Comments on: Episode III: Revenge of the SysAdmin http://www.baltimoremick.com/blog/2006/04/07/episode-iii-revenge-of-the-sysadmin/ Jason J. Thomas' Weblog: Now with more cowbell! Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:18:05 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= By: Jason J. Thomas http://www.baltimoremick.com/blog/2006/04/07/episode-iii-revenge-of-the-sysadmin/comment-page-1/#comment-634 Jason J. Thomas Mon, 10 Apr 2006 15:49:28 +0000 http://baltimoremick.com/blog/2006/04/07/episode-iii-revenge-of-the-sysadmin/#comment-634 I was looking at the Exmerge docs, and I did see it's pretty useful for snapshot backups. For backups, we use BackupExec 10 for Small Business Server. Ah, yes, since we are a SB, we use SBS on our main server. Everything you know as a good Windows admin gets thrown out of the window with SBS--Exchange on a Domain controller, doing file and print, and some IIS stuff, on the same box? In a big enterprise shop, we would have 3-4 servers doing this stuff. Here, just one. I have not had the need to deal with the need to do a mailbox recover (knock on wood). That said, BE does a pretty nice job. As for the tape carousel, I would need to figure something out with that, since I currently have an external SCSI LTO-2 drive--whose performance screams, I might add. Trust me, though, the swapping out on Saturday sucks--but I get points in the eyes of the superiors. A little short term pain for long-term gain is how I looked at it, and given the small business angle I deferred looking at something like this until I had a year under my belt. Consider this: before I arrived, no backups were happening at all. Now, the server is backed up, and our managing partner's laptop is backed up to an external Seagate drive. :-O I was looking at the Exmerge docs, and I did see it’s pretty useful for snapshot backups.

For backups, we use BackupExec 10 for Small Business Server. Ah, yes, since we are a SB, we use SBS on our main server. Everything you know as a good Windows admin gets thrown out of the window with SBS–Exchange on a Domain controller, doing file and print, and some IIS stuff, on the same box? In a big enterprise shop, we would have 3-4 servers doing this stuff. Here, just one.

I have not had the need to deal with the need to do a mailbox recover (knock on wood). That said, BE does a pretty nice job.

As for the tape carousel, I would need to figure something out with that, since I currently have an external SCSI LTO-2 drive–whose performance screams, I might add. Trust me, though, the swapping out on Saturday sucks–but I get points in the eyes of the superiors. A little short term pain for long-term gain is how I looked at it, and given the small business angle I deferred looking at something like this until I had a year under my belt. Consider this: before I arrived, no backups were happening at all. Now, the server is backed up, and our managing partner’s laptop is backed up to an external Seagate drive. :-O

]]> By: mokiejovis http://www.baltimoremick.com/blog/2006/04/07/episode-iii-revenge-of-the-sysadmin/comment-page-1/#comment-633 mokiejovis Mon, 10 Apr 2006 15:17:38 +0000 http://baltimoremick.com/blog/2006/04/07/episode-iii-revenge-of-the-sysadmin/#comment-633 Exmerge is useful when you need to move a mailbox from one server to another inside of a large organization. It's also useful to get a snapshot backup of a mail server? What do you use to do your backups? Do you use ntbackup? As someone who has suffered the hell of trying to recover a singular mailbox from backup using ntbackup, let me strongly recommend Dantz Retrospect Multi-Server with the Exchange backup addon - it allows brick-level backups/recoveries and integrates SEAMLESSLY with Exchange, using Exchange's built-in backup system. You can literally just hit the recover button, and when the user checks their mail later, they get the recovered mailbox. Phenomenal. Also, I've noticed you need to go in on Saturdays to change tapes - if your company is so determined to get a Saturday backup that they're willing to pay you to swap it out, why don't they just spring for a tape carousel? They cost somewhere thereabouts of $3000, but it'll likely pay for itself in time you don't have to spend (plus you won't have to go in on saturdays). Exmerge is useful when you need to move a mailbox from one server to another inside of a large organization. It’s also useful to get a snapshot backup of a mail server?

What do you use to do your backups? Do you use ntbackup? As someone who has suffered the hell of trying to recover a singular mailbox from backup using ntbackup, let me strongly recommend Dantz Retrospect Multi-Server with the Exchange backup addon – it allows brick-level backups/recoveries and integrates SEAMLESSLY with Exchange, using Exchange’s built-in backup system. You can literally just hit the recover button, and when the user checks their mail later, they get the recovered mailbox. Phenomenal.

Also, I’ve noticed you need to go in on Saturdays to change tapes – if your company is so determined to get a Saturday backup that they’re willing to pay you to swap it out, why don’t they just spring for a tape carousel? They cost somewhere thereabouts of $3000, but it’ll likely pay for itself in time you don’t have to spend (plus you won’t have to go in on saturdays).

]]> By: Jason J. Thomas http://www.baltimoremick.com/blog/2006/04/07/episode-iii-revenge-of-the-sysadmin/comment-page-1/#comment-632 Jason J. Thomas Mon, 10 Apr 2006 14:40:50 +0000 http://baltimoremick.com/blog/2006/04/07/episode-iii-revenge-of-the-sysadmin/#comment-632 mokie: That makes two of us. I am just annoyed that someone decided that Mailbox Operators needed full access to the mailbox in question. Stupid consultants! I need to look more fully into the Mailbox Operators group--I wonder if it is getting too much or needs to have the members it currently does. I will have to keep Exmerge in mind and get to know it. It might be a good way to back things up for our users while allowing me to do a bit of Exchange housekeeping. mokie: That makes two of us. I am just annoyed that someone decided that Mailbox Operators needed full access to the mailbox in question. Stupid consultants! I need to look more fully into the Mailbox Operators group–I wonder if it is getting too much or needs to have the members it currently does.

I will have to keep Exmerge in mind and get to know it. It might be a good way to back things up for our users while allowing me to do a bit of Exchange housekeeping.

]]> By: mokiejovis http://www.baltimoremick.com/blog/2006/04/07/episode-iii-revenge-of-the-sysadmin/comment-page-1/#comment-631 mokiejovis Mon, 10 Apr 2006 11:23:23 +0000 http://baltimoremick.com/blog/2006/04/07/episode-iii-revenge-of-the-sysadmin/#comment-631 Glad you got that fixed up! As an aside, the new version of Exmerge works very, very well with large mailboxes, up to 20GB, I believe. Glad you got that fixed up!

As an aside, the new version of Exmerge works very, very well with large mailboxes, up to 20GB, I believe.

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