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I'm looking for a highly reliable option to backup data(not the Bare Metal or System State but various shared folders) from a Windows Server 2008 R2 to another 2008 R2 server. Servers are located in two different locations.

I would like to have folders backed up in it's original hierarchy, not in an image/ISO file, scheduled nightly, store full-backups for 7 days and 1st one to be deleted on 8th.

How could I achieve the above either thru built-in Windows Server Backup or any other open source/commercial app please. Would it help in anyway if I join Servers(both are Domain Controllers) via "Forest/External Trust"?

Thanks a million in advance.

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  • Do you need to backup files that are open for write? If so, that may narrow your options.
    – Greg Askew
    Dec 31, 2011 at 16:56

4 Answers 4

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The built in DFS replication sounds like it would work well for you. Once set up, no need to script anything - just drop files in the replicated folder, and they will copy to remote (1 or many locations) per the setup.

DFS Info at Technet

This is what makes it efficient: DFS Replication uses a compression algorithm known as remote differential compression (RDC). RDC detects changes to the data in a file and enables DFS Replication to replicate only the changed file blocks instead of the entire file.

Ive used this successfully over various wan links to remote locations very successfully.

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I have searched for similair solution and the easiest thing I have found was the http://www.aboutmyip.com/AboutMyXApp/DeltaCopy.jsp - free rsync-based solution. It contains sync server and client. Just execute server and set aliases for folders you're going to backup. Then setup client on backup machine and bind it to server's folders created before. It transfers only differences and can compress, so backup is rather fast, especially for low-speed connections.

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I would use Resilio BTsync to simply backup/copy folders to another server, as you described. It works in a similar fashion to Dropbox, except for one major and very important difference: there is no "cloud" middleman. Data goes in folder/s on ServerA, it gets synced to ServerB. Simple and very effective.

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What you describe is very generic and can be done using array of solutions depending on your needs, from simple script using Robocopy to high end third party software.
If trust is not already in place, adding it just for backup would not be a best idea from security point of view.

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  • Many thanks for the reply. Would you recommend any "high end third party software"?
    – Jags FL
    Dec 26, 2011 at 4:03
  • I can only recommend something I am familiar with and this maybe not what suits you best.Ideally you should make a list of requirements and approach few vendors to see if they have suitable product.Also please note that product recommendation questions should be avoided on Serverfault: serverfault.com/faq#questions
    – Sergei
    Dec 26, 2011 at 9:22
  • But a product recommendation might be exactly what he needs. This is a silly and ridiculous rule and the SF link you provided gives no reasoning behind it! Dec 1, 2016 at 4:31

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