Resolved Windows SBS 2008 backup drive options?

We have just completed (almost) a migration from Windows SBS 2003 to Windows SBS 2008 on new hardware.

I thought, from reading one of the books on SBS 2008, that it should be able to back up to an internal removable drive, or to a drive on the network.

I have a Quantum GoVault 160GB removable hard drive installed, which the system sees as "D: ", a D-Link network drive with a 1TB RAID configuration, which is mapped as "Z:" and a LinkSys 120GB NAS, which has not been mapped to the server. The only backup drive that the backup configuration wizard can find is an internal SATA drive which, having been designated as a backup drive, is only visible through Device Manager. Backup is working, and the new drive image scheme is much faster than the old complete backup to tape, but I have no security of being able to store the backup off site.

Have I mis-understood all of the verbage about SBS 2008's great flexibility and superior backup options, or have I just not got the right hardware, or missed something in the configuration?

Tom

 

Answering my own question

I think I found the answer to my own question, at least partially.

Within SBS2008 there are two parts to Windows Server Backup. The scheduled backup, which is the part that you can get to from the SBS console, will only back up to an internal disk or a disk connected to the server by USB2 or firewire. This tracks changes and does the backup quite quickly.

The second part is only accessable through the Administrative Tools menu, has a feature for doing a one-time backup. This can write to a removable drive or to a network drive, and it allows broader file selection than the scheduled backup.

What I don't know at this point is whether there is a way to use Task Scheduler to perform the one-time backup at a scheduled interval such as once a day or at the end of the week. The schedule backup is great, but the only way to take it "off site" is to use a fire-wire or USB connected external drive.

In my case, I would prefer to use the Quantum GoVault removable disk as the removable backup drive; it is more compact and suitable for storing a rotation of media than the external drive. The irony is that if I had bought the GoVault external drive enclosure with USB interface, I could probably use this, but since I wanted the "cleaner" look of the internal drive enclosure, and the SATA interface, it won't work. I may try using Quantum's software with the GoVault, but I have been hesitant on installing this because it had conflicts with the server system under SBS2003, and I want to be sure that Exchange and Sharepoint files are being properly backed up as well.

Mark this issue as "resolved ", at least for now.

Tom