must be Windows Professional for remote manage to work). Symantec also offers a full Management console, but it requires Win Server to host.

Symantec BESR will do full images of the desktops (with hardware independent restore which is something Win SBS 2011 Essentials won't do) and also includes a file backup tool. I'm not a huge fan of the file backup tool, since files are stored in a nonreadable custom archive Symantec over-engineered. It has worked fine in a few of the cases I've used it. Not though that the File Backup versioning tool only works for fiels up to 1GB (I believe). larger files only sore a single copy regardless of your settings. I say this because people using the file backup to store multiple copies of their Outlook.pst files find this limitation annoying.

Acronis Workstation backup is another option. I haven't used Acronis in a while, had too many problems in past, but I heard its better now.

Even the free Cobian backup offers a remote manage option. Cobian works great but lacks an automated restore option. This requires users get assistance to properly restore data.

This is just a few options to consider. I'm sure others can chime in with more.

last thing, many backup apps store their backups in custom nonreadable form. When relying on a single full backup and then only doing incrementals after you run the risk of not being able to restore if one of the increments in the chain is corrupt. I normally recommend running a new full every week or month at the most and/or run differential instead of incremental backups.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Check out Windows 2008 Server "Foundation" edition...it's a small version of Server 2008, designed for small businesses of up to 15 users. So it's very affordable.

This way you can properly backup client workstations..using methods such as group policy to control folder redirection (such as My Docs, Desktop, Favorites, etc).

If it's a non-profit business, check out options for special non profit licensing pricing at places such as techsoup.org