George asks:

...
> What are the most frequently
> asked questions about NT Server?  Keep in mind that the
> focus is on using NT in commercial environments, together
...

My most frequently asked question:

   How can I reliably backup my NT Server, in a manner that
   allows for easy complete restoration of files later?

There are plenty of products on the market that backup a bunch
of files, and let you bring them back singly or all at once...
but the entire *system*?  NT's as bad as HP-UX in this area.
(Don't argue ... HP even dropped mkrs (which only worked on a
few models).)

Most products require you to first reinstall Windows and *then*
use their software to restore the files.  That's fine if you
(a) have the disks necessary to restore Windows handy, and
(b) have an hour or a day available.
And even then, they might not restore the registry!

(The above applies to Win95 as well as WinNT.)

I have found one $50 product which seems to work if you don't
mind some rough edges: CodeBlue/2 from Tapedisk (www.tapedisk.com).

It backs up the entire machine (or a subset, if desired)
to either a SCSI tape drive, or to a partition (or subdirectory) on
a designated disk drive.  So, I can backup C: to D:\SAVEME, or to
E:  or to a SCSI DDS (or any other SCSI tape device).

CodeBlue/2 backs up Windows 95 and Windows NT, but only if the
partitions are FAT 16 style, *not* NTFS (nor the very new FAT 32).

The installation process creates a boot floppy which, *IN AND OF ITSELF*,
contains the complete software necessary to boot your machine and
restore from a backup!

Rough edges: despite the ad in Byte magazine, they *don't* handle
parallel port tape drives, and currently have no intention of
doing so.  Their installation process is a little shaky,
and has two outright bugs if you are installing on a WinNT machine
that's never had any other OS installed on it before.
(They assume you'll have FDISK and DELTREE ... neither of which
come with WinNT 4.0!  Workaround...grab them from some Win95
system.)

Also, the on-disk manual points out that the backup
software omits backing up the Master Boot Record (MBR) of a WinNT
machine and then gives a DEBUG script that will do it for you,
stating that the script is on the product floppy ... but it isn't
(as of 1997/04/10, although in a recent email the R&D VP tells me
that they've corrected that omission).

Finally, the backup process is somewhat rough, not the level of
quality (in user interface) that I would expect from a professional
product.

They also have a version that backs up over the network, but I don't
know if they have a single-floppy boot recovery disk for that.

Note: I've apparently successfully backed up my machine once, but
I won't know for sure until I have to restore from it :)

--
Stan Sieler                                          [log in to unmask]
                                     http://www.allegro.com/sieler.html