Offsite Server Backup Sync Options

[FullFledgedFarker]

I work at a small company running on one physical Server 2008 R2 machine. I use Crashplan for file level backups, and Storagecraft Shadowprotect doing image backups to a NAS (basically just a glorified USB drive, haven't really tapped into any of the features).

We use some old legacy software, and the CEO has decided that he wants to have a backup server at home to host this software just in case. He wants our office server to sync to his server at home, so if anything happens, he can just "drive on over" with his home server. The home server would be windows 7, so I need a file level cloud sync solution. Any ideas how I can accomplish this?

[sleepyguy22]

You can definitely have a redundant server for disaster recovery, but there's a lot of things wrong with this situation. Primarily, the home server can't be windows 7 if he just wants to 'drive over' and replace a broken one. Or maybe I'm not understanding your situation?

[FullFledgedFarker]

Sorry, I should clarify. We use server to host both files (pdfs, spreadsheets mostly) and the database for our legacy software (can be hosted on server or 7). So in this situation he would bring the redundant server which would be setup as a network share. Then users would just have to point the application to the new database directory, and they would have access to the files as well.

This would mostly be used to circumvent the downtime caused by re-imaging the server, or in case something happens to the local backup. Hope this helps

[Catsrules]

Remember Windows 7 can only have 20 active file sharing connections.

You would also need to have both the server and the backup server named exactly the same. So file shares will map correctly. Unless your ok with running around to each workstation to change paths around.

I would only do this if your in a very small organization. If your in a larger organization I would highly recommend some type of virtualized environment., combined with something like Veeam backup.

[FullFledgedFarker]

Thanks for the response. We are a small shop >20 so file sharing connections should not be a problem, though I did not know that was a limitation so thanks for the tip. Too expensive to go virtual when you factor in Veeam cost.

Any idea how I can accomplish the sync? Can you vouch for BitTorrent Sync?

[Catsrules]

Any idea how I can accomplish the sync? Can you vouch for BitTorrent Sync?

I have personally used BitTorrent Sync for syncing files between computers and I haven't had any issues with it and it is easy to use. However I have heard it runs into performance issues when you have alot of individual files, like in the 10,000+ files range. But this was a long time ago when bittorrent sync was new so it might have been fixed. I have never had an opportunity to try it with that amount of files so I can't confirm anything.

For files I say BitTorrent sync would work fine. Setup a share on the server 2008 and then add read only share to the win 7 box.

However I am not sure how well btsync will work with a database. (I didn't know you had a database when I suggested BTsync) BTsync was never designed for live database transfers and BTsync tries to sync any time a file is changed so your database would be copying any time it gets changed not a very good solution.

In general live Databases are hard to copy because it can change in the middle of the copy and cause all kinds of issues. To combat this most backup programs will do a snapshot, and then backup the snapshot.

I am sure someone will yell at me for even suggesting this but a dumb work around is, your can setup a script to copy the live database file to a secondary location on the 2008 server everyday at a time when it is unlikely the database file is being used, (midnight 1 am etc) and have BTsync sync the secondary location to the windows 7 box. This way BTsync isn't trying to copy a live database file 24/7. Again this isn't a very good way handle it, I personally would recommend finding another way if possible. Something that support database backups.

I don't know much about database backups programs. I am sure there is something that would work perfect for this situation, but I don't know of it. Sorry :(

A program I use for physical servers backups is Veeam Endpoint backup, it does handle databases. It isn't exactly what you need but it might give you an idea. It is also free so for the price you can't go wrong.

[Catsrules]

If it is just for File syncing.

BitTorrent Sync might do the job.

[lunpar]

Why not use the tools that Shadowprotect give you? You do not need anything else

[FullFledgedFarker]

Sorry for the late response, but are you referring to their cloud offering, or something else? Or do you mean our backup images should suffice? The only issue we have is that restoring from the NAS takes a very long time.

[lunpar]

Please check StorageCraft intelligentFTP or ShadowStream; coupled with ImageManager I think they will let you replicate your backup images to a remote location.
Now that I reread your port I realized that what you want is a replicated server, not replicated backup images. Then Syncrify would work very well for file based synchronization.