Backup and Recovery

Windows 2000 to Windows 2003 R2 Replication

It’s another exhausting day today. I spent almost whole day reading and figuring out how to effectively replicate our Data Center from good old Windows 2000 Server to a brand new and shining Windows 2003 R2 server.

In the morning when I went to work, I was very determined and I was sure that I will be using Windows Server 2003 R2 DFSR feature as a solution and it will be an easy day for me today.

The problem is, it only works perfectly when both the servers are in Windows 2003 R2, but in my case as I said the source server is a Windows 2000.

I tried many ways to make it work. I read almost all available resources, but no joy in the end. It works somehow when I’m using the old and Windows 2000 way of doing DFS replica, but it breaks in the end.

Open source backup and recovery

Right now, I'm evaluating and studying some open source available solution for backup and recovery.

I'm looking something that will be able to backup a heterogeneous operating system (Windows, Linux); database and applications like Oracle, MySQL, Lotus Domino; and clients like Windows 2000, XP, Vista - all must be automated, online and no user intervention, and if possible up to bare metal backup and recovery as well.

Any suggestions please? Thanks.