Tape Backup Software for WS 2008 R2

[Guest David P. Lurie]

Just purchased new server, as well as WS 2008 Standard 64 bit, with external

LTO tape drive.

 

R2 is already available for download from MS eOpen Vol License site, so

elected to use it rather than install WS 2008 SP2 and perform in-place

upgrade later. All of the new product info on Windows Server 2008 on the MS

web site relates to R2, so expected critical third party software to be

compatible by time MS released the OS version.

 

Backup Exec 12.5 was thought to support R2 by the hardware vendor, but

didn't function after installation other than recognizing the tape drive,

allowing erase jobs, but unable to perform backups. Symantec tech support

indicated that Backup Exec does not yet support R2, and no firm release date

thus far.

 

My old server has WS 2003 Standard 32 bit, with a DDS-4 tape drive. We had

previously used ntbackup, the Windows backup program, for our tape backups.

 

The new and improved intrinsic Windows Server Backup no longer supports

backup to tape.

 

We need backup to tape and basic disaster recovery functionality similar to

single server license for Backup Exec.

 

Are there any viable tape backup options for us to use from other vendors? I

haven't found any thus far.

 

Thanks,

 

dl