Securing Windows NT/2000 Servers for the Internet

Backup Software

There are many types of products for backup and restore operations.

If you have a small environment and are performing local backups, the most obvious choice is to use the backup software included with Windows. Microsoft ships a “light” version of Veritas’ Backup Exec^[44] with both Windows NT and Windows 2000. This is called NT Backup. NT Backup can only be used to perform local backups.^[45] I briefly describe this software in the next section; however, I recommend instead choosing a full-featured backup software product with features such as disaster recovery.

If you are doing remote backups and restores over the network, there are many choices. Available products include:

Computer Associates’ ArcServe

Software for backing up mainly Netware and NT systems.

Legato Networker

For heterogeneous networks that contain a mix of NT, Unix, and other systems.

Veritas’ Backup Exec

An excellent product for backing up and restoring Windows NT/Windows 2000 hosts.

Veritas’ Netbackup

Another piece of software for large heterogeneous networks.

Personally, I like Veritas’ Backup Exec’s ability to restore a complete system from a bootable set of floppy disks, a bootable CD-R/RW, or a bootable tape.

When deciding on which backup software to use for remote backups, consider the following:

Is the product suitable for use in a firewall environment?

Does the product operate on dynamically assigned or fixed ports? How many ports are required?

What kind of authentication is used?

Are passwords transmitted ...