RD1000 and Windows Server Backup

One workaround for the changes made to Windows Server Backup on the 2008 version is to share the RD1000. Be sure to set the appropriate share and security permissions. With this done, you can then choose "Remote shared folder" as your destination type in the backup. By doing this you will be able to restore single files to your system.

Thanks for the suggestion.  Sharing a folder locally on the RD1000 and backing up to the UNC path works well.   Here is a blog that describes this procedure:

http://blogs.bitwizards.com/Bryan_Soltis/post/2008/09/23/Windows-Server-2008-Backup-to-a-network-share.aspx

However, there are 2 drawbacks to backing up to a network share:

1) You can't schedule the job with the regular WSB scheduler
2) You can't do any VSS incremental backups (it's always a manual backup that will overwrite what is already there)

Can Dell provide some sort of low-level USB driver for this device so Windows 2008 Backup won't recognize it as a "removable media" DVD drive?  It would be great if they could update their driver to work properly with Windows Server Backup so that the device is correctly recognized as a hard drive volume (and can therefore be backed up to).

Seriously, it should not be so complicated to schedule a simple full backup to the RD1000 with Windows Server Backup and then schedule daily incrementals after that.  This would work fine if the program correctly recognized the drive...

Can Dell provide some sort of low-level USB driver for this device so Windows 2008 Backup won't recognize it as a "removable media" DVD drive?  It would be great if they could update their driver to work properly with Windows Server Backup so that the device is correctly recognized as a hard drive volume (and can therefore be backed up to).

Have you called Dell support to ask them about this? This forum is primarily user-to-user, but if you open a case with Dell, maybe they have a solution for your problem.

After about 30 minutes bouncing around different tech support groups, I was finally routed to the tape software support.  The technician knew exactly the issue I was encountering and said the drive won't work as I require with Windows Server Backup.  His solution was to use the Yosemite software that was delivered with the device.  He said that although it's unintuitive, once you get used to it, then you can schedule different job types, etc. as well as just plain copy data over to the drive without interfering with the scheduled backups.

I think I'll get a price quote for Symantec Backup Exec and see what happens next...

We used Yosemite for a few years with a tape backup.  It worked resonably well but I didn't care for the interface.  We had Symantec throughout the rest of the org and wanted an alternate perspective on the AD backup.  With the RD you get an OEM version of Yosemite, I think it was 8.6 sp7.  The latest version is 8.7.  According to support, 8.6sp7 is the same as 8.7.  I'm not sure I have all the version numbers correct here but the point is that while it may be the same now, there is no guarantee that when 8.7sp1 comes out that there will be any sort of patch for 8.6.  We ran into something like that with our Yosemite when we were using tape.  I returned the RD with Yosemite and repurchased with Symantec OEM.  I don't know that it makes sense for anyone else to do this but if you want BE there is an alternative to a second purchase.  The Symantec OEM is the Quickstart Edition and has some limitations as well but is the current version.

Well, I just bought a T300 with a USB RD1000 (x3, 500 GB cartridges).  It arrived 7/3/09.  The server sales staff didn't mention this problem with SBS 2008 but did mention how well the SBS 2008 backup system worked. 

I've been searching but haven't found anyone solving this problem with the native SBS 2008 backup utility and the RD1000. If anyone has any updates, please post them. Info in this post was helpful. Thanks.

I just set up a PE 2900 w/ SBS 2008 & RD1000, and ran into this same problem.  After much Googling, I found only the same workarounds & "no cigar" attempts at using native SBS 2008 backup w/ RD1000.  Had I known about this limitation before ordering the system... *SIGH*

Just wanted those who also stumble on this thread to know that it's still a problem as of October 10, 2009.

I'm gonna try bugging Dell support, on the off chance that more calls from more people might trigger a driver or firmware update that will make SBS 2008 happy.

I think the answer with the RD-1000 is follows: 

1.  It is true that a standalone SBS 2008 installation does have problems with recognizing the RD1000 as a backup device ! 

   Has any of you nerds though thought that this limitation with the RD1000 does not exist with a Hyper-V installation?  Install Hyper-V with SBS 2008 first, make sure you also have Integration services installed (as well on client partitions with the guest operating systems) and also make sure you have a working virual machine with SBS 2008 installed (first server)!  WIth working I mean with the external virtual adapter working and a running internet connection.  Next ...

2.  Create a Virtual Hard Disk from within Hyper-V Manager.

  Right click on the SBS 2008 Virtual Machine Guest Operating System Link in Hyper-V,  Select "Settings",  select  (most likely) IDE Controller, on the right side select harddisk and click on Add !  Under Media and Virtual hard disk (.vhd) click on New and then Next. Select Fixed Size. Next under location select the drive letter under which the RD-1000 is viewable.  Click Next. Set the size you want the Virtual Harddrive (actually the pass-through disk as it is called in Hyper-V and give it a name.

3.  Select the VHD Backup Disk you created by again selecting the Virtual Machine, Settings, IDE Controller but this time clicking on browse on the drive letter where the RD-1000 is stored and select the VHD file (drive !!!!).

4. Next start the Virtual SBS 2008 machine and go to server manage, storage and disk management.  You should now see in the client partition Disk Managment the new storage.

5.  Next go to Backup and Server Storage in the Windows SBS Console.  Click on "Show all valid internal and external destinations" on the Virtual HD device.  It will format the RD1000 HD automatically and perform the backup. This is a very flexible solution, because VHDs can be copied almost anywhere !

according to my experience, windows built in utilities sometimes are not so easy to use.

i've been using some third party server backup tools, such as easus todo backup, acronis backup and recovery, paragon drive backup.

easus rodo backup is good both in features and price.

acronis is the best but too expensive for small business users.

paragon drive backup is not so reliable.

you can try them out.

Do you really have to use build-in tool, for new purchased ones, some software are really doing good. AOMEI Backupper, is the one i'm using, it supports Windows Server 2008 and can run restore and even clone. there's an article with explaination.

http://www.aomeitech.com/tutorials/backup-software-all-windows.html

that's esay to use

Try creating a vhd on the RD1000, mount it with a drive letter and backup to that.