Server 2012 Backups

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askelon

880 posts

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#248705 6-Apr-2019 17:13

I have inherited a not for profit customer with a server running Server 2012 with 3 virtual machines. Previously they were on a service contract with a big firm but as things are constantly changing on the NFP scene they are now on a shoestring budget for IT. The previous company was using shadowprotect but that was removed at the end of their contract. I have currently got the Windows 2012 backup running on it but its taking close to 48 hours each time to do backups (around 3TB of data in the virtual machines).

What would anyone recommend as a replacement which can do quicker incremental backups regularly. There is currently a NAS with 10TB of free space and a few 6TB USB drives so ideally Id want something that can backup to both.

And of course the budget is around $0 to do this! :)

billgates

4705 posts

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#2211874 6-Apr-2019 17:45

If they are paying you a monthly fees or hell even a one off fees, I would not put any freebie backup that would come with no support. You are putting your reputation on the line with this customer if they can’t even spend any money on the infrastructure that will get them back up and running in case of data loss.

Shadow protect gets a +1 from me.

The freebie Windows backup is good and only recommendation from Microsoft to backup a domain controller but that’s it. Even then you still want a offsite backup.

Do whatever you want to do man.

bagheera

539 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2211888 6-Apr-2019 18:08

for that number of servers / vm - veeam Community Edition would work and free - backup to the nas and create a copy job to the usb disk for off-site backups

http://www.veeam.com/virtual-machine-backup-solution-free.html

askelon

880 posts

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#2211890 6-Apr-2019 18:20

I'll take a look at veeam. It looks like it'll do the job. In an ideal world shadow protect would be what I'd use but their budget just doesn't stretch to buying it at this stage. Long term the server will be scrapped anyway - their database is in the process of being remade to put online, once that's done everything else will be cloud based as well (most likely o365/share point).

bagheera

539 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2211893 6-Apr-2019 18:32

also if they are a true nonprofit, they most likely meet Microsoft nonprofit eligibility status and get free / big discount on MS stuff, like O365 Business Essentials for a "Donation"

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/nonprofits/eligibility

pricing

https://query.prod.cms.rt.microsoft.com/cms/api/am/binary/RE2cluW

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
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Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#2211901 6-Apr-2019 19:04

I use Altaro Backup for Geekzone (two VMs free). Or as above Veeam.