Automated Backup
1820592 Members
1738 Online
109626 Solutions
New Discussion юеВ

RDX Drive cannot be used as a backup drive in small business servers

 
Gruebel
Occasional Contributor

RDX Drive cannot be used as a backup drive in small business servers

We experienced recently that none of the HP RDX Storageworks Drives can be used for the Microsoft Small Business Server (2003 and 2008)internal Backup Wizzard (ntbackup) as they don't get listed in the available backup drive list. After installing the drive into the HP Proliant Servers they are displayes as an additional harddrive correctly in the explorer but cannot be adressed via SBS wizzards.

Any solution for this - major - problem?
11 REPLIES 11
Colin A
Advisor

Re: RDX Drive cannot be used as a backup drive in small business servers

I have the exact same problem, brand new ML 110G5, with SBS 2003 and a brand new RDX320 drive..
The server can see the RDX drive perfectly as I can copy files to it.., but when I use the SBS Backup Wizzard it says it can only save backups to an Internal or External drive????.., amd won't let me save a back up there...

Dead in the water with this one at the mo...

Any body got an answer for this one..?

Colin
Colin A
Advisor

Re: RDX Drive cannot be used as a backup drive in small business servers

Just come across this, looks like its MS problem...

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/925097
mlwalker
Occasional Contributor

Re: RDX Drive cannot be used as a backup drive in small business servers

I spec'd out an internal RDX500 for an ML350g6 for a new SBS2008 customer and wondered why the wizard wasn't showing it in the backups... then I found this forum!

1. Is anyone from HP working with ProStor & Microsoft to resolve this issue and make the RDX a valid backup solution? This seems like the perfect fit for Microsoft's no-tape strategy.

2. Can someone modify the RDX QuickSpecs & website to point out that this is not a good backup choice for SBS?
Colin A
Advisor

Re: RDX Drive cannot be used as a backup drive in small business servers

Mmmm, that's interesting...

KB925097 was the answer for me with SBS2003, worked fine after that..., no further problems

Definatly works, you just have to do the kb to the letter...

Agree, it would be an idea if they sorted it once and for all...
Brian Mayo
Occasional Advisor

Re: RDX Drive cannot be used as a backup drive in small business servers

I've been using the RDX drives for years with SBS03..the solution I've used is simple, share out the drive..give system 'n admin full rights. And then in the backup wizard, browse to the share. Example:
\\server1\rdx
Brian Mayo
Occasional Advisor

Re: RDX Drive cannot be used as a backup drive in small business servers

Now the reason I found this thread, how about getting the RDX (or Dell RD1000..same thing) to work in SBS08? SATA powered ones.
Martijn ten Kate
Occasional Advisor

Re: RDX Drive cannot be used as a backup drive in small business servers

Did somebody found a solution to get the RDX(500) drive to work with SBS2008/Windows Server 2008 with Windows Server Backup?

I found a lot of information on the internet but nothing works.
This hotfix http://support.microsoft.com/kb/955561 can't be installed on SBS2008 or Windows Server 2008.

Someone who fixed it by scripting:
http://www.css-networks.com/2009/01/scheduled-backup-to-rdx-rd1000-with-sbs-2008-and-wbadmin.html
But I prefer the GUI.

Jeremy Dobe
New Member

Re: RDX Drive cannot be used as a backup drive in small business servers

This statement is innacurate:

I found a lot of information on the internet but nothing works. This hotfix http://support.microsoft.com/kb/955561 can't be installed on SBS2008 or Windows Server 2008.

If you go to the link it states that it can be installed on Vista and Server 2008 SP1. It doesnt apply to SBS 2008 which is what we need it to do. The registry edit works for SBS 2008 if you follow the information in the previous post.

Cheers
Jeremy

Colin A
Advisor

Re: RDX Drive cannot be used as a backup drive in small business servers

Read the other threads in this, the answer is there...

Check out the MS KB's etc...

I got it working fine...
paul pryor
New Member

Re: RDX Drive cannot be used as a backup drive in small business servers

any luck with this on server 2008 yet?
ITwill
New Member

Re: RDX Drive cannot be used as a backup drive in small business servers

SBS 2011 Backing Up to RDX drive тАУ solution

 

Like many people before me I have run into the well documented (now) problem of SBS 2011 (and 2008) not being able to back up to an RDX cartridge drive whether it be internal or USB

 

The workarounds IтАЩve seen are either using other software (backup exec for example) or for scheduling a тАЬfull backupтАЭ using Windows backup.

