Well, it seems nearly all "Image a server and be able to restore it" products all run about $1000 a pop.
Check out UltraBac Gold. They are staking their reputation on their ability to do "live" images, and then to restore to any machine (bare metal). They also have (you guessed - additional license) a product which will create the image directly to a virtual machine. SO, if the server blows, one simply brings the VM on line. We have one Gold license and do not have the VM product. We have a VM "ready", but the restore for us would be a two-step process. Anyway, their "preview" product is the full product (ALL licenses good) but is time-limited (ie, 2-4 weeks). They're definely worth a look! http://www.ultrabac.com -- Richard D. McClary Systems Administrator, Information Technology Group ASPCA® 1717 S. Philo Rd, Ste 36 Urbana, IL 61802 [email protected] P: 217-337-9761 C: 217-417-1182 F: 217-337-9761 www.aspca.org The information contained in this e-mail, and any attachments hereto, is from The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals® (ASPCA ®) and is intended only for use by the addressee(s) named herein and may contain legally privileged and/or confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, copying or use of the contents of this e-mail, and any attachments hereto, is strictly prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please immediately notify me by reply email and permanently delete the original and any copy of this e-mail and any printout thereof. "Bob Hartung" <[email protected]> wrote on 07/12/2010 08:30:56 AM: > I've been looking for a disk imaging solution for the servers on our > network. They currently are all Dell PowerEdge servers running > Windows 2003. My main goal is to be able to restore a server quickly > in the event of a hardware failure, like a RAID card failure that > hoses the hard drives. > > We use Arcserve for doing nightly backups and as a file by file > solution, it's fine. For disaster recovery, it leaves a lot to be > desired. It essentially does a reinstall of the operating system and > then restores from back. As such, it's not very fast. > > I've tried a number of disk imaging software packages. They all can > create an image of the server system drive while the server is > running and that's great. However, what seems to always be a weak > point is restoring from a boot disk. > > All the packages have a utility to create a bootable CD but they > generally have a problem either accessing the RAID volume or the LAN > adapter or both. Whether they use Windows PXE, Linux or DOS, drivers > seem to be a problem. It would seem logical that these software > packages would have a utility to copy the existing drivers off the > system and incorporate them into the BootDisk but none do that I've found. > > The only package I've tried so far that seems to work with the > couple of servers I've been testing on is Acronis Backup and > Recovery for Servers. I'd use this if it weren't so expensive at > roughly $1,000 per server. > > Anyone using a disk imaging solution they'd care to recommend? > > Thanks. > > ---------------------- > > Bob Hartung > Wisco Industries, Inc. > 736 Janesville St. > Oregon, WI 53575 > Tel: (608) 835-3106 x215 > Fax: (608) 835-7399 > e-mail: bhartung(at)wiscoind.com > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
