Topic: Use SME for backing up Server 2003

[charlien]

My server 2003 tape drive has died and I'm exploring other ways to back up user files on a Windows Server 2003. Is anyone using their SME server in an interesting way that will be the backup device?

[Jáder]

I don't  think SME is the best option for this.
My suggestiohn: try FreeNAS (http://www.freenas.org/) or OpenFiler (http://www.openfiler.com) or even NASlite (the free version is here = http://www.serverelements.com/naslite.php)

[mmccarn]

I use a remote SME server running Affa to backup a Windows 2003 server.

Rough details:

1) At midnight each night I create shadow copies of C: and D: on the Windows server exposed to the network as "\\servername\shadowc" and \\servername\shadowd"

2) I have VMWare and a small Ubuntu virtual server installed on the same box.  The Ubuntu VM uses 128M RAM and 1GB hdd.

3) I have Affa on my remote SME server connect to the Ubuntu machine, then backup \\servername\shadowc and \\servername\shadowd

Problems / Notes:
This method gets all of the data and files on my server, but none of the access control information (user and group rights, network share information, etc)

Michael Weinberger has described a potentially better way to do this by installing an rsync server daemon directly on the Windows box, instead of my kludgy virtual ubuntu method...

If the SME server were local to the Windows box you would not need the VM, nor would you need to install rsyncd - you could use SME to backup ...\shadowc and ...\shadowd directly.

[raem]

charlien

Search the forums on BackupPC for an automated solution.

The User manager contrib from dungog has a feature to allow users to manually backup their home folders to the sme server.

[charlien]

I think I might just move the users off the Server 2003 box and put them on an SME server as a file server only.

[raem]

charlien

For users to automatically map their home folders, your sme will need to be the Domain Controller.

[charlien]

charlien

For users to automatically map their home folders, your sme will need to be the Domain Controller.

A few years ago we had a 2003 PDC with an SME server that was acting as our firewall, web, email and file server. Users logged into the 2003 server and a script ran that mapped the SME home directory to the user. This involved two sets of usernames and passwords but worked well. We only have about 20 users. I ran into issues with spam slowing down the SME server and causing LAN problems for me. I also didn't care for my data being so close to the Internet so I moved it onto another Windows 2003 server. We had the 2003 server PDC because we were running an accounting app that needed it. We are going away from that software so I have some options now. Since my tape drive died I need to do something. In experimenting with my home SME server I was surprised to find how well the Domain Controller functioned with my home Windows PCs. The backup rpm gave me backup capability too. So I'm going to ponder this for a couple days.

Thanks for replying.

[raem]

charlien

Well I do almost exactly what you are speaking of, but I use the sme server in it's full gateway server mode (& firewall), as PDC & with roaming profiles etc. I have a seperate Windows server (not a PDC) which is basically acting as a second file server to specifically run some accounting software that does not support Linux OS's. It's  software our business is heavily dependent on, so I cannot do away with it.

I don't have any problems with that arrangement, sme runs securely & flawlessly.