New Backup Solution

Thanks Dave...

Along the same lines as the High Rely, I've been eyeing up a QNAP 4-bay
Turbo NAS for my disc-to-disc backup. With this bad boy, I'd be able to do
incremental backups to NAS using Storage Protect and in the event of a
failure, setup an iSCSI channel for a secondary server running Virtual
Server/Hyper-V and restore the SBS to a virtual server running the .vhd on
the QNAP as well.

I think I'd still be looking at a couple of USB drives w/ robocopy for
offsite storage.

-Scott

"Dave Nickason [SBS MVP]" <> wrote in message
news:%...
> I've never restored a ShadowProtect backup to a virtual machine myself,
> but I've seen it demonstrated - the speaker restored a backup of his SBS
> to a VM on his laptop and booted it up to show how easily it worked.
> Works great, and you can then back up the VM and restore it back to the
> SBS as you describe. (Not to mention that I'm pretty sure you can boot an
> SP backup in VMWare without restoring - check their site for that).
>
> I saw the coolest thing for SP backups at SMB Nation - a 2-bay High Rely
> where one drive automatically mirrors to the other. So you attach this to
> your server with USB or eSATA, and it shows as a single drive. As you
> back up to that drive, the device mirrors one drive to the other, which
> can be rotated for offsite. This way, you're not removing or replacing
> the drive your server sees, which avoids "safely remote" and other errors
> of that kind. And, they have fans and temperature monitoring, so you're
> likely to get better drive life and reliability - I've had a High Rely
> enclosure going on two years, and while I've had one power supply fail
> (external) and lost one to a power incident (my fault), the drives and
> enclosures have been bulletproof. And their support is excellent.
> http://high-rely.com/HR3/includes/Ta.../TandemDXR.php
>
>
> "Scott Rymer" <tsrymer/at/hotmail/dot/com> wrote in message
> news:...
>> Allan... thanks so much. I'm very interested after reading a little on
>> their website and seeing that this is a very affordable solution.
>> Yes, our hardware is getting older as well and I'm starting to feel
>> insecure about it but don't really want to replace it since it's been
>> rock solid since day one.
>>
>> So if I'm reading correctly, with SP, if our SBS were to go down hard
>> (motherboard failure), I could restore the last SBS backup to a MS
>> Virtual Server running elsewhere and keep on chugging along while my
>> "real" SBS is repaired, and then restore the virtual SBS back onto the
>> physical server? Am I dreaming?
>>
>> I like the idea of having the local IDE/SATA drive on the server and then
>> copying to removable storage for offsite. So do you still have a
>> rotation like tape or does the image based backup preclude needing this
>> type of strategy for USB?
>>
>> Appreciate all your help!
>>
>> -Scott
>>

Sounds cool - I'll take a look at that.

As I probably said, I'm currently using the single bay High Rely for
offsite - I think it was only about $200 plus drives, so a little more than
consumer-grade externals, but IMO quite a bit more robust. I'm copying out
two weeks worth of SP backups from 3 servers, about 500 GB total, and I'm
not sure how long a cheaper device would hold up to that.

I'm not necessarily trying to push High Rely, but rather to express my
preference for a fan-cooled enclosure with a good quality drive.


