Which OS/Programs do you use for your HA server?

[pete_c]

On the Linux side of stuff been shrinking my stuff to mostly single function application stuff tiny stuff.  Never breaks.  It just works most of the time.  (today its running on a variety of "portable" memory devices (USB and SSD)). 
 
The seagate dockstar running mcsSprinklers on Archlinux backs itself up every night.  It is using two memory sticks.   Now running about two years like this.  Utilize Smoothwall for a firewall; now building a PFSense firewall box; way different than Smoothwall.  .
 
Recently I built a 2Gb XBMC box using the flash memory that is soldered into one device.  I did do a lot of playing with it in vivo using ssh and would boot up with a generic Linux Mint "doo what" and just command line DD the working stuff on the flash memory to an image file on another USB stick.  If I toast (brick) the flash memory then I just reformat it as the boot bios chip (another flash chip) remains intact and is replaceable.
 
This is though on a little atom based table top capacitance screen tablet.  I have also found some nice backup utilities utilizing the Linux gui's.  Recently using mostly BTRFS have downgraded a bit to using EXT4; playing with it some then upgrading the build to BTRFS.  Mostly because its easier to resize the partitions in EXT4 then it is in BTRFS (that is me though).  I also like using the GUI GParted Linux version.  Quick.

 

[linuxha]

I'm another Linux user. Been running many different HA products at the same time.

My Linux server is used for just about everything but the router (but I've done that in the past). I can really abuse the Linux servers (yes I have more than one, they're appliances such as the NSLU2 and my D-Link NAS). I've mostly been running Misterhouse since ... heck can't remember anymore. But I tend to find that Linux stays up as long as power stays up (battery backup only lasts so long). I have had uptimes of years but months is the normal (I do upgrade/patch when appropriate).

Right now I'm working on an irrigation server based on node.js, xml, json, html, css and javascript (... because I want to) all running on a Raspberry Pi (cheap but overkill). The way this one is written (uses UDP to control the digital IO), I can probably run it on an unmodified NSLU2. Later I'll work on the direct attached digital IO.

And before anyone tells me of the stability of Windows. I still, regularly, manage to get the box to lock up, stop working or misbehave terribly and the only way to get the applications to run properly is to reboot the box (killing processes fails to kill the processes).

 

[iostream212]

Drozwood,
I am using several different methods for several different systems. At work I am using drive snapshot as per this thread's suggestion. It is working great. It is quick and the backup size is manageable. I went this route because I couldn't get true Image to run on server 2003 machine. I have tested the backups and tried different restores and so far I am a fan. At home I use whs 2011. I have done several restores without any issues. Only recently did my home setup go awol. This caused backups to stop, and the server management tool to not recognize the server or allow me to configure anything. Not sure when or why it happened. I will probably just wipe and do a fresh install someday. That's when I added true Image to my home setup. I really like this one as well. It has a built in scheduler that has been very reliable and a ton of features. So to wrap it up I like drive snapshot for my servers (non whs), I like whs backup when it is working, and lastly true Image for redundancy or non-whs environments.

 

[iostream212]

Pete_C,
Do you use scheduler for drive snapshot? I am trying to automate the backup, but am having issues with my .BAT file. This is what I am using

CD E:
snapshot c: \\387101\Backup\Server\$DISK-$DATE.sna

This is what I get:

 

[Tuicemen]

I run Windows 7 64 bit, I have 8 on a laptop and hate it but it isn't a touch screen.
Drivers were a issue switching to 64 bit for some hardware.
It also require some hardware replacement as no drivers were available.

Bluetooth works fine with 7 and better then on XP
I have all my programs running on it and run XP embedded on a Thin Client with it linked via Wi-Fi to my HA server PC.
I plan to move the Thin Client to my off grid home and link it to my city HA PC with my own HA software.
My HA PC doubles as my developing machine so the ThinClient picks up when I need to shutdown my running HA programs to test new builds.

 

[pete_c]

IOStream212
 
I use MS Scheduler for two type of backups.  One old fashioned directory back of my automation software and stuff and the other Snapshoting the drive.
 
I do not utilize a bat file; rather just run it from the MS Scheduler.  I created a quickie example and ran it.
 

C:\PROGRA~1\Snapshot\snapshot.exe c: d:\c-drive.sna

 
I then tried it again via batch file and I saw no errors.
 
I typically though map the network drives and write to the mapped drive as it works better for me.
 
Thinking if you map c: \\387101\Backup\Server\$DISK-$DATE.sna to say c: X:\$DISK-$DATE.sna it should work fine for you.

 

[iostream212]

Thanks for the reply Pete C. Sorry for the late reply as I wasn't subscribed to this thread. In any event I did eventually get it working. Here is the command line I am using. It creates a new folder with the current date as the folder name, and then puts the backup in that folder. I have MS scheduler run the BAT file nightly for backups. Now I am working on using sftp to send a copy on completion to an offsite server.
 

set Variable=%date:~-4,4%%date:~-10,2%%date:~7,2%
mkdir E:\Backups\SERVER\SNAPSHOT\%Variable%
snapshot c: E:\Backups\SERVER\SNAPSHOT\%Variable%\$DISK-$DATE-$TYPE.sna -hE:\Backups\SERVER\SNAPSHOT\full-07-03-13.hsh

 

[pete_c]

Yeah here I have been letting the software automation do its thing while I have been playing with other stuff. 
 
I did notice though when I did play in vivo with the automation; IE: changing scripts, events, variables and the such I would mess things up probably because in my head I always thought that the changes would be working dynamically in a statically configured environment.  Its really dynamic up to a point and relative to how you think that dynamic really is in a virtual sense of the word relating to the software in general.
 
Letting the software once configured to do its own thing makes it appear to be running more stable these days; but I am not granuarly watching it and basically just using the events' TTS stuff and whatever tell me if its running OK.  (its like that watching a clock while waiting for something to happen thing).