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    We have recently purchased the windows home server to use as a simple NAS storage device for our IT department.  It was cheap and simple to setup.  My only concern now is backups on this box.  We have the data duplicated two 1TB drives, so it has a simple RAID setup, but I need to plan for disaster recovery as well.

    Has anyone used backup execs remote agent with WHS?

    Is there any reason that this wouldn't work?

    Thanks!
    Thursday, February 11, 2010 4:47 PM

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    Traditional backup tools don't work on Windows Home Server, because they don't understand Drive Extender. That includes Backup Exec, which is effectively a supercharged NTBackup.

    For backing up the shares, you have a few choices. You can back up using a tool which can operate remotely against network shares. You can use the tools built into Windows Home Server for backing up your shares; these tools are manual in nature, with no possibility of automating them. Or you can "roll your own" using e.g. robocopy.

    If you use a tool which can back up from a network share, you might find one that can back up to a tape drive. For the other options you will probably have to use an external hard drive.
    I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)
    Thursday, February 11, 2010 6:00 PM
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    Hi BeLogical,

    You might want to consider WHS BDBB - http://www.mediasmartserver.net/wiki/index.php/WHS_BDBB - this will allow you to save your backup data off site.

    Nearly all backup solutions for Windows will not work on Windows Home Server due to the Drive Extender technology it has.

    Also Windows Home Server does not use RAID to provide file protection, it works at a file level.  You should take a look at the following document from microsoft:
    http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=40c6c9cc-b85f-45fe-8c5c-f103c894a5e2&DisplayLang=en

    Backing up of Windows Home Server is not supported - we use it for our Business Continuity Plan and we've mitigated using Windows Home Server by installing ontop of RAID6 and taking monthly backups of the database onto our WAN NetApps service.

    Cheers,
    Al
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    Thursday, February 11, 2010 5:16 PM
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    Traditional backup tools don't work on Windows Home Server, because they don't understand Drive Extender. That includes Backup Exec, which is effectively a supercharged NTBackup.

    For backing up the shares, you have a few choices. You can back up using a tool which can operate remotely against network shares. You can use the tools built into Windows Home Server for backing up your shares; these tools are manual in nature, with no possibility of automating them. Or you can "roll your own" using e.g. robocopy.

    If you use a tool which can back up from a network share, you might find one that can back up to a tape drive. For the other options you will probably have to use an external hard drive.
    I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)
    Thursday, February 11, 2010 6:00 PM
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    Al, thanks for this.  Yeah, I knew it wasn't RAID, that's why I put "simple RAID".  Wasn't sure what MS called the technology. 

    Anyway, it looks like WHS BDBB just backs up the PC backups and not the shares, is that correct?
    Thursday, February 11, 2010 7:17 PM
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    Thanks Ken!  That stinks!  I was hoping I could use my existing backup routine for this as well.

    I did this to free up storage space, so copying the data to another source and doing a tape backup from there isn't an option for me right now.

    You would think that since this product has been out for a decent amount of time that this would have been addressed by now.
    Thursday, February 11, 2010 7:21 PM
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    I tried the exact thing... in fact i have a lto1 library.  Nope it will not work... no matter what you tried to do.
    Thursday, February 11, 2010 7:30 PM
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    Anyway, it looks like WHS BDBB just backs up the PC backups and not the shares, is that correct?

    Yes it just backs up the backups.
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    Thursday, February 11, 2010 8:29 PM
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    ...
    You would think that since this product has been out for a decent amount of time that this would have been addressed by now.
    Why? It's Windows Home Server, though Microsoft and HP are both selling it into the microbusiness market. And it's not Microsoft that would have to address it, to be honest; Drive Extender is what it is, so this is on the backup vendors' plates. And some tools do work; search the forums and you'll find reports of a number of tools that users have tried successfully.
    I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)
    Thursday, February 11, 2010 10:46 PM
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    I would agree with Ken on this one - you have selected a home product that could be suitable for some very small businesses - think SOHO here.  If you have an IT department you might be better off with a different solution than Windows Home Server.  Just because Windows Home Server doesn't work with all your current software it doesn't mean it's failed anywhere.

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    Friday, February 12, 2010 12:14 AM