"Scott Rymer" <tsrymer/at/hotmail/dot/com> wrote in message
news:AD850547-E07A-423A-9D3A-...
> Thanks Dave...
>
> Along the same lines as the High Rely, I've been eyeing up a QNAP 4-bay
> Turbo NAS for my disc-to-disc backup. With this bad boy, I'd be able to
> do incremental backups to NAS using Storage Protect and in the event of a
> failure, setup an iSCSI channel for a secondary server running Virtual
> Server/Hyper-V and restore the SBS to a virtual server running the .vhd on
> the QNAP as well.
>
> I think I'd still be looking at a couple of USB drives w/ robocopy for
> offsite storage.
>
> -Scott
>
> "Dave Nickason [SBS MVP]" <> wrote in
> message news:%...
>> I've never restored a ShadowProtect backup to a virtual machine myself,
>> but I've seen it demonstrated - the speaker restored a backup of his SBS
>> to a VM on his laptop and booted it up to show how easily it worked.
>> Works great, and you can then back up the VM and restore it back to the
>> SBS as you describe. (Not to mention that I'm pretty sure you can boot
>> an SP backup in VMWare without restoring - check their site for that).
>>
>> I saw the coolest thing for SP backups at SMB Nation - a 2-bay High Rely
>> where one drive automatically mirrors to the other. So you attach this
>> to your server with USB or eSATA, and it shows as a single drive. As you
>> back up to that drive, the device mirrors one drive to the other, which
>> can be rotated for offsite. This way, you're not removing or replacing
>> the drive your server sees, which avoids "safely remote" and other errors
>> of that kind. And, they have fans and temperature monitoring, so you're
>> likely to get better drive life and reliability - I've had a High Rely
>> enclosure going on two years, and while I've had one power supply fail
>> (external) and lost one to a power incident (my fault), the drives and
>> enclosures have been bulletproof. And their support is excellent.
>> http://high-rely.com/HR3/includes/Ta.../TandemDXR.php
>>
>>
>> "Scott Rymer" <tsrymer/at/hotmail/dot/com> wrote in message
>> news:...
>>> Allan... thanks so much. I'm very interested after reading a little on
>>> their website and seeing that this is a very affordable solution.
>>> Yes, our hardware is getting older as well and I'm starting to feel
>>> insecure about it but don't really want to replace it since it's been
>>> rock solid since day one.
>>>
>>> So if I'm reading correctly, with SP, if our SBS were to go down hard
>>> (motherboard failure), I could restore the last SBS backup to a MS
>>> Virtual Server running elsewhere and keep on chugging along while my
>>> "real" SBS is repaired, and then restore the virtual SBS back onto the
>>> physical server? Am I dreaming?
>>>
>>> I like the idea of having the local IDE/SATA drive on the server and
>>> then copying to removable storage for offsite. So do you still have a
>>> rotation like tape or does the image based backup preclude needing this
>>> type of strategy for USB?
>>>
>>> Appreciate all your help!
>>>
>>> -Scott
>>>
>

I've never tried the virtual machine approach (in my test I used a old
workstation) but I see no reason it wouldn't work. Just boot the VM on the
SP CDROM and load the image using HIR. One note on HIR that got me when I
was testing it - you need to have SP installed on the source server before
imaging and doing an HIR to another server otherwise HIR doesn't work
(licensing thing).

As for copying backups around I just use NT cmd files that robocopy them
around. I rotate several WEEK1/WEEK2/etc. directories to keep older backups
around. Even with image based backup I like to do a full image on the
weekend and then incremental throughout the week. They also support
continuous incremental (like SBS2008 backup) but I like having multiple
older backups in case corruption occurs and affects future incrementals.

I agree with Dave that if you haven't bought your USB drives a cage-type
system may be the way to go, especially if they support automatic mirroring.
Not sure about NAS - they may be slower and unsure of SP support for them.

