DIsaster Recovery and backups

[DaveWI]

Don't know if this is the best spot, but I figured it would get the most visibility...

There's quite a few talented IT professionals here an I was looking for opinions on corporate server backup and disaster recovery solutions.

We are a smaller company, with a limited budget. We have 12 servers, and are running Exchange 2003. I'm looking at a few professional solutions: Backup Exec (Symantec), Acronis Advanced Server, StorageCraft ShadowProtect, and Paragon Drive Backup.

Does anyone here have experience using any of these? Any recommendations, or thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

[Tripredacus]

Well this is borderline networking related, however best fit in Software forum.

[DaveWI]

No problem, it didn't really seem to fit in any of the forums perfectly

[solarjdp69]

I've use Acronis Advanced Server on two (2) windows 2003 servers. One is our Exchange server, the other has SQL and Laserfiche running on it. I used to use tapes but now use NAS drives, LaCie Big disk (1tb and 2tb) units (note: power packs on these LaCie NAS's wear out and deliver low voltage later - LaCie replaced power packs for free, all data still there.) Acronis backs up well and fast. I've several times needed to bring back large database files and the exchange database directory, easy to do. You can also easily tell the restore process to direct restored files to an alternate location. CAVEAT - I've had a few problems when Acronis backup does NOT have sufficient space to create temporary "snapshot" files and the server acts like it's not there. Had to reboot to come back to normal. Fix is adding a system environmental variable from Acronis forums that directs it to use a differnet location where enough space is available. Ran into troubles when c: became less than 5oo meg free. Fixed now do to the re-direction. Some of our support personnel are surprised by how fast I can restore data using Acronis and the drives.

I also have used the Workstation product to create a crash CD, then backup the workstation. Install new (usually larger disk), then boot on crash CD with external USB (or network located drive) and slurp some coffee. When restore is done, system works perfect. Recommended.

Don't know if this is the best spot, but I figured it would get the most visibility...

There's quite a few talented IT professionals here an I was looking for opinions on corporate server backup and disaster recovery solutions.

We are a smaller company, with a limited budget. We have 12 servers, and are running Exchange 2003. I'm looking at a few professional solutions: Backup Exec (Symantec), Acronis Advanced Server, StorageCraft ShadowProtect, and Paragon Drive Backup.

Does anyone here have experience using any of these? Any recommendations, or thoughts?

Thanks in advance.