[OPLINTECH] Help - Altaro?

[Chad N.]

Hi Lynn,

I'm going to assume that your PDC is a physical server and that you haven't
dealt with virtual servers yet.

I'm not personally familiar with Altaro backup software, but it's a little
irrelevant to the concept. The script you're currently running to backup up
your PDC backs up the files stored on your PDC (and possibly does an
image-level backup of your system volume). If your server melts into the
floor, you would need to buy an identical server (which you may no longer
be able to do) to restore your image-level backup and expect it to work
correctly. Or you would need to buy a new server, reinstall
Windows+applications+configuration and then restore your file-level backup
(a time consuming ordeal).

The same concept could be applied even if the server were a virtual
machine. You could use a similar script to back up your new virtual server
in a similar fashion to the way you're currently backing up your
physical server. But you would have the same limitations, plus the
additional complexity of the new hypervisor/physical layer to also recover.

It sounds like your new PDC is going to be one of multiple *virtual*
servers running on a single beefier physical server. Which adds a layer of
complexity (and flexibility) you don't currently have. Being a virtual
server, you'll have another, more comprehensive option for backing up the
server. Since the virtual server will be 100% data, you can completely back
it up. Imagine standing in front of your PDC and pressing your Staples Easy
Button to make a full backup of not only the data stored on your server,
but the hardware itself including all of the labels and dust too. So in the
event your PDC literally melts into the floor hardware and all, you have an
exact copy of the data AND the hardware it runs on, right down to the dust
sitting on it. Since even the new *virtual* server's "hardware" is purely
software, you can make a full backup copy of it. Further, since the actual
physical hardware is abstracted, if your new beefier physical server melts
into the floor you'd be able to buy an even newer even beefier physical
server with the latest version of your virtualization software installed on
it and have an excellent chance that your backed up copy of the entire
virtual machine will fire back up as if you had simply rebooted it. The
actual physical hardware you're running on becomes less important. But
backing up the virtual machines at that level is beyond the capabilities of
backup software and scripts that only operate within the virtualized
operating system, which is where your current backup script would be
operating. This is where backup software like what your IT company is
proposing which operates at the hypervisor level comes in.

Now, whether or not you need to buy a license to cover your level of need
totally depends on the software manufacturer. Perhaps you can slide in
under whatever's covered in a free license, if that's an option.
Ultimately, though, backing up an entire virtual machine in this way can be
a very useful recovery tool (that you'll hopefully never need to use.) But
you'll also need to be aware that different backup methods offer different
levels of usefulness. For instance, if you just want to delete a single
file you accidentally deleted yesterday, a full virtual machine backup may
not be the best recovery option. It's more for entire virtual server
failure scenarios. To recover individual files, you're likely just going to
want to use a file-level backup like what you're presumably currently doing
with your Win2012 PDC. So each backup method has its place and purpose and
you'll probably want a layered approach.

Hopefully this makes some sense. I'm trying to bang it out on limited time.

Chad

______________________________
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to me.*
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*Chad Neeper*
Senior Systems Engineer

*Level 9 Networks*
740-548-8070 (voice)
866-214-6607 (fax)

*Full IT/Computer consulting services -- Specialized in public libraries*


On Wed, May 20, 2020 at 1:16 PM welchly--- via OPLINTECH <
oplintech at lists.oplin.org> wrote:

> Hello colleagues,
>
> We are trying to update our servers. Can someone please explain why, if we
> buy a "powerful server that runs 2 virtual machines (servers)", we would
> need to license a program called Altaro to back up those servers to a "NAS
> / Network Attached Storage (external drive)"? (Quotations are from the
> proposal we were sent)
>
> Currently we run a script on our PDC (WinServer 2012) that's scheduled for
> every night after we close. It backs up to an external drive in-house. We
> also have the IT company back up that server to their remote storage.
>
> We were expecting the new system to back up remotely off-site to our IT
> company's servers the way the current one does. This seems very confusing
> to me.
>
> Can someone explain (preferably in English not Computer; I have no network
> training) why we wouldn't just do the same process (write a script to back
> up on a scheduled basis) for the new server? Why do we need Altaro?
>
> Thank you,
> --
> Lynne Welch - Herrick Memorial Library of Wellington OH
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