--
Allan Williams




Scott Rymer wrote:
> Allan... thanks so much. I'm very interested after reading a little
> on their website and seeing that this is a very affordable solution.
> Yes, our hardware is getting older as well and I'm starting to feel
> insecure about it but don't really want to replace it since it's been
> rock solid since day one.
>
> So if I'm reading correctly, with SP, if our SBS were to go down hard
> (motherboard failure), I could restore the last SBS backup to a MS
> Virtual Server running elsewhere and keep on chugging along while my
> "real" SBS is repaired, and then restore the virtual SBS back onto
> the physical server? Am I dreaming?
>
> I like the idea of having the local IDE/SATA drive on the server and
> then copying to removable storage for offsite. So do you still have
> a rotation like tape or does the image based backup preclude needing
> this type of strategy for USB?
>
> Appreciate all your help!
>
> -Scott
>
> "Al Williams" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>> Sounds very similar to our old situation - using tape and having to
>> do custom backups with NTBackup to make them fit, wondering if you
>> missed anything, wondering if you could handle a full disaster
>> recovery... We switched over to ShadowProtect SBS (SP) last year and
>> haven't
>> looked back. I am able to do backups every 2 hours during the day
>> without issues (how often you can backup is based more on the size
>> of your backup drives). It integrates fully into VSS so Exchange &
>> SQL are fully backed up using MS-methods. Their hardware
>> independent restore (HIR) really works and their backup system is
>> much quicker and efficient than using NTBackup any day. It also
>> works with SBS2008 (although 2008's native backup has gotten good
>> reviews but I am unsure that it can handle HIR).
>> http://www.storagecraft.com/shadow_protect_SBS.php
>>
>> Best part, it was easy to actually test and document a disaster
>> recovery scenario -- I could restore my SBS server
>> OS/exchange/SQL/ISA to completely different hardware in an hour (a
>> little longer with all our data) plug in a domain laptop and go --
>> it worked flawlessly (once you update drivers, etc.) and has saved
>> me some sleep as our server hardware is a little older than it
>> should be ;-) Some notes on how I use SP:
>>
>> 1) Schedule a NTBackup system state backup once a week when SP is not
>> running just in case you need it.
>> 2) To allow exchange logfiles to be properly handled you need to
>> turn on the exchange VSS writer. Note that doing this precludes
>> using SBSBackup but it sounds like you weren't using it anyway
>> (workaround:
>> http://blog.sbs-rocks.com/2009/06/be...nd-sbs-backup/)
>> 3) I find it best to throw in a large un-raided IDE/SATA drive in
>> the server and backup to that. I then use robocopy scripts
>> triggered to run after SP finishes to copy the backups to multiple
>> locations (including our external USB drive). You can have SP
>> backup to the external drive directly, I just like this better as
>> the backup will still run if someone forgets the external drive. I don't
>> work for them I just really like the program, it has saved my
>> bacon a couple times already. If you email them you can download a
>> fully functional trial version.
>> --
>> Allan Williams
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Scott Rymer wrote:
>>> I'm going to be replacing my 72GB (3x36GB) RAID 5 with a 292GB
>>> (3x146GB) RIAD 5 and will also need to change my backup strategy.
>>> I'm currently using a DAT72 tape drive with SBS2003 and I'm slowing
>>> excluding more and more from the backup so it will fit on the tapes
>>> (don't worry... using an external USB w/ Robocopy for the rest).
>>>
>>> Keeping SBS2008 in mind, I'm contemplating just using external USB
>>> drives but I've been given a competitive quote on Backup Exec (for
>>> SBS) with a DLT 160/320 tape solution and I'm told that this is far
>>> superior to the native SBS backup. Price wise, I could buy a lot of
>>> portable external USB drives and use the free NT Backup for the
>>> price of the Backup Exec/Tape solution.
>>> I know Backup Exec includes an Exchange Agent and an add-on SQL
>>> Agent but what if I were to setup my future SBS2008 in a Hyper-V 1+1
>>> scenario? Does Backup Exec cover this as well? What about NT
>>> Backup? My gut is telling me to just go with USB drives as it seems the
>>> most
>>> popular option in the newsgroups...
>>>
>>> SBS2003 Standard with SQL 2005 Standard on another Win2k3 server.

Just wanted to say thanks to eveyone for their input. My final decision is
StorageProtect SBS with a High-Rely TandemDXR.
I'm still concerned about recovering from a server going down but I'm going
to leave backup to a backup solution instead of trying to kill 2 birds with
one stone. Once I get ShadowProtect going, I'll try to restore a virtual
SBS to my workstation to see if performance would be an issue should I need
to go this route. If it is, I'll have to find another means of disastery
recovery...

