I need some backup software fast

January 28, 2008 12:44 PM

I need some backup software that can handle a few conditions, and I need it 3 hours ago....

One of my major clients has several employees that all work remotely across the country. There is a server that we can all remote desktop to that holds our CMS, along with other data. The owner of the company wants us all to have backups made on a regular basis to this server, and I need to get some software picked out by the end of the day today to do it that I can install before 11 AM EST tomorrow morning (!).

I've used Retrospect before, but if you know of any open-source stuff, that'd be great, too. The software should handle the fact that client IPs will change, that it's a Windows 2003 server that we want to backup to, and that it needs to be implemented in the next few hours, if at all possible. Also, you can assume bandwidth is not an issue for the initial backup, but I would like it to just do syncing/backups of changes from there on.

posted by omnipotentq to computers & internet (20 comments total)

Oh, and I'd like it to be as cost-effective as possible, too. Thanks!
posted by omnipotentq at 12:46 PM on January 28, 2008

You've said what OS the clients are backing up to, but what are the clients running?
posted by Mikey-San at 12:51 PM on January 28, 2008

(I would assume Windows, but it's good to know for sure, as well as what version(s).)
posted by Mikey-San at 12:52 PM on January 28, 2008

yeah, what are you backing up from?

also, when dealing with management demagogues and their whimsical demands, it's important to remember the "fast, cheap, good: pick two" rule of thumb. you're already choosing "fast," so here's to hoping the budget is unlimited!
posted by rhizome at 1:23 PM on January 28, 2008

Sorry, yeah, the clients are all on Windows. Some are XP, some are Vista (groan).
posted by omnipotentq at 1:24 PM on January 28, 2008

oh, i just saw your followup. good luck with "fast and cheap," then!
posted by rhizome at 1:24 PM on January 28, 2008

mozy.com - online backup
posted by andrewdunn at 1:25 PM on January 28, 2008

Rsync can run on windows these days I think. It would be abit of configuring though, not sure if you could set it up that fast if you aren't already familiar with it.
posted by meta87 at 1:28 PM on January 28, 2008

Mozy is not a solution for clients. For mom and dad's pictures, maybe, but not when you need real control over your paying clients' important data. You also want to be able to tell your clients that it's secure and private, and not that some other website says it's secure and private.

Assurances must be assured. If you want to make an assurance, you have to be able to control what you're assuring.
posted by Mikey-San at 1:30 PM on January 28, 2008

backup exec is decent enough

"IPs will change" will be an enormous pain in the ass though, you'll need to babysit it to make sure the server can always reach the clients.
posted by Oktober at 1:30 PM on January 28, 2008

Why is the fact that you use remote connections applicable to the backup solution? You're wanting to back up the server, right, not the remote clients.
posted by odinsdream at 1:33 PM on January 28, 2008

I assumed omnipotent wanted to backup the clients to the server.
posted by meta87 at 1:39 PM on January 28, 2008

I think I understand. You are not asking for a backup Of The Server. Your boss wants backups of each of the individual machine? Full backups?

Acronis True Image installed on each machine that will push an incremental backup on a regular schedule to the server. Not cheap.
posted by odinsdream at 1:40 PM on January 28, 2008

If you don't need a full system backup, but can go instead with selecting particular important folders like My Documents, you can get some rsync scripts running on Windows with CWRsync and schedule that.

You will still need some kind of connectivity to the server. If you have a VPN connection, you can do it over a mapped network drive that gets reconnected automatically.
posted by odinsdream at 1:42 PM on January 28, 2008

odinsdream: I'm backing up clients to a server.

Oktober: yeah, the changing IP thing is going to kill me.

Mikey-San: yeah, and it doesn't even do what I want it t do. I don't need a server to backup to; I already have one.

meta87: yeah, not familiar, and I don't have the time right now. I'll look at it later for future use, though, thanks!

rhizome: hahaha...thanks...I'm well aware of the doom factor looming over my head.

all: thanks for the answers so far. I'm still looking for a good solution, so please keep the answers coming!
posted by omnipotentq at 1:52 PM on January 28, 2008

Hm, thanks for the link, odinsdream. I'll go check it out now!
posted by omnipotentq at 1:53 PM on January 28, 2008

Comodo Backup is a fairly well-endowed free solution...
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 1:54 PM on January 28, 2008

Cobian is worth a look and its free.
posted by D_I at 2:50 PM on January 28, 2008

Mozy.com is plenty secure for a client. They even have a reseller program which would work well for your application and allow you to easily monitors your client's backup status.
posted by andrewdunn at 3:14 PM on January 28, 2008

Probably too late to help omnipotentq, but I've always thought SyncBack was an extremely simple but functional program...and is free.
posted by wabashbdw at 7:52 AM on January 29, 2008