How to Backup Workstations

I have discussed with many of my clients related to workstation backups and have found, they have trouble finding a solution for the same. Today, this post shall throw light on workstations, laptop backups. 

Firstly, you should know in your organization how users are saving data. Can they save data locally or there are share drives which is given access to each user to save their data. If data is being saved locally, then you should have a system to backup that data, as most users might save their valuable data on local disk and never think of backing them unless, one fine day they lose their data. The most vulnerable are laptops or any other PDA devices used by Executives, Marketing Staff or in that case any employee of your company.

I shall be discussing in this post what options are available for Workstations or laptops or PDA devices Backups.

1.    End User takes Backup to a backup device attached

2.    Centralized Server Backups

3.    Image or Snapshot Backups

More details regarding each of these options

1.    End User takes Backup

There are various media options available to backup at the end user. You can provide them with a CD-RW / an external media or drive or even get online backup software installed.

If you decide to give the end user a media disk or a backup device to do backup, the most common problem that occurs with this is that the backups will be done infrequently or at worst the backup won’t be done at all.

Using Online Backup shall resolve this option up to a certain extent. A piece of Software shall have to be installed on each machine. This Software gives you configuration options and select files you need to backup and send data to destination Server.

Imagine, you have to backup 100-500 or even more workstations to backup, going thru this process can be challenging and time consuming, else you have to rely on the users who are using the PC to install and configure backups. If you have given limited access to your users on their computers they may not be able to install software.

2.    Centralized Server Backups

The preferred backup option is that the workstation backups can be centrally controlled thru Server.

In this method, backup Software is installed on Server and all configuration is done thru Server including setup for workstations. No software installation required on workstations, no configuration to be done on workstations. Backups are in full control through Server administrator and they can setup scheduled or CDP to do backups.

Benefits of Centralized Server Backups

Easy to setup and manage

Server based backups are easier to setup as you do not need to go to each computer to install software or configure, you can do it all from one point. Gives you better control on the system.

Saves time

No different software versions for Server and workstations. No need to deal with multiple operating systems, no need to researching compatibility issues.

Minimizes maintenance & support

Considering to use one backup solution centrally shall minimize maintenance, support and makes the backup routines more manageable.

Less resource-intensive

Traditional backup software’s which require to be installed on each computer you want to backup, takes processing power from Servers. In turn, that slows downs other applications working on Server.

3.     Image or snapshot of workstation

This is another way to do backup of workstation. A Snapshot is a read only copy of the data set at a point of time and allow applications to continue writing to their data. In other words, once the initial snapshot is taken of a data set, subsequent snapshots copy the changed data only, and use a system of pointers to reference the initial snapshot. This method of pointer-based snapshots consumes less disk capacity than if the data set was repeatedly cloned. However, all previous snapshots must be available if complete archiving or recovery of all the data on a network or storage medium is needed.

There are various software’s available for each of these categories. Do your research and get control of all your data including workstations.