 

Of course none of these solutions allow you to see the backup results in the SBS console so you wonтАЩt get backup notifications and the server will forever be telling you that youтАЩve not configured / carried out a backup which is quite annoying.

 

I believe IтАЩve found a working solution to this which lets you use an RDX drive, lets you do scheduled backups which are reported back to the console and therefore register as successful backups in the notification emails you get sent by SBS.

 

IтАЩve tested this on SBS 2011 using a USB attached external RDX drive.

 

I donтАЩt know if ALL of the points are absolutely necessary to get this to work but for the sake of a few clicks its probably worth doing all the stages !

 

  1. Share your RDX drive and give тАЬeveryoneтАЭ full access permission to the drive (тАЬeveryoneтАЭ may be overkill but IтАЩve done that to ensure no permissions issues stop this from working тАУ you may want to adjust security accordingly)
  2. Go into Windows Backup (NOT SBS CONSOLE) and configure your scheduled backup тАУ select what you want to backup and then choose the option to backup to a remote share.
  3. Choose your shared RDX drive as the destination for the backup
  4. Select your backup schedule and complete the backup wizard.
  5. At this point in theory you have got a scheduled full server backup but of course this doesnтАЩt тАЬreport inтАЭ to the SBS console and you wouldnтАЩt get any backup completion notifications from the SBS console either
  6. Next connect a supported USB hard drive to your server тАУ this is a temporary step but needs doing (virtually all usb hard drives are supported)
  7. Go to the SBS console and select тАЬconfigure your backupтАЭ
  8. Go through the SBS backup wizard, select what you want to backup and when and complete the wizard тАУ I chose all the same settings as the ones IтАЩd just used in the Windows Backup including the schedule time just to be on the safe side. The only difference is the backup destination тАУ you can only select the USB hard drive not your rdx drive as these are not supported in SBS backup but thatтАЩs fine тАУ go ahead and select the USB hard drive and complete the backup wizard. It will now show that the backup is configured and scheduled in the console
  9. Close out of SBS console and go back to the Windows Backup Wizard again.

10. Disconnect the USB hard drive at this point тАУ no longer needed

11. Select the тАЬchange backup settingsтАЭ option and leave all the settings as they are except for when you get to backup location тАУ here you want to select your тАЬshareтАЭ option and once again input \\servername\howyousharedyourrdxdriveout

12. Complete the wizard.

 

Now what I discovered was that when you use the SBS console to setup a backup, the console creates a task in the windows task scheduler called something like тАЬWindows Server Backup Schedule TaskтАЭ (or similar) This is also what is created when you use the Windows Server Backup Wizard тАУ exactly the same scheduled task name.

 

By doing what weтАЩve just done above, weтАЩve created the scheduled task as far as SBS console is concerned but then weтАЩve changed one of the settings in it (the backup destination) using Windows Server backup.

 

IтАЩve now got an SBS server happily backing up to an RDX drive each night, sending me a status report by email in the morning to say its completed and showing the backup history in the console window too. IтАЩve even done a restore of files and folders which worked like a dream. Now remember you are getting a FULL server backup as well as the bare metal restore so you can restore anything you could usually restore if you were backing up to a support USB hard drive

 

There are a couple of things to be aware of though / which I havenтАЩt tested yet;

 

  1. Do not click тАЬrun backup nowтАЭ from within the SBS console тАУ this makes the console crash for some reason. Probably doesnтАЩt like my workaround. If you want to тАЬrun the backup nowтАЭ you can do so from Windows Server Backup software or run the scheduled task. When running, it appear in the console as backup in progress.
  2. I havenтАЩt yet checked to see if the backup automatically overwrites or appends (if space) what is already on the cartridge. If I find it doesnтАЩt overwrite or append then all I need to do is schedule another task to run shortly beforehand which formats / wipes contents of cartridge so not a big issue really.

 

So there we go тАУ a working solution (as far as I can see) which allows you to use your RDX drive with SBS 2011 тАУ perhaps someone could test this on SBS 2008 as well but I canтАЩt as donтАЩt have access to a suitable test server

 

Hope this helps people and would be interested in any feedback