Tricky_300
Bless your heart. It is a good thing you came back before you wasted any more time and money. I did not bother telling you about the GREAT CLIENT BACKUP feature cause you felt so ill If I tell you about something you did not ask about. (Did you flame WD for telling you you could use WSB to backup the DX ? Well actually you can not do that either.)
WD was very correct in saying you can use the DX to backup a PC if the client will install on it, BUT the connector will not run on SBS 2011 Standard. I am going on a limb and “assuming” you have standard as SBS 2011 Essentials has the same client backup feature as the DX and Windows Home Server 2011 for that matter. Again, if you will refer to the link for specifications, you will only see desktop versions listed
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=610
Their is a file on the DX (all 3 of the essentials versions) called supportedos.xml If you really want to, you can edit that file, insert the proper values for SBS 2011 and the connector will install. But it will break the SBS Dashboard (BTDT) and is not supported by me, WD, or Microsoft. And it is worth notice that the connector on the newer essentials versions, 2012 and 2012R2 WILL install Server versions but does not offer Backup. It simply shows in the dashboard for alerts etc, but backup is not available for those servers.
Now as far as the dude telling you that you can use Windows Server Backup which is built into Windows Storage Server 2008R2 that the DX runs on… WD actually removed the links in the dashboard for server backup because WSB cannot backup drives larger than 2tb. If you like I can post images of a non WD box and a WD box for you of this.
But to be honest I am not sure, but I think you can use WSB selecting files and folders as long as it is less than 2tb. You just cannot select and entire drive. I just always backup the entire box as if it dies, I want everything. Because of the 2tb limitation I only use one 2tb drive in them so I can back them up. WD has a 4tb version, that means 2tb usuable and you can configure backup using the native WSB GUI.
And just for giggles, I will talk about the client backup in the DX. It is great and I would suggest it as a great companion to any SBS server. You can backup up to 25 desktops every night. It uses Single Instance Storage or some call it data deduplication. What this means is you can backup say ten Win 7 boxes in the same space has one. After the first backup to the DX all the rest are a very small increase. Just whatever is diff on the box gets added to the backup database.
To restore a file or folder, someone who knows the administrative password may launch the Dashboard. From there the just pick a computer, a date from the calendar, what they want restored and sit back and wait. If the hard drive dies in a PC, the dashboard has this handy dandy thumb drive creator. You just create the thumb, boot the pc with a wired LAN connection, enter the Admin password, select the proper computer from the drop down, select a date from the calendar and wait. And then wait some more. It is kinda slow, but hey, it works :) It will lay down an image of the PC as it was from whatever date you selected. Be it before the hard drive crashed, or say 2 days prior to following that link that infected the desktop.
For the client computer database you may select number of Days, Weeks, and Months to keep a backup. Keep in mind that reducing from say 6 months to 3 months may not reduce the dtabase size. It would only get smaller if a PC had a “bunch of stuff” on it 6 months ago, but no longer has that data.
Think about this. How kewl is it that with just two USB drives offsite you can recreate an entire organization. The Windows Server Backup USB drive from the SBS and the WSB USB drive from the DX. Let them space debris fall, you are covered !
Also, there is a function in the DX dashboard where you may join the DX to the SBS Domain and it will be listed in the SBS dashboard for health alerts like windows updates.
FWIW, I will be more than happy to help you with your SBS questions as well.
I was the First Microsft MVP for SBS in 1998. I started and own the sbs2k Yahoo Group. If you would like to join it along with 3293 members I will glady aprove your membership https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/sbs2k/info
If you were an SBSC, Microsoft flew me to Redmond, paid my expenses and 800 bucks a day along with 4 of my other buds to write 70-282
I have been a speaker at Harry’s SMBNation as well as Jeff’s SBSMigration conferences. I have been to Redmond over 20 times for meetings with the SBS/WSSE Dev team. We have monthly con calls with Dev and Product Support. If you have any issues you see often with SBS I will be more than happy to let them know for you.
I have been to Las Colinas TX, and Charlotte NC for new SBS release training for the PSS folks. We sit with and take the same training that the folks who answer the phone when you Dial MS 1-800-help-me Since support has now moved to Shanghai we did the last one Virtual/online
I am a Moderator for the Server Esentials forum at Microsoft if you need any help over there.
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/home?forum=winserveressentials
You said you were in the UK so you could also reach out to my bud Robert Pearman at http://titlerequired.com/
What I find amusing is that after all this we are back to my first answer. It still stands. The DX will not do what you are asking Out Of the Box. You could write batch files for each day of the week to copy to a folder named Monday on the DX and schedule that. The fist step in the batch file would be to delete the contents of the folder Monday on the DX. Make 5, 6, or 7 of these for whatever other days. Me personally, I see no sense in draging a TB of data across the lan every night. The SBS box also has previous versions available if a file gets deleted or corupt or written over.
And you can do whatever you desire with a USB drive connected to the DX. At minimum you could write another batch file to copy “Day of the Week” folder to the drive. As I said, I think you may can use WSB if you only select folders and not a drive. I do not have any 2008R2 boxes here larger than 2tb to test this for you.
Again, I am glad to help you in anyway I can.
Come on now, give me a kudo after all this typing. Just 2 more needed LOL
Seriously, I am sorry if I upset you. I never meant to. All I was trying to do was help and I hope you have a better understanding now of what the DX can and cannot do.
