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Microsoft Releases Public Beta of Data Protection

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the safety-first dept.

Torrey Clark writes "Microsoft has released the public beta of its disk-to-disk backup product, Data Protection Manager. The product is designed to make backups easier than simply backing up to tape. Disk-to-disk backup completes images in significantly less time, meaning much less downtime for systems during backups."

14 of 262 comments (clear)

  1. downtime during backup? by R.D.Olivaw · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Don't know about the rest of the world but we don't have to take systems down to backup them here.

    1. Re:downtime during backup? by ntshma · · Score: 5, Funny

      Microsoft Data Protection Instructions: 1: Click on START and then SHUTDOWN.

  2. One more thing... by teh_mykel · · Score: 4, Funny

    Now, if Microsoft could actually release a product that didnt require an amazing array of backup software, we'd be talking business.

    --
    this sig no verb
  3. Surprising by ThePlague · · Score: 5, Funny

    The really surprising thing is that they released the source code, and here it is:

    xcopy *.* "x:\" /d/s/e/c/f/h/k/y

  4. StoreAge Networking Technologies support by xtracto · · Score: 5, Informative

    So it seems DPM is only a "data-mover", so it will need to be combined with another technology, after some research i found this:

    StoreAge Networking Technologies announced that it will be developing enhanced solutions to support Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager

    The full article is: here

    --
    Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
  5. Rsync works fine for us by Tanami · · Score: 5, Interesting

    We've been doing disk-to-disk for a year or so now using rsync's --link-dest feature to create apparently complete mirrors each night, but with only those changed files actually occupying disk space (beyond that of a symlink). Makes restoration an absolute breeze compared to tape, but I'm not sure if this M/S effort does the same? *runs off to look*

    1. Re:Rsync works fine for us by gtoomey · · Score: 4, Interesting
      I rsync from my web server in USA to Australia using my ADSL connection.

      Rsync usually reports a 1000 fold speedup over a dumb copy.

  6. Re:I dont understand. by jmcmunn · · Score: 4, Interesting


    Thank you...you show me the hard drive that holds as much as my tape drive does, then we'll talk. And I certainly don't have room in the drive tower for another 7 drives.

  7. Re:Expiring Backup Software? by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 4, Insightful
    That is, in my opinion, extremely dangerous.
    It is a public beta, for evaluation. You're supposed to use this alongside your existing backup mechanism, in a 'sandbox' environment, or in a carefully monitored environment, where you should expect and prepare for issues with this product

    Any sysadmin using expiring public beta software for production backups, shouldn't be a sysadmin in the first place. Don't blame Microsoft for this.
    --
    If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
  8. Re:I dont understand. by nojayuk · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Disk to disk backup would require the system to be shutdown, drive added, removed and reboot, configure etc.

    Unless they are talking about removable media like CD/DVD/USB devices, this does not make sense.

    There are such things as USB hard drives which appear as volumes within the Windows OS, you know. I use such a unit with a cheapo exchangeable ATAPI cartridge bay hacked into it for backup. I call it "tepid-swap"; it's not true hotswap as I have to "stop" the USB device before switching it off but I certainly don't have to shut down the entire system to change the drive fitted in the bay. After I power it up again Windows 2000 automatically recognises the new disk, no reboot necessary.

  9. Re:What ever happened to easy backups? by maxwell+demon · · Score: 4, Insightful
    What's wrong with:

    dd if=/dev/hdb1 of=/mnt/hdh1/path/to/desired/backup/image/here.iso


    Depends. It won't work if /dev/hdb1 is your largest file system. And of course you don't want to do that while /dev/hdb1 is in use, since you otherwise risk inconsistent data structures.
    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  10. It can be a bit more complicated than that by WARM3CH · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Disk-to-disk backup? In fact, I (ie. my computer!) do it every night. Simple copy command? I think that does not cut it. I'm in a tight development cycle and each day write a lot of code, documents and receieve/generate lots of data files. I need to back up all important data but surely I don't need to make backup of the executable files, temp files, OS system files and such. The solution that I use is simple: I have two hard disks in my computer. The files that I need to have back-up from, are scattered on these two drives. Now, I have made a BackUP directory on each one of these drives and put a copy of all important files in them. So, I have 3 copies of every important files: the original, and two back-ups. In case a hard-disk goes banana, I always have a copy of all important files on the other one. I run the back-up every night. Just need to copy the files that has been changed or the whole new directories made during the day. So the problem is: I need two desinations for each source. I need to be able to select which directories or even which files to back-up (or not to backup) and I need to check which files have been changed or which new files (or directories) have been created. I need to be able to schedule the back ups for midnight and I need to forget about all these details in practice as I have to focus on my work :) How I did it? Well, I tried a script in the beginning but found it difficult to manage over the time and it was very tedius. Now I use SyncBack which is a freeware program with all these features that I need (and more! like FTP and compression to Zip, etc.). QED.

  11. to Disk? by rossdee · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Please insert disk 2 of 1,270,196 in drive A: and click continue"

  12. Subversion as a backup solution by damieng · · Score: 5, Informative

    I've recently been using Subversion as a backup solution at home with great success.

    My server runs it's own SVN repository and each of my machines can check in it's important files into the tree.

    This backup solution is quick and thanks to tools like TortoiseSVN integrates into the desktop for ease of use.

    Additional bonus factors are the ability to see the revision history, roll-back, full cross-platform support.

    You can also manage multiple copies of the same file to multiple machines should you need to work on them or just want additional resilience.

    The real icing of the cake of course is that you can run it over SSL via Apache or over SSH and therefore remotely access your backed-up files from out on the Internet should you suddenly need an invoice or a photograph while sitting in a net cafe in a foreign country.

    Oh, and it's free by both definitions. http://subversion.tigris.org

    --
    [)amien