Scott

"Al Williams" <> wrote in message
news:...
> I've never tried the virtual machine approach (in my test I used a old
> workstation) but I see no reason it wouldn't work. Just boot the VM on
> the SP CDROM and load the image using HIR. One note on HIR that got me
> when I was testing it - you need to have SP installed on the source server
> before imaging and doing an HIR to another server otherwise HIR doesn't
> work (licensing thing).
>
> As for copying backups around I just use NT cmd files that robocopy them
> around. I rotate several WEEK1/WEEK2/etc. directories to keep older
> backups around. Even with image based backup I like to do a full image on
> the weekend and then incremental throughout the week. They also support
> continuous incremental (like SBS2008 backup) but I like having multiple
> older backups in case corruption occurs and affects future incrementals.
>
> I agree with Dave that if you haven't bought your USB drives a cage-type
> system may be the way to go, especially if they support automatic
> mirroring. Not sure about NAS - they may be slower and unsure of SP
> support for them.
>
> --
> Allan Williams
>
>
>
>
> Scott Rymer wrote:
>> Allan... thanks so much. I'm very interested after reading a little
>> on their website and seeing that this is a very affordable solution.
>> Yes, our hardware is getting older as well and I'm starting to feel
>> insecure about it but don't really want to replace it since it's been
>> rock solid since day one.
>>
>> So if I'm reading correctly, with SP, if our SBS were to go down hard
>> (motherboard failure), I could restore the last SBS backup to a MS
>> Virtual Server running elsewhere and keep on chugging along while my
>> "real" SBS is repaired, and then restore the virtual SBS back onto
>> the physical server? Am I dreaming?
>>
>> I like the idea of having the local IDE/SATA drive on the server and
>> then copying to removable storage for offsite. So do you still have
>> a rotation like tape or does the image based backup preclude needing
>> this type of strategy for USB?
>>
>> Appreciate all your help!
>>
>> -Scott
>>
>> "Al Williams" <> wrote in message
>> news:...
>>> Sounds very similar to our old situation - using tape and having to
>>> do custom backups with NTBackup to make them fit, wondering if you
>>> missed anything, wondering if you could handle a full disaster
>>> recovery... We switched over to ShadowProtect SBS (SP) last year and
>>> haven't
>>> looked back. I am able to do backups every 2 hours during the day
>>> without issues (how often you can backup is based more on the size
>>> of your backup drives). It integrates fully into VSS so Exchange &
>>> SQL are fully backed up using MS-methods. Their hardware
>>> independent restore (HIR) really works and their backup system is
>>> much quicker and efficient than using NTBackup any day. It also
>>> works with SBS2008 (although 2008's native backup has gotten good
>>> reviews but I am unsure that it can handle HIR).
>>> http://www.storagecraft.com/shadow_protect_SBS.php
>>>
>>> Best part, it was easy to actually test and document a disaster
>>> recovery scenario -- I could restore my SBS server
>>> OS/exchange/SQL/ISA to completely different hardware in an hour (a
>>> little longer with all our data) plug in a domain laptop and go --
>>> it worked flawlessly (once you update drivers, etc.) and has saved
>>> me some sleep as our server hardware is a little older than it
>>> should be ;-) Some notes on how I use SP:
>>>
>>> 1) Schedule a NTBackup system state backup once a week when SP is not
>>> running just in case you need it.
>>> 2) To allow exchange logfiles to be properly handled you need to
>>> turn on the exchange VSS writer. Note that doing this precludes
>>> using SBSBackup but it sounds like you weren't using it anyway
>>> (workaround:
>>> http://blog.sbs-rocks.com/2009/06/be...nd-sbs-backup/)
>>> 3) I find it best to throw in a large un-raided IDE/SATA drive in
>>> the server and backup to that. I then use robocopy scripts
>>> triggered to run after SP finishes to copy the backups to multiple
>>> locations (including our external USB drive). You can have SP
>>> backup to the external drive directly, I just like this better as
>>> the backup will still run if someone forgets the external drive. I don't
>>> work for them I just really like the program, it has saved my
>>> bacon a couple times already. If you email them you can download a
>>> fully functional trial version.
>>> --
>>> Allan Williams
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Scott Rymer wrote:
>>>> I'm going to be replacing my 72GB (3x36GB) RAID 5 with a 292GB
>>>> (3x146GB) RIAD 5 and will also need to change my backup strategy.
>>>> I'm currently using a DAT72 tape drive with SBS2003 and I'm slowing
>>>> excluding more and more from the backup so it will fit on the tapes
>>>> (don't worry... using an external USB w/ Robocopy for the rest).
>>>>
>>>> Keeping SBS2008 in mind, I'm contemplating just using external USB
>>>> drives but I've been given a competitive quote on Backup Exec (for
>>>> SBS) with a DLT 160/320 tape solution and I'm told that this is far
>>>> superior to the native SBS backup. Price wise, I could buy a lot of
>>>> portable external USB drives and use the free NT Backup for the
>>>> price of the Backup Exec/Tape solution.
>>>> I know Backup Exec includes an Exchange Agent and an add-on SQL
>>>> Agent but what if I were to setup my future SBS2008 in a Hyper-V 1+1
>>>> scenario? Does Backup Exec cover this as well? What about NT
>>>> Backup? My gut is telling me to just go with USB drives as it seems the
>>>> most
>>>> popular option in the newsgroups...
>>>>
>>>> SBS2003 Standard with SQL 2005 Standard on another Win2k3 server.
>
>

I definitely recommend a thorough test of ShadowProtect restore. I usually
verify that I can mount and browse backups as a test that they're completing
reliably, since it's not generally easy to do frequent test restores. But,
it was a relatively new product when I started using it, and I did test a
number of restores before committing to it.

