Looking for a program to image our server

Re: Looking for a program to image our server

Richard Fox — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:56:22 GMT

We use a tape backup (200/400Gb) Ultrium internal drive - backs up every night - That what I would recommend but its not cheap - if money not an option then a solid state drive ;) - you can then take the tape home in case of a fire etc and you can then do a full SBS restore from the tape backup!

If you just want the occasional snapshot you could just use a Linux boot CD and just do a drive copy to an external USB HDD?

Re: Looking for a program to image our server

Ian Mostyn — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 09:13:34 GMT

Virtual servers are very useful - and free. I have two - one collecting and storing my email, the second backing up all my desktop PC's and the server. We can also do a non-terminal server setup - we have our PMS software setup on each PC and just have one designated as the server purely for the database. No good for thin clients that rely on a terminal server but it may be another backup option to have more than 1 access point to your software. Your software provider would hopefully have something ready for this kind of contingency and ready to roll out.

Ian

Re: Looking for a program to image our server

Laurence Webb — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 15:34:00 GMT

[quote user="Ian Mostyn"]Hope this helps,[/quote]Certainly does!

There's a lot to go through. We have some of these things in place and, when the server went down we were able to use the pc that the server backs up to, although that will only support 1 terminal which was a bit of a pain. We have a UPS and back up the PMS to hard drives daily that are kept off site. RAID and a virtual server look very useful though.

Thanks

Re: Looking for a program to image our server

Rob Loxley — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 13:40:02 GMT

[quote user="Laurence Webb"] I was recommended Acronis BAckup Server, but at £645 that ain't going to happen![/quote]

Not sure if this specific software/plan is the best (I'd agree with Ian's general advice) - but it may be worth considering just how much money and custom you'd lose every day your PMS is offline... What is your current contingency for server failure?

FYI we have a an alternative computer that can be reconfigured to work as a server probably within an hour, with the PMS data replicated on a number of machines and external hard-drives.

Re: Looking for a program to image our server

Ian Mostyn — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 12:58:59 GMT

As your server is likely to be your most valuable asset there are a number of back-up / redundancy strategies you should undertake. Part of this will depend on your individual circumstances but should be valid for most people.

1. Power - your server and any essential equipment should be on an Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS). This should also provide power surge protection. Servers are at their most vulnerable to hardware failure when powered on or off. A UPS will provide battery backup to short power cuts / brown outs / someone trips over the plug! We have two backing up our server, modems, routers, phone system and another on reception for 1 pc and the credit card machine, a final one for our practice manager's PC.

2. Data Backup - Make sure your database and important documents are backed up regularly to a separate pc or NAS drive. Ideally this should be 2 or even 3 sites, one of them in the cloud (using a service like Carbonite) or to another surgery / your home. I backup our database each hour to a separate PC, daily to our other site and weekly to my home, all done over the internet these days rather than disk.

3. RAID - A Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks is a system to aid hard drive failure. RAID 1 is simple mirroring - 2 hard drives with the same data. If one drive fails, it can be replaced and the data is safe on the 2nd disk. This is what we use on our server. RAID 5 or 6 are useful where your data needs are higher and take up more than 1 primary hard drive. This is not a replacement for a backup system and data should be safe elsewhere. This will also not protect you against a power failure of a motherboard break. Get a decent hardware RAID card if you do go for this option.

4. Server PSU - The server Power Supply Unit (PSU) is the other weak spot where a failure can be catastrophic (most other PC componants fail rarely). You can get redundant "hot-swap" PSU's installed into a server so if one goes the power stays up. If your server is vital and MUST stay up you should have 2 PSU's installed - if not, having a spare PC that can take over as a server or a spare pSU that can be "cold swapped" with the power off is the next best option.

5. Disc Imaging - Getting imaging software for a Windows Server is expensive but may be worth it when you consider the losses if you lose that data. You may find that your PMS provider has a licence and can image your drive periodically for you. Or club together with neighbouring practices for a full licence that can be shared.

6. Virtualisation - This is the latest technology, rather than imaging your drive, virtualise the whole server so if it does fail, you can run it on any PC as if it hadn't failed int he first place. VMWare vCenter Converter will let you create a virtual server from your real server (for free) that can then be run on any decent PC running the also free VMWare Server or Player. You could also be fancy and run a dedicated box as a Hypervisor running ESXi that has multiple virtual pc's / server etc running on it. This is technically more complicated but would be the best option currently and is the way that server management is going

Maybe I am a little paranoid about redundancy - I have two broadband lines, a reserve network switch and at least 1 spare modem. My branch surgery has at most day old data that they can switch to and my telephone system even has a manual backup (old fashioned phone in reception). I just feel that our database is worth hundreds of thousands of pounds and I want to make sure it is safe and reliable. I have had minor issues int he past, I haven't always got things to work first time but I am in a generally happy place with my data and setup at the moment. Hope this helps,

Ian

Re: Looking for a program to image our server

Laurence Webb — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 12:36:08 GMT

Thanks. The RAID1 mirroring looks useful and can be done on Server 2003 but you need to convert the hard discs to dynamic discs so I'm just going to back everything up before I consider doing anything 'clever'. What I need is a computer bod to drop by this afternoon to talke to me about it.

We back up the PMS every day and I can manually back up all the other files, but if the server exploded we'd have to reload Windows, all the other programs and drivers that go along with it which takes hours.

Re: Looking for a program to image our server

Bob Russell — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 10:13:32 GMT

Assuming your PMS does not do a remote back-up there are ISP's that provide remote back-up for all your files. At home we have Virgin (over BT line) and this has unlimited back-ups. The more basic packages limit the storage.

I had a computer failure and once the new box was configured it backed up almost back to how the original computer was!

Re: Looking for a program to image our server

Arlo Guthrie — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 09:59:18 GMT

Um, I don't know an awful lot about servers, but I think what you need is a server with built in RAID 1 mirroring.

I have it on a network attached storage device, and it means that I have four hard drives, two of which are exact copies of the other two. In the event of a hard drive failure, which has happened to me twice, the system starts running off the other drive, and I just pop down to PC World and buy a replacement. I'm at risk only for the time it takes to get a replacement hard drive.