New features in Windows Server 2012 for medium size enterprises

Windows Server 2012 online backup

(Note: this commentary is based on beta software and is subject to change)

I have been looking round for some time for a new backup system on a simple file server/print server type server that meets the following criteria:

• Reliability – something that just works every day without intervention, and lets you know when there is a problem. Many expensive backups systems are overly complex and require intervention.
  
• Offsite storage – preferably pre-compressed and encrypted before departure to reduce bandwidth and provide guaranteed data safety once the data has left premises.
  
• Multiple versions of backup - so you can restore files from specific days.
  
• Integrity check of backed up data to guarantee it can be restored.
  
• Incremental backups –not in the true sense of the terminology but a system that only backs up changes at block level.
  
• Cheap to buy – dedicated backup software is far more expensive than it should be.
  
• Scriptable – for automation .

I have tested various lower cost software solutions that backup to the cloud, frequently using Amazon as a storage medium. None of them did exactly what I was looking for or were robust enough to employ as an enterprise solution in my opinion. I was particularly concerned of the quality of the software that deals with ‘below the waterline’ activities such as the VSS module.

After a while I wished that Microsoft would modify the excellent Windows Server Backup wbadmin Server Backup Utility (that I have used very successfully since Server 2008 on tens of thousands of backups) to use Azure or Skydrive storage, or something similar as the backup target. My prayers were answered when I read this article that Microsoft were going to do just that. Maybe this has been a common request and I wasn’t alone! http://blogs.technet.com/b/windowsserver/archive/2012/03/28/microsoft-online-backup-service.aspx
I put my name down on Microsoft Connect for the free beta trial and subsequently got a key. I created a W8 Beta VM and installed the software/set up the Microsoft storage account in about 10 minutes. I am not going to tell you how to setup the software as the link above tells you everything you need to know to install (check the official documentation after RTM) and it is very simple. You will also find this beta documentation very helpful, especially for scripting information (again, may change after RTM). http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29005

The only problem was the 10gb cloud storage limit, which is hardly enough to trial a real fileserver, but this was soon lifted to 100gb, which makes the test adequately realistic.

I loaded some test data and…it just worked. I left it for a few days and recovered some data and …it just worked. I had chosen some highly compressible data to backup and it was being compressed to about ¼ of its original size.

As a version 1 piece of software this is a great effort. Obvious omissions are bare metal recovery and support for Exchange / SQL Server. I can live without direct bare metal recovery on a simple fileserver as if you are following good practice and separate the OS and Data onto different volumes, you can effectively perform a bare metal recovery – it just takes longer to recover.

My suggestion would be to back up the C = OS drive separately using normal backup (wbadmin) and store this OS backup on the D (Data drive) then backup the whole D drive using online backup Backup 1 – using wbadmin– backup OS volume only to say D = Data drive
C:\Users\Administrator>wbadmin start backup -backuptarget:d: -include:c: -allcritical -vssfull

Backup2 – Online backup of D = Data drive (also includes OS backup) to Microsoft cloud

Bare metal recovery should be simple.

1) From the online backup console start recovering the WindowsImageBackup directory of C (= OS) to a file share, VHD, USB – whatever is your preference

2) Put a Windows Server 2012 DVD in a server and take the recovery option using the downloaded WindowsImageBackup folder as the recovery media target

3) Restore the OS

4) From the newly restored machine restore the D=Data drives etc from cloud storage

It is not clear whether this new backup feature will ever support ‘transaction log based applications’ such as SQL Server and Exchange. The restore module of Exchange is for example very specific in what it will restore. This new online backup feature looks excellent, and hopefully the storage pricing will be reasonable.