Hi there,

We're redesigning our dedicated servers offering, we have almost all covered but we're still having problems to find a nice solution for the backup services. The thing is, we're offering NAS/FTP space for the client to store the backups, but we would like to also find a nice software so the client can easily setup the backup process, we have seen acronis as a nice solution, but is pretty expensive, so anybody knows a nice backup solution for windows/linux dedicated servers (I'm thinking about something like The Planet DiskSync) ?

Any suggestions are welcome! :)

Thanks for your time!
Xavier Trilla P.

You may find problems getting the same software for both linux and windows, so I wouldn't bother - get one for each.

For Linux, a good one is BackupPC (http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/) that uses rsync and a nice web front end to allow users to access their backups and backed-up files.

If you want a complete backup the entire PC, you could use systemimager (http://sourceforge.net/projects/systemimager/)

This is one of the best out there: http://www.r1soft.com/

You may find problems getting the same software for both linux and windows, so I wouldn't bother - get one for each.

R1Soft works on both Linux and Windows:
http://www.r1soft.com/

How much is r1soft's backup nowadays? Its certainly worth considering though, it gets many good mentions here, but if you can't afford Acronis, you might not be able to afford this either.

How much is r1soft's backup nowadays? Its certainly worth considering though, it gets many good mentions here, but if you can't afford Acronis, you might not be able to afford this either.

I've been checking R1Soft and It looks like a nice piece of software, and the cost is really lower than acronis, I've been talking with acronis and they are asking me for about 699€ / client server, because I need a full acronis enterprise server, or acronis true image server license for each client, I'm starting to negociate with them, but I don't keep to much faith about getting a nice deal, but in the other side acronis it's a really nice piece of software.

R1soft product it's just 600$ for the backup server and 55$ - 75$ per agent (client server) pretty much reasonable price, and CPD Datacenter Edition it's 7500$ wich I thing is also a reasonable price if I only have to pay 55$ - 75$ per client server. I think we will start evaluating R1Soft.

I'll let you know if I get some nice information about acronis "partner" options ...

Thanks for your answers!

I would go with a custom script. Perl, rsync and mysql will work both on linux and windows. Still it depends on what you intend to do, but developing a backup script and users' front end wouldn't take more than a week.

+1 vote for Acronis

Hi EuroVPS/Director,

Why do you vote for acronis? Technical reasons? (I mind, true image options, universal restore options, baremetal restore, and so...) Or other reasons?

Don't you think 699€ for each server to be backup up (Plus yearly SUS), is a high price? Did you manage to get a nice deal from acronis?

Thanks for your answer!

Greetings;

I vote for Acronis because;

* 700 EUR is nothing, and 25% SUS on that, is also nothing - this is insignificant amount of money when we are discussing about this matter

* True image + universal restore = the following;

-- IBM xSeries 360 with 3x146 10K RAID 5
-- Total data loss, multiple bad blocks = bad stripe table = all data lost
-- Plesk 7.6 for Windows, many clients down and worrying

Solution;

-- Burn the Universal Restore boot CD to blank TDK CD-R
-- Boot up another IBM x345 2 x 300g RAID 1
- Notice x345 is different machine with completely different system board, chipset, RAID card, etc
--- Boot with the Universal Restore CD
--- Point to local samba mount with image and click restore

1 hour later whole thing was restored and everyone was happy

All this for 700 euro, it's cheap. Imagine having to reinstall Windows, reinstall MS SQL, SmarterTools, Plesk, license it again through KA (new key), and then use the HORRIBLE HORRIB HORRIBLE Pleskrestore.exe utility and PRAY that it worked.

When you are down, you will wish you had spent the 700 EUR for this.

Regards to deals I cannot say about deals but if you have a high purchasing volume with SWsoft you will get a good deal.

I see it like this -- Windows servers have to be backed up with Acronis, Linux servers not needed, you can do a great and very fast job with rsync in most cases.

This whole scenario is 100X more important to those users who are 'renting' servers from a datacenter. You read some stories here about 3-4-5 days down, this is how this is happening. Maintaining a reputation is expensive, and if you don't pay you don't get to play.

For Windows, especially Plesk/Helm etc
-- BUY ACRONIS

For Linux Plesk/cPanel
-- Use rsync

For Virtuozzo
-- Use vzbackup it's excellent and very reliable

Take care & regards,
VL/EuroVPS

Where I work, none of our enterprise or public safety customers use Acronis, Ghost or r1soft, they all use Backup Exec (http://www.symantec.com/enterprise/products/overview.jsp?pcid=2244&pvid=57_1) which is $700 according to the site, but its Windows only.

As EuroVPS/Directory says, when it comes down to it, a backup solution is worth ten times the money you spent on it the first time its needed. (not only is it a business expense, but consider the cost of the admin's time to restore it. Imagine the cost in lost customers if you've lost data too!)

I still rec systemimager for Linux though, excellent software - boot off a floppy or PXE network boot for a baremetal restore, uses rsync to increment the backup, and is free.

+1 for (Veritas) Backup Exec, now Symantec

I have been using Backup Exec since 99 for any corporate network I build. Remember, these are the same people that built ntbackup.exe for Microsoft, they know what they are doing.

I had the pleasure of meeting one of their developers back in 2000, and had an indepth discussion about the software, and I can tell you that the people that were behind that product - at least back then - were top notch guys.

You may find problems getting the same software for both linux and windows

I've had great experiences with righteous.

A further comment on Backup Exec, there is an agent that can be purchased to backup UNIX and Linux. I'm currently using it for some HPUX machines.

I can also recommend CA ArcServer Brightstor, Commvault Galaxy or perhaps even Netvault. I have not had good experience with EMC Legato Networker.

r1soft is PERFECT, I tried it in some test servers and really I found it magical solution .. r1soft is very active today in conferences and press so I'll wait until they finish this propaganda and give some discounts :)

Hi there,

Just to clarify about what EuroVPS/Director is telling, I'm not talking about shared hosting nodes running plesk or similar, for that we use Virtuozzo (we split each hardware node with plesk VPS nodes containing no more than 100 domains, and we run a daily backup with Virtuozzo, for both linux and windows systems, and we're waiting for Virtuozzo 4.0 so we could start setting it up clustered over FC, and YES I think plesk backup isn't an option XD) I'm talking about Dedicated Servers, the one's that our clients rent to us.

I see Acronis, or Veritas like pretty nice solutions for some of our own servers, or specific solutions (We have some "corporate" managed services clients, and we use Veritas BackupExec for them, with OFO, Exchange, SQL Server plugins and so) BUT, for typical dedicated servers, don't you thing Acronis/Veritas is pretty expensive (Well, I see Veritas unsuitable, because it is to complex for average client) We all know dedicated server market doesn't have the margins that Shared hosting, or even VPS have, and expending 699€ per server, without any kind of leased plans, don't you think it's a bit expensive? (I would be happy to pay about 30€ / month per license but I don't like buying software licenses for client use)


Thanks to all for your comments :)
Regards,

P.S.: We though about using Acronis to backup Virtuozzo hardware nodes, any one have tried to do it? (We misestimated it because just thinking about installing Acronis on a windows Hardware nodes makes me scare, anyway ... hope Virtuozzo 4.0 will have a nicer backup system for windows systems)

We use the r1soft system as it provides a number of good features, primarily the central storage for Windows and Linux but also an API so we can offer the functionality to our customers through the control panel thereby automating a lot of the processes that support staff would have to do otherwise.

Bacula is free/opensource and run as server on Linux and as client on Windows

Compete greatly with Acronis products.