Backup servers

I am currently running three different servers. Two of which are Window
Servers 2003 and the third is Windows Server 2008.

I am in an academic environment and my three servers are running on top of
VMware 2.5 ESX on IBM Blade hardware. I have no access to the underlying
Vservers or the images. All I can see and access are my three servers.
Using the VMware client software, I can mount a CD or DVD on my local
computer as if it were connected to the server. I can not access my local
hard drive or any USB Drives from my Server using VMware.

I am looking to see if anyone has any software recommendations of how I can
backup (preferably an image backup) my three servers using Windows Based
software. Typical approaches of backup up to USB drives, or other attached
drives will not work because VMware does not see any USB drives and my server
only has the single C: Drive.

Thanks.

Jerry

"No trees were harmed in the sending of this message; however, a large number
of electrons were slightly inconvenienced..."

Dr. Jerry Flatto, Associate Professor,
Information Systems Department - School of Business, University of
Indianapolis, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA mailto:jflatto@uindy.edu

 

Dr. Jerry Flatto,

On your local PC you can install DaemonTools. This will enable you to use
CD/DVD .iso images instead of physical CD/DVD drives. This is much faster.
Second, prepare Windows Recovery Environment media (WinRE). You can do this
using WAIK and MDT. You can boot using this media and do a backup over the
network. Of course, use your daily backup procedures over the network too.
Also, make sure to comply with regular backup procedures for the specific
services (web, application, certificate, SQL services etc). You can do a
staged backup too. Create a Backup folder on C: drive. Than backup
everything to this folder using regular backup procedures. Finally, copy the
contents of this folder to a network location. You can use scripts and
scheduled tasks to do this. Alternatively, you can use DFS and use DFS
replication service to replicate contents to a different network location.


"Jerry Flatto" <JerryFlatto@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
newsC611371-9A5E-420C-B96F-EDBD2075A61A@microsoft.com...
>I am currently running three different servers. Two of which are Window
> Servers 2003 and the third is Windows Server 2008.
>
> I am in an academic environment and my three servers are running on top of
> VMware 2.5 ESX on IBM Blade hardware. I have no access to the underlying
> Vservers or the images. All I can see and access are my three servers.
> Using the VMware client software, I can mount a CD or DVD on my local
> computer as if it were connected to the server. I can not access my local
> hard drive or any USB Drives from my Server using VMware.
>
> I am looking to see if anyone has any software recommendations of how I
> can
> backup (preferably an image backup) my three servers using Windows Based
> software. Typical approaches of backup up to USB drives, or other
> attached
> drives will not work because VMware does not see any USB drives and my
> server
> only has the single C: Drive.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Jerry
>
> "No trees were harmed in the sending of this message; however, a large
> number
> of electrons were slightly inconvenienced..."
>
> Dr. Jerry Flatto, Associate Professor,
> Information Systems Department - School of Business, University of
> Indianapolis, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA mailto:jflatto@uindy.edu
>
>