I do think that if you restore an SBS to a VM running on a workstation,
you're liable to have performance issues depending on the specs of the
workstation. What I consider for this is the speed at which I can get the
original server repaired or replaced. We'd be hating life for a day or two
running SBS in a VM on low-powered hardware, something we'd just have to
live with.


"Scott Rymer" <tsrymer/at/hotmail/dot/com> wrote in message
news:FC599FE2-91B9-41E6-9F04-...
> Just wanted to say thanks to eveyone for their input. My final decision
> is StorageProtect SBS with a High-Rely TandemDXR.
> I'm still concerned about recovering from a server going down but I'm
> going to leave backup to a backup solution instead of trying to kill 2
> birds with one stone. Once I get ShadowProtect going, I'll try to restore
> a virtual SBS to my workstation to see if performance would be an issue
> should I need to go this route. If it is, I'll have to find another means
> of disastery recovery...
>
> Scott
>
> "Al Williams" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>> I've never tried the virtual machine approach (in my test I used a old
>> workstation) but I see no reason it wouldn't work. Just boot the VM on
>> the SP CDROM and load the image using HIR. One note on HIR that got me
>> when I was testing it - you need to have SP installed on the source
>> server before imaging and doing an HIR to another server otherwise HIR
>> doesn't work (licensing thing).
>>
>> As for copying backups around I just use NT cmd files that robocopy them
>> around. I rotate several WEEK1/WEEK2/etc. directories to keep older
>> backups around. Even with image based backup I like to do a full image
>> on the weekend and then incremental throughout the week. They also
>> support continuous incremental (like SBS2008 backup) but I like having
>> multiple older backups in case corruption occurs and affects future
>> incrementals.
>>
>> I agree with Dave that if you haven't bought your USB drives a cage-type
>> system may be the way to go, especially if they support automatic
>> mirroring. Not sure about NAS - they may be slower and unsure of SP
>> support for them.
>>
>> --
>> Allan Williams
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Scott Rymer wrote:
>>> Allan... thanks so much. I'm very interested after reading a little
>>> on their website and seeing that this is a very affordable solution.
>>> Yes, our hardware is getting older as well and I'm starting to feel
>>> insecure about it but don't really want to replace it since it's been
>>> rock solid since day one.
>>>
>>> So if I'm reading correctly, with SP, if our SBS were to go down hard
>>> (motherboard failure), I could restore the last SBS backup to a MS
>>> Virtual Server running elsewhere and keep on chugging along while my
>>> "real" SBS is repaired, and then restore the virtual SBS back onto
>>> the physical server? Am I dreaming?
>>>
>>> I like the idea of having the local IDE/SATA drive on the server and
>>> then copying to removable storage for offsite. So do you still have
>>> a rotation like tape or does the image based backup preclude needing
>>> this type of strategy for USB?
>>>
>>> Appreciate all your help!
>>>
>>> -Scott
>>>
>>> "Al Williams" <> wrote in message
>>> news:...
>>>> Sounds very similar to our old situation - using tape and having to
>>>> do custom backups with NTBackup to make them fit, wondering if you
>>>> missed anything, wondering if you could handle a full disaster
>>>> recovery... We switched over to ShadowProtect SBS (SP) last year and
>>>> haven't
>>>> looked back. I am able to do backups every 2 hours during the day
>>>> without issues (how often you can backup is based more on the size
>>>> of your backup drives). It integrates fully into VSS so Exchange &
>>>> SQL are fully backed up using MS-methods. Their hardware
>>>> independent restore (HIR) really works and their backup system is
>>>> much quicker and efficient than using NTBackup any day. It also
>>>> works with SBS2008 (although 2008's native backup has gotten good
>>>> reviews but I am unsure that it can handle HIR).
>>>> http://www.storagecraft.com/shadow_protect_SBS.php
>>>>
>>>> Best part, it was easy to actually test and document a disaster
>>>> recovery scenario -- I could restore my SBS server
>>>> OS/exchange/SQL/ISA to completely different hardware in an hour (a
>>>> little longer with all our data) plug in a domain laptop and go --
>>>> it worked flawlessly (once you update drivers, etc.) and has saved
>>>> me some sleep as our server hardware is a little older than it
>>>> should be ;-) Some notes on how I use SP:
>>>>
>>>> 1) Schedule a NTBackup system state backup once a week when SP is not
>>>> running just in case you need it.
>>>> 2) To allow exchange logfiles to be properly handled you need to
>>>> turn on the exchange VSS writer. Note that doing this precludes
>>>> using SBSBackup but it sounds like you weren't using it anyway
>>>> (workaround:
>>>> http://blog.sbs-rocks.com/2009/06/be...nd-sbs-backup/)
>>>> 3) I find it best to throw in a large un-raided IDE/SATA drive in
>>>> the server and backup to that. I then use robocopy scripts
>>>> triggered to run after SP finishes to copy the backups to multiple
>>>> locations (including our external USB drive). You can have SP
>>>> backup to the external drive directly, I just like this better as
>>>> the backup will still run if someone forgets the external drive. I
>>>> don't work for them I just really like the program, it has saved my
>>>> bacon a couple times already. If you email them you can download a
>>>> fully functional trial version.
>>>> --
>>>> Allan Williams
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Scott Rymer wrote:
>>>>> I'm going to be replacing my 72GB (3x36GB) RAID 5 with a 292GB
>>>>> (3x146GB) RIAD 5 and will also need to change my backup strategy.
>>>>> I'm currently using a DAT72 tape drive with SBS2003 and I'm slowing
>>>>> excluding more and more from the backup so it will fit on the tapes
>>>>> (don't worry... using an external USB w/ Robocopy for the rest).
>>>>>
>>>>> Keeping SBS2008 in mind, I'm contemplating just using external USB
>>>>> drives but I've been given a competitive quote on Backup Exec (for
>>>>> SBS) with a DLT 160/320 tape solution and I'm told that this is far
>>>>> superior to the native SBS backup. Price wise, I could buy a lot of
>>>>> portable external USB drives and use the free NT Backup for the
>>>>> price of the Backup Exec/Tape solution.
>>>>> I know Backup Exec includes an Exchange Agent and an add-on SQL
>>>>> Agent but what if I were to setup my future SBS2008 in a Hyper-V 1+1
>>>>> scenario? Does Backup Exec cover this as well? What about NT
>>>>> Backup? My gut is telling me to just go with USB drives as it seems
>>>>> the most
>>>>> popular option in the newsgroups...
>>>>>
>>>>> SBS2003 Standard with SQL 2005 Standard on another Win2k3 server.
>>
>>
>

