Backup System For 5 PC SMB
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@scottalanmiller said:
If you have five desktops, and one dies, and you spin one up as VDI in a cloud.... how do you access it?
Originally I thought about using a Datto device in there. The entry level device I was thinking of does not have ability to spin up a local VM ... only in the cloud. But withiin minutes I would have a exact copy of their machine in the cloud. You can access it through the Datto device using the same IP if the local device is still there. (Wouldn't be, say, in the case of a total disaster.) This is great if the local desktop is sharing files. Or you could access it anywhere online using the IP they give you and RDP.
So in tax season, the client could keep rolling while you fixed their machine. Run out to Best Buy, buy a new machine, and do a BMR. They are down for only minutes.
The issue with this (aside from apparent licensing issues) is cost. Their rates for 7 year retention are insance. You export an image every month, but that is a lot of manual work. That's what originally brought me to this thread. To find a better way of doing this.
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@BRRABill said:
The issue with this (aside from apparent licensing issues) is cost. Their rates for 7 year retention are insance. You export an image every month, but that is a lot of manual work. That's what originally brought me to this thread. To find a better way of doing this.
Yeah, image backups are for rapid recovery, not long term retention. Use local storage and file backups for that!
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@BRRABill said:
So in tax season, the client could keep rolling while you fixed their machine. Run out to Best Buy, buy a new machine, and do a BMR. They are down for only minutes.
Why do the spin up in the cloud if you can do this, though? If you spin up in the cloud, you need a desktop from which to access the remote instance. So you are stuck until you are in a position where you could have restored to a physical machine.
All of that Datto gear is nice, but I'm not seeing a situation where you could leverage it with a VM. You'd always just restore to the new machine that you put in place, right?
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@BRRABill said:
Or you could access it anywhere online using the IP they give you and RDP.
That only works if they have another desktop to work from, though. And if they do, theoretically you are ready to restore.
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@scottalanmiller said:
That only works if they have another desktop to work from, though. And if they do, theoretically you are ready to restore.
I'd take them a laptop while I commandeered a new system for them. Or fixed the old one.
Or also this would be great if their place burned down or all machines got stolen
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Say Monday morning hits and they were robbed over the weekend. All 5 employees could be up and running at 9:15.
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Here is my understanding of how the BMR licensing works...
- Your old machine has an OEM license
- Your new machine has an OEM license
- You have purchased imaging rights so that imaging systems can be used via VL
- Old machine dies, you can use the image on the new machine. No licenses transfer, only the system image. You will need to re-authenticate.
I still don't like this idea at all, stick to a gold master image and data backup. But BMR is doable using all of the tools mentioned.
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@BRRABill said:
@scottalanmiller said:
That only works if they have another desktop to work from, though. And if they do, theoretically you are ready to restore.
I'd take them a laptop while I commandeered a new system for them. Or fixed the old one.
Or also this would be great if their place burned down or all machines got stolen
So they have backup hardware ready to go at all times that is or isn't owned by the business? The company only has five PCs, right? They would need to buy all new?
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@BRRABill said:
Say Monday morning hits and they were robbed over the weekend. All 5 employees could be up and running at 9:15.
Somehow I don't think you need that quick of a RTO.. Considering how little you are willing to spend, down time must not cost you that much.
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@BRRABill said:
Say Monday morning hits and they were robbed over the weekend. All 5 employees could be up and running at 9:15.
Using what hardware, though. I get that it is remote, but if someone steals your desktop, you still need a desktop to keep working. Providing loaner Windows licenses isn't valid either
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From what you are describing, it sounds like what you really want is actually VDI. Is there any reason not to actually do VDI? Other than costs. Amazon has a nice VDI product.
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I can see where you are going, but it's not going to be an option. It's layers upon layers of licensing problems. It is a "failover to VDI" project which isn't licensenable. If you wanted to do that concept you could with separate VDI instances and only the data being backed up so that you can failover in that way. No problem there. But the cost would be huge. But because you are not dealing with SA licensing you would need to them license all of the equipment that would access the VDI which would be another nightmare.
It's lots of issues that come together here. A little bit on the technology side and a ton on multiple licensing fronts.
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This seems extreme for a five person office that isn't running a server or other infrastructure. Just a weird mismatch of wanting low downtime but not having an infrastructure to enable it. But going for really high end backup and recovery systems. A lot less money could get you something really good, I think. Obviously lots of companies tackle this every day. It's not that your needs are weird or uncommon.
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Most companies approach this with a combination of local backups, local storage and the ability to replace machines quickly.
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Something that needs to be addressed, I think....
You mentioned a fear of them having their desktops stolen en masse. This can happen, I've seen it happen. If that is the kind of thing that we are working to protect against and the kind of data that we are talking about is seven year retention.... I believe that we just said that we are looking at desktops holding seven years of customer tax data that could reasonable all walk out just on desktops? That seems like a big risk. Is there some special security being considered for just how much and how valuable the data stored on the desktops seems to be?
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I think we've broken away from my original 5 person company question.
I am defending the theory of why image backups with real-time spinup of a VM is a viable backup strategy for a small business.
You asked about computers. Everyone has a computer at home, the library, whatever. It could work until I rebuilt their systems.
To be honest, I'm not sure what direction to go in this thread any more, LOL. Too many smart people on here!
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Even the 1 person company thinks they need to be up 24/7.
They don't. it's ridiculous. But that's how they think.
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@BRRABill said:
Even the 1 person company thinks they need to be up 24/7.
They don't. it's ridiculous. But that's how they think.
Actually especially a one person company. The Fortune 100 don't make those kinds of business mistakes. Only really tiny companies have that kind of hubris.
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@BRRABill said:
I think we've broken away from my original 5 person company question.
Ah. Might be worth a new thread then
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@BRRABill said:
I am defending the theory of why image backups with real-time spinup of a VM is a viable backup strategy for a small business.
Even if you wanted to fail over to VDI, I can do that even more efficiently without an image based backup. I'm not confident that it is as valuable as you are imagining. I see why it sounds good, but all of the resulting features that you have I can achieve without needing to have heavy image backups being shipped over a WAN.
It would be viable, sure. And sometimes it might be ideal, but it doesn't feel like it should be. It's starting from the fundamental concept that the desktops are their own servers. Which even in a one person business, I would not do today.
