Backing up data across a WAN link

[ppp]

Our company has a remote office with a file server with several GB's of data
on that server. There is no backup device at that remote office.

The WAN link is 128kbps or 16KBps.

At our central office is our primary file server and tape backup device.
I was thinking of using some sort of intelligent file replication service.
The central file server would replicate the remote shared folders only
after hours and only the changed files.

I was going to try out DFS but I read a domain-based DFS root/replica
replicates every 15 minutes. Furthermore I don't know if the replication is
smart enough to only replicate the changes and not every single file.

What is the best way to backup the remote file shares on a daily basis?

 

[Simon Geary]

Our company has a remote office with a file server with several GB's of data
on that server. There is no backup device at that remote office.

The WAN link is 128kbps or 16KBps.

At our central office is our primary file server and tape backup device.
I was thinking of using some sort of intelligent file replication service.
The central file server would replicate the remote shared folders only
after hours and only the changed files.

I was going to try out DFS but I read a domain-based DFS root/replica
replicates every 15 minutes. Furthermore I don't know if the replication is
smart enough to only replicate the changes and not every single file.

What is the best way to backup the remote file shares on a daily basis?

A new tape backup unit in the remote site would be the best solution. You
will never be able to transfer several gigabytes of data over a 128k link
even if you left it running all night. What you could do is select a subset
of the files you want to backup and use ntbackup.exe on the remote
fileserver to back them up to one big backup.bkf file and use the task
scheduler to ftp them to central office overnight. This way you could get a
backup of most files done at least once a week.

 

[Chriss3]

PPP, you are on the right way by my advice FRS/DFS are a much intelligent
service for your centrally backup.

Only changes are replicated as default on the 15minutes interval.

 

[microsoft]

ntbackup.exe to a shared drive on your LAN... make it one big .bkf... i do
this weekly with system states... i transfer like 1 gig or so... it takes
some time... nothing terrible though...
start -> pro -> access -> systools -> backup

 

[Guest]

After the initial replication DFS will only replicate the changed data. It
doesn't perform a full replication every 15 min.

 

[Brian Desmond [MVP]]

You can modify DFS' replication schedule, though you can't say between hours
X and Y. It is definetely smart enough to only replicate changed files. You
will have to replicate *everything* initially, and this is going to take a
while, and will saturate your WAN link.

You could also script robocopy from the resource kit. It has the ability to
do what you want.

File replication aside, you'd be much better off just buying a tape drive
for the remote site so you can back the whole server up. That will make
restoring it a whole lot easier if it gets whacked.

--
--
Brian Desmond
Windows Server MVP
(e-mail address removed)12.il.us

Http://www.briandesmond.com

 

[DL]

Not sure if this will assist but I use this simple app to backup, to remote
site
http://www.handybackup.com/

 

[Brendon Rogers]

Look at Veritas Storage Replicator. Uses a client / server scheme, only
changed data is replicated and unlike FRS which replicates the whole file,
VSR only replicates the chunks which have changed. The replication schedule
can be tailored to your exact needs.

The initial sync will take a while over that small pipe; then you need to
work out what your daily change volume is and see whether you can push it
across overnight.

I don't think FRS is suitable for what you are doing here. 1 email added to
a 200MB Outlook PST file and the whole damn thing is going to replicate.

Having said that, you also need to consider restoring files in the event of
loss - with small bandwidth this might take a while - you should consider
installing a local tape drive.

 

[Jerold Schulman]

Our company has a remote office with a file server with several GB's of data
on that server. There is no backup device at that remote office.

The WAN link is 128kbps or 16KBps.

At our central office is our primary file server and tape backup device.
I was thinking of using some sort of intelligent file replication service.
The central file server would replicate the remote shared folders only
after hours and only the changed files.

I was going to try out DFS but I read a domain-based DFS root/replica
replicates every 15 minutes. Furthermore I don't know if the replication is
smart enough to only replicate the changes and not every single file.

What is the best way to backup the remote file shares on a daily basis?

You can use NTBackup and do an incremental or differential backup
schedule it after hours and run it as low priority.

See tip 2265 in the 'Tips & Tricks' at http://www.jsiinc.com for
using ntbackup in a batch file.

See the Start command , tip 364, for priority.


Jerold Schulman
Windows: General MVP
JSI, Inc.
http://www.jsiinc.com