16 lawyers need my (your) help

[Ron_Jeremy 0]

Scenario:

 

I am trying to help a local law firm with a backup problem they are facing. There is 16 pc's (1 per lawyer) connected via a couple of switches. The pc's are Windows based, & range from '95 to XP. All this leads to a soho router connected to a cable modem. The network is a peer-to-peer design without any "dedicated server" so to speak. Most, if not all pc's (i.e., users) are single entities. What I mean is there is hardly any file sharing taking place, & no one really cares what's on the other guys pc.

 

Problem:

 

The head honcho is worried about backups, or the complexity of doing such a thing over a 16 pc non-centralized network. Almost all data needed to be backed up is either Word or Wordperfect documents, so the total backup size will be minimal.

 

Requirement:

 

Since the firm is most content with the configuration & performance of the current network, only minimal changes to the current status quo will be entertained. So, doing something like reconfiguring to a server based network is not an option. The backup must be as "painless" as possible (i.e., easy as hell). They will look at adding hardware to the current network. Scenarios like adding another pc to act solely as a "backup server", where data could be copied to every night & also backed up to CD, may be of interest.

 

My Solution:

 

Have all users save files to a central folder on their local disk (like "My Documents", or "Backup", etc, etc). I figure this http://www.maxtor.com/en/products/external/personal_storage_5000/index.htm device maybe all they need. They could back it up to CD every week too. I'm not familiar with the product, so I don't know if the software can backup certain specified directories, or if it only does entire partitions. Can anyone shed their experiences? This would be simple & not disrupt the status quo. I would connect it to the boss's pc, leaving him with the responsibility of "pushing the button" at the end of every day.

 

Am I over simplifying a more complex problem, or am I on the right track?

[Jerry Atrik 0]

u could put a dummy "user" on the network mapped to everyones my documents. i did this in the past and it worked fine

[adamvjackson 0]

I think Jerry Atrick has the right idea. Perhaps installing Windows XP's fast user switching on the boss's PC, assuming he's running XP, of course, with a dummy account. You still could have the network storage device, and map all the "My Documents". Only limiting factor would be requiring the end users to save everything in "My Documents". Perhaps you could create a local policy, but for all systems varying OSs, that would be a pain.

[Jerry Atrik 0]

thats a good idea too

i meant adding a another computer. kinda like a server with no responsibilities. a pda will almost do the trick.

it can sit on the floor of the coat closet

[Ron_Jeremy 0]

Adam & Jerry, thx for your replies. I need to get one thing outa the way first: will the external Maxtor drive do the trick? It does seem the simplest ("push one button") after all. Or will this device not do exactly what I need?

 

In a nutshell:

 

>There's very little file sharing going on between pc's. Everyones pc is basically "private".

>Data to be backed up on each pc will be in a shared folder (each persons "My Documents", for example).

>Most data is text documents

>Simplest backup device/software/strategy is needed for the end of the work day. I basically want to take the 16 shared "My Documents" folders from the pc's & back them up to a central device. This would be either a stand alone "Backup pc", or preferrably a device like Maxtors External 5000 series products if it can do such a thing.

[adamvjackson 0]

As I personally have never used that drive, what I suspect is after installing the software, you get a service or agent running in the background or as a scheduled task. Pressing the button would initiate the queued backup. The flash product tour wasn't that informative on the Maxtor site. I figure that it would work, with the only possible limitation being that the backup software may not be able to image from mapped network shares/drives. Perhaps a recursive script/batch file would help there, though, copying to the local machine first, if necessary.

 

Edit: Not sure how clear that was, but I suspect the hardware will work. There may be some limitations with the software, as it's OEM/bundled, but I think that can be worked around.

[Jerry Atrik 0]

here is another idea very similar to yours ron

http://www.monstermachines.net/server.htm

these things are very neet. we use one of these for our centralized engineering files. redundant disk arrays and single point backups

 

ps it acts just like a "server" allowing browser access for control and security so each man can have a folder only accessable to him

[duhmez 0]

If you do install a windows machine for them to send their backup data nightly, be aware that if you use 2k pro or xp pro the most connections you can get is 10 at a time, which will be a pain.

 

And server will cost alot of money.

 

If you gonthis route using 2k pro or xp pro to send backups, I'd use task schedular to xcopy all the data from 8 of the machines, then, a while later the other 8 machines will kick in, all into their own nackup directores on the dedicated backup workstation directories. Ths owuld be a very inexpensive options.

[mezron 0]

I know this is an NT based website, but this is one of those things that Linux and Samba are best at. No licensing issues, runs on minimal equipment, can be administered through a webpage with swat if you want to go headless. I set up something like this for one of my customers (8 pc's in a peer to peer setup also) a couple years ago and it works wonderfully. It's only been down once to install a larger hard drive.