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Previously in SMEs and many on prem servers, there has always been an on-prem dedicated backup system/server, with something like ArcServe or Backup Exec, with tape drive, daily off site media management etc.

Currently, my world is smaller, much smaller businesses, where people are either using cloud services like 365 or business focused managed CRM or have on site data backed up to a cloud backup provider.

Looking at setting up a couple of small physical servers, with hyper V, to run an AD setup, so server 1 would run AD/DNS/DHCP and an “IT sever” for all the usual tools; and server 2 would just run AD.

With no other servers, just enquiring on the normal way to back these up securely.

My old experience of sticking in a dedicated server, tape drive, backup exec, tapes, and external media management is a massive cost and may be overkill. By current experience of backing it up to the cloud feels a bit weak, although I’m sure with the right provider it’d be OK.

So really, just curious in the usual approaches taken in 2019 :slight_smile:

11 Spice ups
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Veeam has always seemed a popular choice for SMBs - simple and easy to use, backups for physical, virtual and cloud based apps and can be installed and run from a desktop PC. Their perpetual licensing isn’t actually that bad either

For such a small setup I’d also be a fan of suggesting you buy a small NAS and use Windows Server Backup for both VMs and physical. It does have it’s downside but it’s gotten infinitely better over the years. Having said that, there may be someone who will highlight why WSB is not a good idea for the backup of AD

What are the company requirements for backups? Ultimately that is going to be the driving factor, because while an SMB might not be assumed to spend a lot, any company that want’s hourly backups and a DR turnaround of 4 hours will have to pay appropriately

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I’d look at Veeam backup essentials with a small NAS as a backup target - backups could then be cloud replicated for off-site DR. If Azure Active Directory can do what you need directory services wise, you may save yourself some effort.

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Thanks guys.

The customer doe have a good Synology NAS at present and is currently being used as file server and backup target for a couple of PCs. (NAS “system” backed up manually monthly as no important changes, and data daily to cloud backup service (+RAID + snapshots etc). So “data” is protected.

WSB is of course an idea - I use Macrium Reflext for image backups as a preference for better sheduling and Full/Diff options.

But once its on the NAS, do I really want to be uploading large OS images to the cloud daily/weekly?

I’m 100% unfamiliar with Veeam - so thanks for that, I’ll make a brew and rigorously research and RTFMs - thanks. Will this also back up VM as a whole snapshot rather than the “internal” windows backup (if you know what I mean!)

You are 100% correct too - company requirements for data backups should be the driving factor - not technology. Guess that’s why I’m struggling - as the requirement for all data to be backed up and off site in multiple versions etc is covered. As is the “current” OS and config for the NAS and other devices. Just the WIndows servers for AD and not much else make it a lot more complex and a “bigger” data requirement than a simple semi-static NAS config backup.

Thanks again for the pointers

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For virtualized environment I can recommend you Altaro Backup.

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^^ I agree, Altaro has a free version that would be good for you. Easy to use, deduplication, fast backups, spin up to test or restore in minutes.

@davel-spiceworks

@sam-altaro-software

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Arcserve Unified Data Protection will provide fast block level backups (your Synology NAS would be fine as a destination) that you can replicate to cloud (Public and our own). Arcserve Cloud Direct is a direct to Cloud Backup solution which requires no onsite hardware and backups up directly to the Arcserve Cloud which is managed and operated by Arcserve. Both of these are targeted for SMB customers.

Check out arcserve.com for free trials and feel free to hit me up with any questions here on Spiceworks.

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I have a couple of small businesses I support on the side. I use Unitrends to back up to a NAS connected via iSCSI. It seems to work well.

@katie

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Thanks for choosing Unitrends, and for mentioning us in this thread! Our customers utilize our solutions for environment of all sizes, from single servers to PB of data, and everything in between. Since our solutions protect over 250 different OSs and applications, there is rarely a client our customers cannot protect. I noticed that @davel-spiceworks mentioned that some of your environments also utilize O365 . Are these O365 deployments also being backed up?

@ryanjones7882

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Don’t do physical servers unless you have a reason (you don’t from what you say). Go 100% virtualized and use Veeam for backups.

@andrew-veeam