Backup solution for Windows
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@BRRABill said:
And how do we know this backup is working? The only way would be to put another hard drive in there and recover to it. (Which I have come to understand is the trade-off of all this ... convenience (paying for a license to spin up a VM and check in minutes) vs time (having to do the whole actual restore to test).)
Which he would totally do. He has lots of drives in his machines. This is the polar opposite of the "uncle" scenario.
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OK, I get it.
This is one of those rare cases.
Not the case for your uncle.
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@BRRABill said:
And it was mentioned in another post to boot the recovery image on a USB drive. Is that OK? I thought no, technically.
Why would that be bad? Licensing is about the system, not the storage type or location.
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Also important to note that he is not doing this to restore his data, it is to restore his apps and settings. It's non-critical. He's willing to drop huge money for really little things. His critical data is all on servers. This is a system recovery system to him, not a backup system. He is still using enterprise tools for his data.
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So, this would be more like your uncle who really, really did not want to reconfigure his apps and needed things that a Chromebook could not run and was willing to drop $1,000 to make reconfiguring easier. But still followed all of the advice about having nothing local and getting everything from a server. It's because this is an AND not an OR.
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To quote Into the Woods.
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If he's looking to restore applications, why not just reinstall them?
He could use open source tools like Fog or BackupPC (for incremental type changes, BackupPC specifically) but where is the gain? Installing an application usually only takes a few minutes per.
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@DustinB3403 said:
If he's looking to restore applications, why not just reinstall them?
You've not been a developer, I see
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@DustinB3403 said:
He could use open source tools like Fog or BackupPC (for incremental type changes, BackupPC specifically) but where is the gain? Installing an application usually only takes a few minutes per.
Veeam is free here, why go with one of those others?
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Just putting them out there.
Veeam is another good one.
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Veeam does individual file restores that the others do not. Pretty huge deal in a case like this, in case he needs something when there has not been a failure. Veeam uses imaging as a means of taking "normal backups", rather than FOG which is just an imaging system.
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Shouldn't offsite also be mentioned in here somewhere?
Or is this more time-saving than disaster-saving?
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@scottalanmiller said:
Veeam does individual file restores that the others do not. Pretty huge deal in a case like this, in case he needs something when there has not been a failure. Veeam uses imaging as a means of taking "normal backups", rather than FOG which is just an imaging system.
Is FOG even an option for a home user? We are talking about a home user, aren't we? yeah not Uncle Bob, but still a home power user. Clonezilla would be I would think the better option over Fog, but suffers the problems that Scott mentioned - lack of individual file restore. Though is that even really needed, Scott did say that this user is cloud/server storing all of their data, so what file level stuff would you ever be restoring?
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@BRRABill said:
Shouldn't offsite also be mentioned in here somewhere?
Should it? In a small business of less than say 20 people, the term server should imply hosted already except in cases where that is not possible and if it is not possible, the question is answered, right?
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@Dashrender said:
Though is that even really needed, Scott did say that this user is cloud/server storing all of their data, so what file level stuff would you ever be restoring?
More of a "why give up that functionality" question.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@BRRABill said:
Shouldn't offsite also be mentioned in here somewhere?
Should it? In a small business of less than say 20 people, the term server should imply hosted already except in cases where that is not possible and if it is not possible, the question is answered, right?
I disagree. In most cases the reason you need a server for an SMB today is file storage, possibly large file storage - the one main place that cloud storage really suffers, because of throughput.
though if you don't have need to move move large files from the server to your machine and vice versa.. then hosted might be the way to go.
SMBs rarely need the level of uptime provided by the hosted server solution, and they certainly rarely install servers into dedicated spaces with dedicated heating/cooling, etc... so you've added an additional cost that I still see a hard time justifying if they only access that data when onsite.
Now if your SMB is mobile, accessing from any/everywhere, that's completely different and gives more reason for the extra spend.
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@Dashrender said:
I disagree. In most cases the reason you need a server for an SMB today is file storage, possibly large file storage - the one main place that cloud storage really suffers, because of throughput.
Does it? Ours doesn't.
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@Dashrender said:
SMBs rarely need the level of uptime provided by the hosted server solution, and they certainly rarely install servers into dedicated spaces with dedicated heating/cooling, etc... so you've added an additional cost that I still see a hard time justifying if they only access that data when onsite.
Opposite. Cost of hosted storage is so cheap for an SMB, in most cases, that there is no good way to store it internally without just wasting money. It's specifically because it is so costly to run your own storage and so cheap to get it hosted that you get the "always hosted" mentality.
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Hi folks,
Answering to the question why an end-user needs a backup with personal story and I think it makes total sense.
A real end user story: My father in law is far away from IT and the problem is he thinks he is not. He does some really crazy things on his own and then calls me…
When it is a software level (thanks to the Endpoint) it takes me a cup of coffee to roll back to the latest backup (I’ve already done it twice). I wish I could make a backup on a hardware level (since he likes to “clean” the motherboard from time to time…
The funny fact that he does not even now its running – its “some where in the tray” and backup is performed to the WD 3TB NAS box I gave him to store the photos.
I like to think that every IT guy is a one man shop for his family or close friends. What is easier: to restore from the backup or to deploy a new windows installation at your sister’s laptop looking for an activation keys stored somewhere and then installing some software she likes but can’t really say how its called (real end user story #2 btw)
P.S. This year I got all my family with WD NAS boxes and VEB installed
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That's kind of why I've been pushing this a bit. Yes, I understand we should educate out family and friends NOT to do that, but they don't, and at some level it's easier just doing what you said than re-educating.
With that said, there are a lot of thefts and stuff, so I'm always looking for an offsite solution. That's typically where the issue comes in.
SO, it's really just trying to help the old fridns and family (that you don't have control over) manage their systems they aren't optimal.
