Stratesave backs up remote network drives, which can be selected through network share (UNC) name, e.g. \\myserver\share\dir, or \\mypc\C$. Network full backups, which include remote System State backups, require Stratesave network agent key. Also for network full backups, specify/select remote drives through their share (UNC) names, not with the mapped drive letter. That way, you can fully backup/restore networks with unlimited number of Windows 2003/XP/2000/95/98 PCs, without Software installed on the networked PCs.
Since NTFS specialities must be backed up and Windows Networking is used for Network backup, following are Operating System requirements of Network Backup Server (=Computer where Stratesave is installed).
If Backup Clients include Windows 2003 or XP, Network Backup Server should be Windows XP or 2003 (Windows 2000 also possible, but XP recommended). A Windows XP as Network backup Server can fully backup remote Windows 2003 Server (and Windows 2000, XP, NT 4).
If Backup Clients include Windows 2000, but not XP and not Windows 2003, Windows 2000 (or XP or 2003) should be used as Network Backup Server.
If all Backup Clients are Windows NT 4 (or Windows 95/98/ME), Windows NT 4 (or 2000/XP/2003) can be used as Backup Server.
The Network Backup Server is not necessarily a "Server" or "Advanced server" version of Windows. A Windows XP Professional will do as backup server, even with Windows 2003/2000 Server or Advanced Server as network backup clients. For remote backup of SQL or Exchange server, it also is not necessary to have SQL/Exchange server installed on the backup server, if the necessary DLLs are available on the backup computer.
Tips for network backups
·Select remote shares for backup, don't backup mapped drives. That way, at restore, it will be clear which computer's data is backed up. If you have backup of J:, where J: is a mapped drive, maybe it is not clear later to which PC the drive J: belongs to. Also Stratesave can make VSS Openfile backups, and registry backup and restore of registry files and locked files only if they are specified through their network share names, not via mapped drives!
·For full backup, select System State and the Administrative shares C$, D$ etc. for backup, which backup the entire drives. Do not backup other system defined shares.
·Best policy is to run Stratesave from an account which also has Administrator access on the remote computers (same username/password). This avoids Stratesave retrying with provided credentials, which does not always work. Remote ESE98 and sometimes SQL server and Remote System State are not visible if account names/passwords do not match.
·For backups of remote Windows 95, 98 and ME systems, you can work with remote administration enabled, if desired. That way you can specify \\PC\C$ for backup (=C:\ drive). The C$ share is not visible immediately after reboot, even if remote administration is enabled. But after a connection is made to the ADMIN$ share, the C$ (and D$, E$ if present) share appear. If you select C$ for backup, but it is not yet enabled, Stratesave tries to pop it up, by making a connection to ADMIN$ automatically during backup.
·Windows XP systems are per default better protected against network access (builtin firewall, ForceGuest). To backup a Windows XP computer remotely, security settings must allow access from the backup Server. This should be Administrator access for full backups. Also, networked full backup including Registry and COM+ databases need the Remote Registry Service running. This service is running per default.
See also: How Stratesave backups up the System State
How Stratesave backs up the Registry