[aklug] Re: [NUGA] Re: Windows VSS 101

What about Sysinternals' Disk2VHD?

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/sysinternals/ee656415.aspx

Disk2vhd is a utility that creates VHD (Virtual Hard Disk - Microsoft's
Virtual Machine disk format) versions of physical disks for use in
Microsoft Virtual PC or Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines (VMs). *The
difference between Disk2vhd and other physical-to-virtual tools is that you
can run Disk2vhd on a system that’s online*. Disk2vhd uses Windows' Volume
Snapshot capability, introduced in Windows XP, to create consistent
point-in-time snapshots of the volumes you want to include in a conversion.
You can even have Disk2vhd create the VHDs on local volumes, even ones
being converted (though performance is better when the VHD is on a disk
different than ones being converted).

Royce

On Fri, Apr 1, 2016 at 10:31 AM, Peter Barclay PCNI <admin@pcni.us> wrote:

> I would like to point you to Veeam.
>
> You can back up the entire server (for free I believe if they still offer
> it) while the server is in operation, and restore it (bare metal) at a
> later date.
>
> We prefer to use Storagecraft as it's been more flexible, but it's not
> free.
>
> You don't want just the files, I expect, but the ACLs, user database,
> Active Directory schema (I expect), blah blah blah... Making a copy of an
> Active Directory server at a point in time is great - but it will be stale
> after 60 days (I believe) - leaving you with a 'Tombstoned' server, unable
> to operate normally.
>
> If you don't care about the Active Directory, etc... you may be ok running
> a straight up image copy via GParted, CloneZilla, etc...
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Christopher Howard [mailto:christopher@alaskasi.com]
> Sent: Friday, April 01, 2016 10:27 AM
> To: Peter Barclay PCNI; Nuga
> Cc: Alaska Linux Users
> Subject: Re: [NUGA] Windows VSS 101
>
> We run our network off a WS2008 system. What I /want/ is to have a whole
> disk image handy so that at a moments notice I can throw that image onto a
> new hard disk and a new server. (Might even do that in advance for disaster
> prep.) This is quite a straightforward process using the FOSS software I
> already know, but then I've got to take the WS offline for like two hours
> to get the image, and be physically present to start the process, which is
> kind of a bother. (The long delay is mostly due to slow transfer times on
> the transfer media I have available.) If VSS could produce some kind of
> image I could use without having to depend on Windows for the rest of the
> recovery process, and without having to shut
> WS2008 down, that would be helpful.
>
> I inherited all of this setup... but it is what it is and I want to be
> prepared so recovery time is as quick as possible.
>
> On 04/01/2016 10:09 AM, Peter Barclay PCNI wrote:
> > Yes you can use VSS (and yes it's special - but Windows Backup can use
> it).
> >
> > What's the goal here? Making a volume copy to another disc? Copying
> the volume to a file? Copying this file back to a volume?
> >
> > I've used GParted in the past for this operation. Be aware that moving
> the OS image to a new disc will likely break activation - so have your
> product key handy.
> >
> > This comes from a Windows wonk.
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: nuga-bounce@lib.uaa.alaska.edu
> > [mailto:nuga-bounce@lib.uaa.alaska.edu] On Behalf Of Christopher
> > Howard
> > Sent: Friday, April 01, 2016 10:06 AM
> > To: Nuga
> > Subject: [NUGA] Windows VSS 101
> >
> > I'm sure by now it is painfully obvious to you all that Windows is not
> my native OS... So I had this out-of-the-gate question: Can you use VSS to
> produce raw block images of a partition? (I.e., that you could use to
> reproduce a partition using OS agnostic tools?) Or does it produce some
> kind of special image format?
> >
>
> --
> Christopher Howard, Computer Assistant
> Alaska Satellite Internet
> 3239 La Ree Way, Fairbanks, AK 99709
> 907-451-0088 or 888-396-5623 (toll free)
> fax: 888-260-3584
> mailto:christopher@alaskasi.com
> http://www.alaskasatelliteinternet.com
> https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-howard-9429ab52
>
>

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Received on Fri Apr 1 08:53:26 2016