Backup of Multiple Laptops - Idea's/Solutions Needed

[dtorres]

We have around 20 user in my office who work using laptop computers. They often save data on their local C: drive vs. saving the data to the network where it gets backed up on a daily basis. Is their an agent that is avaiable that can be installed on the user computer where it will allow me to back up there entire system?

They issue that I am concerned about is that each one of these users travels often and uses there laptop while on the road. They also connect to the network remotely via VPN connection. I would like to configure a soluiton where when they are in the office there system is getting backed up to the server onsite.

I am currently running Backup Exec. 8.6.

What options are available to me?

Thank You

"D"

 

[packdragon]

You would use the same remote agent you would use for any other server. The only problem with scheduling these laptops into the regular backups is that you only need one missing laptop to fail the job. And with 20 laptop users that routinely come and go, you would most likely encounter failed backups every day.

You could perhaps run some kind of a login script that can copy the files from a particular directory onto the network. You could instruct the users to save anything they deem important into that directory on their local drive. Then whenever they log onto the network that stuff will be copied to a place where it will get backed up during regular backup times. This is just an idea, I've never tried anything like it and am not aware of how difficult such a script may be to write or find.

- Zoe, that's ZOH-EEE, get it right please
- Just a little ol' MCP at Solien Technology
-

http://www.solien.com

 

[Rancid]

you might consider using the windows 2000 offline files (if applicable) and have this set to replicate only when the laptops netork card is active.

its not the prettiest method...but it semi works.

 

[mohamdr]

Hi
In your case I would sugguest to use Netbackup Professional ,BrightStor Mobile backup from CA or Mobile backup from Legato(EMC).
All of those product are designed for Mobile Baackup I suggeust
to get a evaluation copy for all and select the one which is suit
your requirement.

Backup Exec is not Desgnied for these type of jobs.
I have tried brightStor Mobile backup and I find it good,it is doing a backup to local machine(laptop) and then whenever you connect to the Network throgth the LAN or Dailup connection it will tranfer the backup to the backup Mobile backup server.
Then you need to use Backup Exec to backup the Mobile backup server

regards
mohamdr

 

[Blinken]

We have a similar issue with our sales folks, they travel with laptops and keep everything local. The microsoft file synchronization isnt an option for us because all the data is encrypted and file synchronization does weird things with that. So what i did was wrote a simple batch file that copies the important data to a network share. They run this approx once a week or so when they connect so we have fairly current data on the network and just backup the network share. Best way to do this is with robocopy, here is the contents of my batch file (P:\ is mapped to network share location):

TITLE MY Documents Sync

if exist "p:\my documents\log.txt" goto sync
md "p:\my documents"


:sync
ROBOCOPY "%USERPROFILE%\my documents" "p:\my documents" /S /E /LOG:"p:\my documents\log.txt" /purge

 

[FunTechie]

We're running Windows 2000 server and the "enable offline folders" works very well considering that we have redirected our users' "My Documents" folder to their H: drive. The only trouble I've run into with this method is redirecting the users' personal folders file from Outlook. This file is either copied by the user to their H: drive or backed-up on their own often with our assistance. Aside from that, this works great for me.

Ed
"FunTechie"

 

[utilman]

Can you build a robocopy commando like this in a VBScript too?

"\\Servername\All Programs\ROBOCOPY.EXE" "D:\BACKUP IMPORTANT\Name\Documents and Settings\Name\Favorieten" "C:\Documents and Settings\Name\Favorieten" /MIR /TEE /W:10 /R:3 /LOG:LOGFILE.TXT

I tried, but lost count of all the quotes I used

 

[justin2000]

What not try Backup Exec Desktop laptop option - does what you want it to do, even will backup when connected via VPN.
You need 9.1 for this though.

 

[Blinken]

Utilman - im sure its possible, but i didnt try to do it that way.

Justin2000- Trying to coordinate with sales people who are constantly traveling, and connecting via modem is extremely hard (and slow over the modem). That and backing up laptops for about 50 sales laptops would take up way to much time in administration. It is much easier to have them sync their files onto the server in a personal share and just backup the server folder.


Here is what our sync job looks like now. This job maps the drive, and creates a log with the date of the sync so we can make sure they are syncing. We have found that this works better than offline folders, less administration on our side. Only downfall is it puts the responsibility of backing up (syncing) onto the users. But to avoid disasters we check when everyone last backed up about once a month and send out emails telling them to sync if they havent recently.



echo off
rem Sync.bat
rem Syncronize the local My Documents with P:\My Documents
rem 08-25-2003 Created batch file
rem 11-09-2003 Changed path for Robocopy program
rem 3/28/04 Changed the job to delete and remap the P:\ drive when running


:sync
net use p: /delete
net use p: \\baf.com\pshares\%username% /PERSISTENT:YES
C:\BAF\ROBOCOPY "%USERPROFILE%\my documents" "p:\my documents" /E /XF *.pst /LOG:"c:\baf\synclog.txt" /purge

:save logfile
copy c:\baf\synclog.txt p:\synclog.txt

echo Sync Complete

pause
exit

 

[justin2000]

Actually DLO is designed for no administration once it is setup and the client is on the laptop.

The thing with DLO is you can backup a number of version of documents, say 3 or so.
And when it comes to backing up, it will only backup the changed files.
Also good because it allows the user to do his/her own restores if need be.