backup os

howct7231 · ‎10-03-2008

Hi,

Would like to know there any economical ways of backup os for version 5 and above and version 4 below ?

I am consider quite unlucky in the way, I have faced the windows os or even linux os crashed and needed to re-install again.

The backup function found in the call managers just for only the datas found in the call maangers and not the os.

I know that by raiding (mirroring) from raid one hard drive can be done, but most of the customers seem wanted to save costs wanted a more economical way, like there are any cloning, or using ghost application to backup the os.

Appreciate this answer. This is all about redundancy. The backup of the data of call managers is only 50% but how about the os ?

tim.giles · ‎10-03-2008

Hi,

Generally it's not recommended but you can use Ghost (as you mentioned) or something like Symantec's BESR (I've used this before for server backups and it's v-good).

Unfortunately Ghost would require downtime and things like BESR would severely load the processor and affect the performance of the machine. You would need someone to run these almost weekly as well to get an up to date backup (not v-practical!).

Personally I would stick with the BARS jobs and restore the server from scratch.

Remember, if you are taking backup images of a faulty server you will be moving this fault onto the new server when you restore it...

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howct7231 · ‎10-03-2008

Quite sad to hear that there are no other better ways beside those mentioned.

As a hands-on person, I realised the os is so vital that if the os is not working is as good as system is down for operation.

The restoration process is ok provided that customer accept the downtime. It will be a value added suggestion if downtime is less than an hour with fast restoration from application something like ghost with less jazz involved like finding the ip addresses, dns, domain name license file etc . Things do not look too well, if someone never install the system before to execute the re-installation which mistakes made and troubling the tac team guys to remote access by root password, altering the right information onto the system... my meaning is the system down is bad enough, the one who installed with the wrong data made it even more frustrations.

Hope anyone from the field of higher knowledge level on the cisco voice can give a good answer about it.

Thanks

tim.giles · ‎10-03-2008

Yes, it's not great but is the reason almost all telephony environments are clustered.

If one Subscriber fails, the other will take over the call processing, giving you enough time to re-build the server properly.

The CallManager installation isn't that complicated and assuming you have an up to date backup can be completed fairly quickly.

Having said that, I'd like to know if anyone else can suggest any other methods of imaging a CallManager...