Backup System For 5 PC SMB
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@Jason said:
Also if you fail over from the desktops to something else and then restore the desktop you have to handle the changes made while you restore the backups somehow. Since you have no file server the files on each desktop will be changing.
Yes, that adds a lot of potential complexity. The process can become complicated and lengthy and you might get "trapped" on the DR solution for some time.
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@BRRABill said:
This client (friend) called me because he was sold on this concept by a company that sells this service. (Datto.) It sounds awesome. It IS awesome. Except apparently to the detriment of everyone involved but Microsoft it's not legal.
Did Datto sell this for desktops? That would be extremely surprising. Maybe it was a confused salesman or something?
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@BRRABill said:
BTW: I looked at the pricing for AWS.
$35 a month for standard? What is the business justification for that considering you can buy a PC for $500 that lasts for 3+ years?
I love the concept but don't get the pricing.
VDI is $100/year for licensing alone. This is enterprise class hosting, licensing, storage, DR, backup, etc. all included. It's actually a very good price for VDI. $500 gets you a bargain machine and does not include the cost of maintenance. VDI is super expensive and doing it in an enterprise way even moreso.
Go price out a VDI solution to run yourself, I bet you can't deliver it as an internal solution for much less and definitely not with Amazon's level of expertise.
Think about all of the costs that you are considering for a desktop, backup, VDI hosting, etc. all rolled into one price tag. Those Datto boxes add up quickly for a small shop. This covers all of those pieces.
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@BRRABill said:
Also, most SMBs do not have servers just sitting around, and it's not like you can run out to Besy Buy and get one.
Most do, any home user can have one. A business without one would fall below the home line. Sure, they might not do it, but it doesn't mean that they should. Just because SMBs often do bad things doesn't mean that we should plan poorly. If an SMB wants serious business protection, they only get that by taking what they do seriously.
With the Home Line, I find it very handy to ask business owners why they take their business less seriously and don't think that their business is as important as I feel my stuff at home is.
Puts it in perspective for them a bit. They can't pull that "we're important, we need uptime" attitude when they clearly don't see themselves as even coming up to the "hobby" status of home users.
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@scottalanmiller said:
Most do, any home user can have one.
I meant they don't have a backup server around.
Hence a temporary VM would be helpful.
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Hey ... putting a work in asterisks makes it italics! YAY
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@BRRABill said:
@scottalanmiller said:
Most do, any home user can have one.
I meant they don't have a backup server around.
Hence a temporary VM would be helpful.
I have backup servers at home.
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@BRRABill said:
@scottalanmiller said:
I have backup servers at home.
OK, that a little ridiculous.
http://www.smbitjournal.com/2015/06/make-your-business-jealous/
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@scottalanmiller said:
I have backup servers at home.
And what would YOU do if your main server died at home?
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@BRRABill said:
@scottalanmiller said:
I have backup servers at home.
And what would YOU do if your main server died at home?
Fail over to another one, like anyone would do.
But, no one is doing that for desktops.
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I was seriously interested in what he is doing at home.
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@Jason said:
@BRRABill said:
@scottalanmiller said:
I have backup servers at home.
And what would YOU do if your main server died at home?
Fail over to another one, like anyone would do.
But, no one is doing that for desktops.
All kidding aside, he's correct there. Even at home I have a desktop for permanent work and a laptop for mobile work and my data is stored on server(s) - that way I can access my data from any machine, if one were to fail I can just work from another while replacing the one that has failed, etc. And I can work from anywhere.
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My sister in law's family is not technical in any way. They are a family of six that previously only had a single old Athlon64 single core machine with like1 GB of RAM that they all shared. But they have now moved to Google Chromebooks and so now they are all able to share files, everything is backed up, they can work from anywhere and replacing a failed machine is as simple as getting to another Chromebook and voila, back in business.
While theirs is a very basic setup, they are able to own as little as you can imagine and spend almost nothing and have a very robust, easy to use and well maintained environment. It patches itself, backs itself up, does nearly everything on its own. It's quite nice for those that do not need extended features.
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I am going back to my (US-based) backup vendors on this one.
Can you explain to me specifically why you cannot
a -- make a full backup of my Windows 7/8/10 system
and
b -- spin that backup image up temporarily in a virtual environment (virtualbox, etc.)I am still hearing from them that you can (and that they work directly with Microsoft), so I'd like to present them with your direct words on the issue, and get a response from them.
Thanks!
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@BRRABill said:
I am going back to my (US-based) backup vendors on this one.
Can you explain to me specifically why you cannot
a -- make a full backup of my Windows 7/8/10 system
and
b -- spin that backup image up temporarily in a virtual environment (virtualbox, etc.)I am still hearing from them that you can (and that they work directly with Microsoft), so I'd like to present them with your direct words on the issue, and get a response from them.
Thanks!
The issue whether the technology allows you to or not. The issue is the EULA does not allow you to do that. Say for Example if you ran Server 2012 R2 you could do this. Those software products are made for server not desktop OSes.
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@Jason said:
The issue whether the technology allows you to or not. The issue is the EULA does not allow you to do that. Say for Example if you ran Server 2012 R2 you could do this. Those software products are made for server not desktop OSes.
But I am hearing back from them you can 100% do this with Microsoft desktops. I mean, they are selling a product designed to do this, for Windows.
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Regardless of whether it is a good idea or not, I'd just like to know the answer.
