Why do we need third party software for backup in Win2000?

[duthie]

Win2000 came with NTBackup for backup built-in. Why would then one want to pay big bucks for third party backup software such as Veritas or Seagate Backup Exec, etc.?

For unattended backing up of a single Win2K Server on tape, wouldn't it be adequate to create a scheduled task using the Microsoft Backup program in Accessories\System Tools?

I would appreciate advise from experts.

 

[2ffat]

NTBackup is a "watered-down" version of Veritas' backup. For a single W2K PC it should work OK but (and you knew there was a but coming) it has limited features. You are limited to certain devices and you cannot backup other PCs are two we have run into. Just my 0 1 (two bits). James P. Cottingham

When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute and it's longer than any hour. That's relativity.

[tab][tab]Albert Einstein explaining his Theory of Relativity to a group of journalists.

 

[gwichman]

one big reason is as you get more and more servers, it becomes impractical and expensive to have a tape drive connected to every server. imagine the workload of having to go around each day and manage those tapes.

but theres much more. some examples of what the higher end stuff can do that ntbackup can't:

LAN free backups
Server free backups
Hot backups of various popular applications (oracle, db2, etc)
onsite/offsite media management
more effective use of media (multiple servers backed up to a single tape)
data management - automatic expiration of data based on your criteria
etc, etc, etc, etc...

it would be akin to asking why anyone would buy MS Word when NOTEPAD does the job..

 

[marinaatwork]

My company (30 clients, 1 server (soon to be another added))
was in the process of checking out Veritas via an eval when I started here. The Veritas app crashed the server so frequently and so severly that we could not even justify purchasing the 'real' version so as to see if any of the problems would be recitified. Also hung during backup jobs, failed on restores, corrupted catalogues on the media, etc. I still don't know how much was the veritas app and how much had to do with my hardware...
In any case, I started using ntbackup because I had no other choice, really.
I installed the tbu on a dedicated workstation and mapped the server's drives. Backups seem to work well this way.

Will let you know how well restores work soon as its about that time that I verify my backups...

 

[euphone]

I've been trying to use W2K's NTBACKUP to do tape backups on individual workstations because it is free. However I've found it to be poorly documented, annoyingly buggy, complicated, very difficult to customize, and counter-intuitive in its commands, rules, and operations. There seem to be few options to do straightforward testing or troubleshooting when something goes wrong. For what I do NT's version of NTBACKUP worked much better. I have a few computers with OEM-provided licenses for a stripped-down version of Veritas Backup Exec for W2K (came with the Travan tape device installed by Dell). That works pretty well, actually.

 

[gwichman]

I've used all the products to some capacity. Veritas BackupExec and CA Arcserv are great for smaller to medium environments that are predominantly windows. I can't say i really have a favorite between the two. They both work pretty well. Both are available for trial download off their respective sites if you'd like to try them out. They're pretty easy typical windows GUI based programs.

For larger companies, particularly enterprise level, you'll see almost exclusive use of either Veritas Netbackup or Tivoli Storage Manager. I prefer the later personally.

In the middle somewhere is Legato networker.

 

[Tarquin]

Those of you with small numbers of servers to cover may want to look at Arkeia, it's free for 3 Linux Servers and is also available for Windows environment. It has some of the more sophisticated features mentioned above.

 

[digitalmaster]

marinaatwork - you have stumbled across the great never spoken IT secret which is..."never put a tape drive or backup software on a server".

This came mainly from the Novell days when installing a third party NLM was the "kiss of death" for most servers at some point.

Given the low cost of hardware these days and assuming your users are not 24/7 then build a "backup system" (any old PII 350 upwards will do) Install W2K and run backups over the network from mapped drives and all will be fine.

If the tape drive or third party software crashes then reboot the system and try again, at least you have a functioning server in the morning!

The only downside is that your backup system needs to be locked away (we use rack cases with keys) as it will have rights to see all users files and it will soak your network whilst backing up.

Hope this helps

 

[sgtbaker]

Features and hardware support.

Unless there are RSM drivers for the library used, you will need to look into a third party software vendor. "Unknown Medium Changer" will is a sign that Windows hasn't a clue about that robot that's connected to your server (SCSI or Fibre). Bill isn't going to cross all of the software vendors that write backup programs for his OS, nor Sun, etc. They (the OS makers) have better things to do.