Duplication of BDBB backups only applies if you are making BDBB backups to Server Storage. In that case, yes, your BDBB backup should be safe from disk failure.

Let me clarify. If I “enable duplication for whs backups” then I gain protection against a data drive failing, Correct?

But I am still going to lose all my backups if my system drive fails and I have to reinstall, correct? In order to protect me from this, I would have to do a manual bdbb backup, correct? I don’t see any way of reloading the duplicated whs backup, only the bdbb backup… It was my understanding a server install will delete any whs backups it finds.

Then of of course duplicating the bdbb backup with “enable duplication for bdbb backups” would protect it against the failure of a data drive, correct?

I’d love to have a feature to automate the bdbb backups if all the above is correct.

First, a point – VSS is disabled on OEM home servers so the previous poster cannot count on this functionality for previous versions. I recommend regular shared folder backups of critical shares, or online backup to protect your critical data from catastrophic incidents like fire/flood/theft.

As to your backup questions:

- There is discussion in both the BDBB Readme and the Wiki article on my site, including links to more discussion of the registry keys.

- Look into the WHS SDK for how to query if backups are active. Or, don’t run your script inside the maintenance window (Defined as the backup times in the server console)

- There is a discussion in my forums on how to automate the backups of the client DB and server shares via robocopy or xcopy.

If you have further questions I’ll ask you to post in my forums, I’m active there and only occasionally check here.

Thanks,
Alex

I’m writing my own database backup utility to addresses a couple of limitations with your utility (but I’m not integrating it with WHS Console).

Do you know how you can detect if WHS is backing up a client or running a backup cleanup so I don’t shutdown the WHSBackup service whilst these operations are running.

And secondly, your utility does more than just copying the files, it also creates a registry hive backup and an XML file. Can yopu explain to me how these are used in a restore as they don’t seem to be covered by the MS white paper on WHS Backup.

Many thanks.
Paul

Oh, BTW I have no connection with iDrive other than being a customer. I’m in the UK, they are in the ‘States.

I use iDrive on my server to backup my shares data online and encrypted (not practical for backup data as explained) which keeps the last 30 versions of my file (at no extra cost).

The main problem is it doesn’t integrate with the WHS console so has to be run from the server itself or a remote desktop connection. It costs abot $50 a year for 120GB which is the best deal I found and does continuous as well as daily backups (so a file gets backup as soon as it changes) and I have the peace of mind knowing that my data is safe even if my house and all my pcs are toast.. It did take a couple of weeks to make the first copy on my slow ADSL connection, although they do now offer the option of sending them a drive with your data on. I’ve used it with no real problems for about 18 months now. I also backup to an external drive because I’m paranoid.

So my question is, can this automatically do the backups for the server (as the option is not available on whs and I have to do it manually)?

You can also try experimenting with our recently discovered method of duplicating the system drive. Theoretically you should be able to store a backup of the C: partition, though I recommend keeping this up to date with latest patches, etc, and I also recommend against trying to restore a backup of the D: partition. We’ve not tried this backup scenario, only the duplication scenario, so test at your own risk.
http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2010/01/17/forum-spotlight-how-to-successfully-clone-and-upgrade-a-whs-system-drive/

To directly answer your question, no, I do not plan to investigate the integration of some type of OS backup into BDBB.