So I’m in a bit of a bind, I loooove urbackup 2.0+ beta interface and abilities but not sure if it can meet my needs and those of my clients. Here’s what I need to achieve:
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Urbackup server 2.0+ beta server and no gui client on the same Windows Server 2003-2012. Only the server will be backed up - Easy enough to do and achieved.
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Daily incremental image backups for 1 week then a full backup at the end of the week which then wipes out the incrementals and starts new ones from the new full image backup. I don’t need file backups as thats handled by other software which encrypts that data and uploads it to the cloud. The image backups are for local recovery and emergency recovery.
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RECOVERY: I need to take the full backup and incrementals and combine them into a bootable virtual system hosted on another computer in the same location. I can do some leg work but would like this to be achievable within 2-3 hours of a complete failure. Here’s what I’ve tried to achieve this:
I’m only currently using Full images to keep this simple:
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Assemble bat in urbackup server directory to combine UFEI recovery partition, sysvol, C: partition then mount that as a VM:
* FAILURE: the assemble bat can't seem to combine those full backups. -
Fresh VM install with the same OS as the one that needs to be recovered, added all the VHDs to the VM system and mounted them into respective drive letters leaving the freshly made boot partitions intact and changing the C drive to the VHD>
* FAILURE: ends in a boot loop without going into windows. -
Loading a VM with the recovery ISO and attempting the command line restore as the server hosting the urbackup server will be down in a recovery situation.
* FAILURE: The urbackup ISO doesn't see the added VHDs to be able to mount them for command line recovery -
Loading a VM with a copy of Debian 8 live CD, downloading urbackup command line recovery tools, mounting the VHDs and starting it a recovery via that option:
* FAILURE: Urbackup needs to see the actual drive hosting the VHDs and not mounted VHDs themselves, VirtualBox has difficulty adding a full drive. FURTHERMORE how is recovery possible via a loaded Linux live CD into the Virtual VM’s virtualized HD which can then be loaded from windows, recovery partitions end up in their own drives and not as separate partitions in the same VM virtual drive.
I’m at my wits end here. I need to do a recovery into a virtual system within 2-3 hours of a failure so clients can continue functioning on a VM hosted on a workstation while I repair/replace the server. This functionality is found in several other commercial solutions.
I’m EXTREMELY grateful for the work put into urbackup and understand this is a labor of love and not commercial, I’m in no way criticizing the author or contributors on the project. I’m just wondering if there is anyway to achieve the above with Urbackup.
Short version: I need to virtualize Image backups at any means possible!