System State Backups, what servers should I backup?!?!

[Ceez]

Hello everyone. I have a question regarding System State Backups (SSB). I am using BackupExec 11d and want to create a backup job for SS.

We have a forest with 3 child domains, all with server 2003 sp2 r2. I was thinking of only backing up the SS of the domain controllers (3 for domain, 1 for child1, 2 for child2 and 1 for child 3).

Then I started looking through the other servers like file servers, exchange 2003 (FE/BE), Blackberry Enterprise Server, Backup Media Server, NAS's, etc... and wondered if I needed those too?

Is it really necessary to perform an SSB on these servers? The important part if having a backup of AD, Registry and other essential system files when recovering a down DC.

What best practice do you use/recommend?

Thank you for reading,

Ceez

 

[58sniper]

You should be backing up all servers. Otherwise, you have no way to do a disaster restore of them.

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/

 

[LWComputingMVP]

System State Backups take about 2-10 minutes (usually 3-5) and use between 500 MB and 1 GB of space. Considering this, why WOULDN'T you backup all the system states?

-Lee

Those who ask why, learn

http://www.lwcomputing.com

 

[acl03]

If you have backup exec, you should look into getting the Active Directory agent to do your AD backups.

All it does is do a system state backup, the key benefit is in restoring. It allows you to do single-item restores (you can even restore a single attribute of an object) without having to do system restores or booting a DC in AD Restore Mode. It's very convenient, and minimal cost if you already have BE.



Thanks,
Andrew

Hard work often pays off over time, but procrastination pays off right now!

 

[Ceez]

Thank you all for your input.

I see that some like to backup every server, yet somehow I dont see why spending some extra bandwith or tape on a file server might be beneficial when recovering. All I would need is the IP & server name to add back to the domain as if it never left the network after I restore the data to it. We all have our ways and I thank you for sharing.

Ceez

 

[Grenage]

That depends on the server, and how quickly you want things restored.

"We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area" - Major Mike Shearer

 

[58sniper]

System State includes configuration data. Build the box, restore the system state & your data, and you're done. Without System State, you have to manually configure everything.

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/