I'm not against it but we don't have any software, only Windows XP Pro. That's all this guy did... install XP Pro and connect the computers
Well that's all you'd do with Win2K Server too, with only 2 clients Pro would be fine.
He had the server hosting the complete program and it was SLOW
Unless the program is really small that's dumb. But even so we run a few of our in house apps from server's so they can update the executables whenver they need to and only the startup time is slow, the actual usage of the app is fine.
I'm not going to sell him on a $1000 investment without knowing the disadvantages and advantages of it.
I doubt $1K is even needed, if they already bought XP Pro for the server use it. It has a 10 client limit, but you're way under that.
I especially take exception to the reminder of the "legal responsibilies" of a CPA. He knows his job, he's been doing it for quite some time now. We are fully aware of his responsibilities to his clients. Besides the fact that not every CPA or accountant uses a freakin server in their office... in fact, most don't.
Just because all the other CPAs don't do it doesn't mean it's not a good idea. If I was his client and he lost my information because he could only go back a full week I'd be pissed, but maybe that's just me.
What I want to know is why he needs the hardware upgrade? If he's been using the software for a year on the current machine why the change? I'm very much behind tht idea that "if it's not broke, don't fix it" and I really doubt he needs a P4 to do people's taxes. If he just thinks it's time because the box is old talk him out of it, because it's pretty unlikely it's necessary. I don't know what the secretary has, maybe she really does need something faster and that would be a valid reason to give him the new one and give her the better hand-me-down.
Now, am I right that ideally it should be setup so that the tape drive backs up every night and then does a full server backup every weekend?
If the data set fits on one tape you could run full's every night, it's a judgement call. The differnce would be that with incrementals you'd have to restore from the previous weekend full then any incrementals depending on what data needs restored so it might be simpler just to have fulls run every night.
Would a Re-writeable DVD would work properly also. Does it provide the same functionality? I see that the DRU-510A comes with backup software.
Possibly. I saw an article a while back that tested some CDRs and found they weren't readable after I think 2 years of storage, I'm not sure if DVD-R discs are affected though. Again it depends on how far back you might need to go for data.
If RAID is not a backup technique, then what is the use of mirroring?
It's a high availability feature, it keeps the machine running and data available in the event of a disk failure. If one disk goes you can keep using the good one until a replacement for the bad one arrives, if you don't have a mirror you end up driving to CompUSA to get a replacement and restoring a lot of data.
My thinking is this... if you mirror the drive and backup weekly and one client's file is deleted, misplaced, corrupted or otherwise rendered unuseable, we retrieve the backup from the DVD.
My thinking is this, if I need a file restored I'd rather have last nights backup than last weeks so I have less work to do.
Except... if a whole portion of the directory, etc. is deleted somehow, that would be mirrored also, possibly losing info for more than one client on both drives. Is that correct?
Yes everything is mirrored, so any changes are mirrored instantaneously.
Then I see the need for nightly backups... and if we do nightly backups, a tape drive would be better than a DVD. Am I right? Or can a RW DVD do nightly's also?
Tapes are more expensive but they last longer and can hold more.
Would backing up to a second hard drive be more efficient?
It would be faster, but if the backup is unatteneded that shouldn't be a concern unless the backup starts taking so long it's running during the day and I doubt that would happen because even our NetWare server's at working backing up ~100G don't take that long to put on SDLT. But then you also only have as many backups as you have drives, unless you have software that backs up to named directories or something so you can have multiple backups on one disk.
This could be done nightly plus a drive image every weekend to the second hard drive
If it's a standalone server a regular image of the system drive won't be too important, unless someone's changing things on it constantly which shouldn't happen. 1 image of it once it's setup and configured would probably be enough.
Plus, he would then be able to use the DVD writer to do a fast backup on Friday afternoon for off-site storage. That is where I think that the DVD becomes more useful than the tape, the backup wouldn't take too long, he could start the backup before leaving and take it home that night.
If the tape backups are configured and scheduled he could just get into a routine of changing the tapes in the morning and taking one of them, say monday morning from the full that ran sunday night, off site. If he already has the DVD-R or the tape drive I would say go with that one, because there's no reason to buy one if you already have the other. The only real advantage I see for the DVD-R is the fact that it can be read in most machines with DVD drives (I say most because they're not ubiquitous, I know for a fact my notebook DVD drive won't read DVD+R discs but will read DVD-R discs, it's hit and miss) which could be handy in a pinch.
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