end user computer backups
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Can anyone recommend anything for centrally managed end user computer backups? I have a client with Windows 7 computers and they are concerned about down time if a machine has to get reimaged and the user has to reconfigure all the settings from default when they get their machine back.
I've used Server Essentials and it has a piece in the dashboard where it lets you configure and monitor client backups. Does this piece exist for larger networks?
I could use something like Veeam Endpoint, but would it deduplicate all the OS and software files that are the same on every machine? Is that what you get when you add Veeam Backup and Replication repository?
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@Mike-Davis said in end user computer backups:
I could use something like Veeam Endpoint, but would it deduplicate all the OS and software files that are the same on every machine? Is that what you get when you add Veeam Backup and Replication repository?
You are going to run into that for any end point backup system. You can use a dedupe backend storage system, but backing up end points means taking OS backups and dealing with all of that data, or skipping the OS and not having that data.
There is no simple answer, which is why the standard pattern here is to avoid data on end points. That way the OS on the end points can always be treated as ephemeral and rebuilt rather than restored and rebuilding can be a nearly instant imaging process. If you need data on end points, you have a necessary challenge of complexity and potential OS specificity.
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Veeam is likely the best choice here. Store the data somwhere with good inline dedupe or just accept that big, slow SATA drives will be a good option and let the data expand.
Or isolate end user data to a very specific on disk space and treat the setup as if it were central storage, but is local. And only back up that one directory.
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If you have some time, check out this thread.
https://www.mangolassi.it/topic/6628/backup-system-for-5-pc-smb/29
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http://www.druva.com/products/insync/laptop-backup/
would this work for you ?
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Crashplan as well. If you are not going to cloud, then it is completely free.
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If you want to go to cloud, Backblaze has a nice offering.
@aaron
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@scottalanmiller said in end user computer backups:
If you want to go to cloud, Backblaze has a nice offering.
@aaron
I really found (for me) the key difference between the two was cost and storage length.
BB is 50% cheaper for business ($5 versus $10) but only keeps deleted files and versions around for 30 days. CrashPlan keeps them indefinitely.
Also note that if you are looking to do an image type bare metal restore these options are not what you are looking for.
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If this was a priority, I would use roaming profiles on the server if in Windows/AD world.
Pretty much works out the box, the user can just move sideways onto another computer quickly if there is an issue.
The problem is not imaging the machines, the problem is the user preferences and settings. You don't want to store 150GB of disk image data for appdata and a few other items.
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@BRRABill said in end user computer backups:
Also note that if you are looking to do an image type bare metal restore these options are not what you are looking for.
And if you are looking to do an image-based restore, you should step back and evaluate the needs at a higher level.
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@scottalanmiller said in end user computer backups:
@BRRABill said in end user computer backups:
Also note that if you are looking to do an image type bare metal restore these options are not what you are looking for.
And if you are looking to do an image-based restore, you should step back and evaluate the needs at a higher level.
I was going to post that, but I didn't want to steal your thunder.
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I agree with everything said. It basically comes down to one manager. His machine got infected, so we nuked it by reimaging it. 40 minutes later he had his new computer, but it took another 2 hours for Windows updates to catch up to current since the image was so old. Then he had to tweak all his apps. So then he asked for the computer backup.
I almost think firing off the user state migration tool every so often might solve his problem, but I have to put the numbers together to show it's going to be expensive to store and expensive to manage for something that would get used very rarely.
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I thought of Veeam because I know I'll be able to bring it right back to where it was fairly quickly. The file level backups as some have noted, won't grab application settings.
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If you can drop the centrally managed part Create Synchronicity would likely work well for this. And it's free.
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@Mike-Davis said in end user computer backups:
I agree with everything said. It basically comes down to one manager. His machine got infected, so we nuked it by reimaging it. 40 minutes later he had his new computer, but it took another 2 hours for Windows updates to catch up to current since the image was so old. Then he had to tweak all his apps. So then he asked for the computer backup.
I almost think firing off the user state migration tool every so often might solve his problem, but I have to put the numbers together to show it's going to be expensive to store and expensive to manage for something that would get used very rarely.
ahh! Maybe have 1 replacement machine ready to deploy at all times? Or loaner machines for temporary deployment? If a user's computer goes down, we have it replaced within 5 minutes. All common software is installed on the replacement machine when it is built and most of our users do not use alot of specialized software
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It's a tradeoff that that manager should be tied to. How much cost and effort are they willing to put into speeding up a one time restore? Let's chronicle things here for perspective...
- Manager probably does something careless and gets infected (how did this happen, was he running as the administrator?)
- Manager needs his machine rebuilt and it takes two hours, cost consulting time and wasting management time.
- Manager triggers a project to mitigate the cost of repairing his own mistakes that is likely going to cost far more than the existing time needed to fix his mistakes turning his initial infection into a larger and larger financial hit to the company.
I see a trend.
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@Mike-Davis said in end user computer backups:
I thought of Veeam because I know I'll be able to bring it right back to where it was fairly quickly. The file level backups as some have noted, won't grab application settings.
Calculate the time to restore as well. You'll need fast storage to get back up and running quickly, and it will hit the network hard. Will it take fifteen minutes to restore? Forty five minutes? If it took two hours the first time, subtract this number from that one to get the delta. The delta is the benefit number.
Now figure out how often rebuilds happen. Once a month? One a year? Once every three years? Multiple the delta times that, that's the cost mitigation value of this project. How many hours are we talking about saving, per year, on average?
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If it is just one person, you could set up a USB drive and use something like Macrium Reflect.
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