File backup server with windows server 2008 R2

[ffdd4846]

Having two laptops I have taken backing up my files very seriously. While at school this last year I have had two backup drives die in the same week. Recently I have built a low end desktop and loaded it with a copy of windows server 2008 R2.
 
I would like to be able to store all my backups on the server. I have windows 8 and a Mac that I would like to be able to backup with. I have several terabytes of storage over 4 drives. Two are formatted as ntfs for the file history as part of windows 8 and two are formatted as ExFAT for the time machine backups from my MacBook pro.

 

I have gotten to the part now where I need to set up the os on the server for my backups. I would like to be able to let the server sit on my desktop and boinc most of the day while it is on idle when I am not backing up files and OS and then be able to plug either one of my computers into a Ethernet cable and select the drives that I would like to backup to.

 

I'm not necessarily interested in file encryption but I would certainly like the server require to a password to connect before I can access my files. Is there any other security problems I should worry about?

 

I have never done this kind of work with a computer and I am wondering where I should start? How should I set up the os to allow such connections? Will this even work or will I need to run two os, one as windows server 2008 R2 and then linux or can I do this all with a server running just windows server?

 

 

[Samdb]

I would speak to @looney about this, he knows his stuff when it comes to servers.

[looney]

Sadly I don't really like the standard windows backup system (A simply copy paste style backup is better suited for the files I need to back up instead of image file backups)

I have also never worked with Macs or time machine in combination with 2008R2, but you will likely be able to find some info on that on one of the many mac forums.


I will look into it but don't get your hopes up to much :(

[legopc]

i just installed server 2008r2 so i will try and look into it as well 

[stevv]

 
 

Having two laptops I have taken backing up my files very seriously. While at school this last year I have had two backup drives die in the same week. Recently I have built a low end desktop and loaded it with a copy of windows server 2008 R2.
 
I would like to be able to store all my backups on the server. I have windows 8 and a Mac that I would like to be able to backup with. I have several terabytes of storage over 4 drives. Two are formatted as ntfs for the file history as part of windows 8 and two are formatted as ExFAT for the time machine backups from my MacBook pro.
 
I have gotten to the part now where I need to set up the os on the server for my backups. I would like to be able to let the server sit on my desktop and boinc most of the day while it is on idle when I am not backing up files and OS and then be able to plug either one of my computers into a Ethernet cable and select the drives that I would like to backup to.
 
I'm not necessarily interested in file encryption but I would certainly like the server require to a password to connect before I can access my files. Is there any other security problems I should worry about?
 
I have never done this kind of work with a computer and I am wondering where I should start? How should I set up the os to allow such connections? Will this even work or will I need to run two os, one as windows server 2008 R2 and then linux or can I do this all with a server running just windows server?

 

 
Hi @ffdd4846  I'm going to try to write some high level options for you without going into too much detail or security setups (yet).  
 
First consideration:  Hardware

• what are the drive sizes and models?
• how much data do you have now and how much more in future?
• The four drives should be configured for redundancy (if you don't then single hard drive failure will lead to data loss).
• separate drive/partition for you OS and DATA/BACKUP (depending on how you plan to configure the redundancy)

Second Consideration:  Software

• If you plan to use server 2008r2, here are some of your options
• linux? FreeNAS? of the two... I would use a linux distro.  I run linux on top of windows for my setup, windows being my main file server.

Third Consideration: Configuration options
  Basic Setup

• Make a network share of drive/folder
• server 2008r2:
  • set up shadow copy on data drive (allows you to retrieve older data you overwritten)
  • make a backup of OS.
• windows 8:
  • backing up data only: manual copy and managing of versions of backups or use a synchronizing software (like synchromagic)
  • backup up of whole system (single snapshot): use the "windows 7 backup" in windows 8 to make a perfect image of the computer (great to get back up and running if something goes wrong... virus, broken hardware, etc). 
• osx:
  • backing up data only: manual copy and managing of versions of backups or use a synchronizing software 
  • backing up whole system + data versions: http://www.jessevaughn.com/setup-a-time-machine-backup-to-a-windows-share/
  •  

  ​​​Advanced Setup (recommended)

• Using offline files in windows (basically, data resides on server, and you mount the drive to the windows 8 computer and set it to offline access.  The data will synch back to server whenever there's network)
• Server 2008r2: turn on and configure shadow copy on server data drive.
• if your interested in this I can give more details...

Note: none of these methods are using any of the special features of the server edition.  I don't know how familiar you are with server editions, but you can get away with the same functions and reduced complexity of setup using windows 7 (not 8).  Also, if you plan to use some online backup services some charge more just for using it on server editions.
 
 
edit: formating fix

[BiomedMike]

The windows 8 laptop cant use shadow copy. They "forgot" to add it to Windows 8 you must compile your own Vssadmin. Unless they have changed something and added it in an update, but I wouldn't bet on it.

[stevv]

The windows 8 laptop cant use shadow copy. They "forgot" to add it to Windows 8 you must compile your own Vssadmin. Unless they have changed something and added it in an update, but I wouldn't bet on it.

 

Yeah, the UI to create shadow copy is missing :rolleyes: , but the UI to retrieve shadow copy (aka "previous versions" ) from windows shares is still there.  In my case, I use a windows 7 machine as the "file server".

 

btw, like the the quote in your sig.  Read one of his books, funny guy.