Scott Rymer wrote:
> Just wanted to say thanks to eveyone for their input. My final
> decision is StorageProtect SBS with a High-Rely TandemDXR.
> I'm still concerned about recovering from a server going down but I'm
> going to leave backup to a backup solution instead of trying to kill
> 2 birds with one stone. Once I get ShadowProtect going, I'll try to
> restore a virtual SBS to my workstation to see if performance would
> be an issue should I need to go this route. If it is, I'll have to
> find another means of disastery recovery...

At least make sure it has multiple drives for OS, data, and Exchange.


--
Reply in group, but if emailing add one more
zero, and remove the last word.

Dave Nickason [SBS MVP] wrote:
> I definitely recommend a thorough test of ShadowProtect restore. I
> usually verify that I can mount and browse backups as a test that
> they're completing reliably, since it's not generally easy to do
> frequent test restores. But, it was a relatively new product when I
> started using it, and I did test a number of restores before
> committing to it.
> I do think that if you restore an SBS to a VM running on a
> workstation, you're liable to have performance issues depending on
> the specs of the workstation. What I consider for this is the speed
> at which I can get the original server repaired or replaced. We'd be
> hating life for a day or two running SBS in a VM on low-powered
> hardware, something we'd just have to live with.

Two years ago I had a whole SBS LAN disappear in the night. They even took
the paper shredder and the Staples Easy Button, not to mention the backups.

The office was open for less than 2 weeks and backups were going, but
off-site backups were not yet. The employees had CDs containing their
previous work so they had their original starting point.

Insurance paid for temporary hardware as well as the permanent replacements.
They're still in business and growing.

What ****ed me off was that my temporary server had to suffice for 2 more
weeks because Dell didn't expedite the replacement as they said they would.
If it blew up they would have had a new one out in a day, but all that
repeat business was rewarded by waiting as long as ever for a server.

The temporary server was an HP workstation and the fastest thing I could get
that day, but it wasn't supported by SBS. I had to add a NIC that SBS had
drivers for. I soon realized it needed a separate drive for Exchange and I
probably should have added one for other data to be separate from the OS.

If I had to do that again I would put something together quickly instead of
using a ready-made system.


--
Reply in group, but if emailing add one more
zero, and remove the last word.