Configuring Windows File & Folder Backup
Step 1: Adding Basic Job Details
Get started by creating a backup job by choosing Job Create Option, choose to Create Job without using a template if you want to create a backup from scratch, or choose to Create Job using an existing template if you would like to use an already created template for the backup job creation.
Backup Job Name
In the Backup Job Name filed, Provide a name for the backup job to identify it. The allowed characters in the backup job name are [A-Z][a-z][0-9][ – _ ]. Space and Special characters are not allowed.
Backup Repository
Choose Block storage or the Object storage as per requirement.
Immutable Backups (Only for Object Storage)
You have the option to enable this feature by checking the box, which will secure your backups as immutable for a specific duration. The duration can be specified and you do it for up to 999 day(s). The duration set will be applied to this backup job, which you’ll configure in subsequent steps. When configuring other backup jobs, ensure to adjust the duration according to your needs.
Immutable backup in the BDRSuite Backup Server is a backup strategy or system you can use where once the data is backed up, it cannot be edited, deleted, or tampered with until a predefined time period expires that can be set up as shown below in the image representation. This approach adds an extra layer of protection to the backup data, making it resistant to ransomware attacks, accidental or malicious changes.
Repository Name
After selecting the Backup Repository type, you have to select the name of the Block Storage or Object Storage repository to store the backup data. Click on the drop-down to select the backup repository name.
Job Description
In the Job Description field, provide a description for future reference. You can provide additional information related to this backup job in the description field.
Step 2: Host Selection
Select the host machine from which you would like to configure file & folder backup.
Step 3: Files/Folders Selection
You can configure the job level File(s)/Folder(s) selection for all the hosts configured in this backup job. You can also customize the files/folders selection for individual hosts if required. The following options can be customized;
Job-Level Files/Folders Selection
To backup your files and folders, you can either select from predefined folders or enter a specific file/folder path. The chosen files and folders will apply to all selected hosts.
Please note that this page enables you to select files/folders for all hosts in this backup job simultaneously. If you prefer to make selections at the individual host level, please proceed to the ‘Host Level Selection‘ page. You have the option to configure ‘job level selections’ here and then personalize them for each host on the ‘Host Level Selection’ page. Alternatively, you may skip this section and directly configure selections for each host individually.
As you select the files and folders it will get listed under ‘selected files/folders for backup‘ section. In case you want to remove any then click on the delete/remove icon of the respective selected host.
Host-Level Files/Folders Selection
Select files/folders or modify selection for individual hosts in this job. The files/folders selected at the job level from the ‘Job Level Files/Folders Selection’ page will be shown here. You can configure host level selection here or skip this section if Job Level selection suffices.
Click on the edit icon and the following page will open for you to add or make the necessary changes.
Job-Level Exclusions
No Filter : Every file/folder selected will be backed up without any exclusion.
Standard Filter: You will be given the option to include/exclude a particular file format and you can also choose to exclude all the subfolders.
Advanced Filter: Multiple advanced filters can be applied as per the options provided.
Note: Multiple such Advanced filters can be customized and applied.
Step 4: Pre/Post Backup Scripts
Pre & Post Backup Scripts provides the ability to run custom scripts before and after the execution of backup schedule. You can configure Pre & Post Backup Scripts at the job level for all selected hosts, and then further customize them individually for each host. Alternatively, you can directly configure Pre & Post Backup Scripts for individual hosts.
Click on the Pre/Post Script button or click on edit option of the selected host and you can create custom scripts.
Step 5: Backup Job Scheduling
The schedule option defines the frequency of your Windows Backup job.
Incremental Backup Schedule
You can configure the incremental backup schedules by choosing between Run Every/Run Daily/Run Weekly options.
Select Run Every option if you want to run your backup at regular intervals on a specific day(s). The time frame ranges from 15 minutes to 12 hours a day on specific days a week. By default, all the days in the week will be selected. If you don’t want to run your backup on all days, manually select the days on which you want to run the backup.
If you want to run your backup every day, select the Run Daily option and configure the period in which your backup has to occur.
If you want to run your backup every week on a specific day and time, choose the Run Weekly option. Select the time frame and day in which you want to run the backup
Note: By default, Run Every option will be selected for the backup schedule.
Additional Full Backup Schedule
In some cases, you may require to create a periodic full backup weekly or monthly, or quarterly basis to adhere to your organization policy. Also, it is not a best practice to configure a backup job with one full backup followed by forever incremental backups. BDRSuite’s Additional full backup option allows you to comply with your requirements by creating a full backup periodically.
The additional full backup resets a backup chain and the subsequent incremental are based on the recent full backup. Running additional full backups frequently may sometimes lead to storage space consumption, you can automatically delete the older full backups chain by setting the appropriate retention policy for the additional full backups or deleting it manually when required.
- Enable the additional full backup by toggling the slider to the right. Once enabled you will have to specify the scheduling for the synthetic merge to happen.
- Specify the Additional full backup frequency. You can specify to run the additional full backups on a weekly or monthly basis.
- If you have scheduled the incremental backups to run Every Few Hours/Min or Daily or After Backup, then you can set the additional full backups frequency as Daily or Weekly or Monthly.
- If you have scheduled the incremental backups to run Weekly or Monthly, then you can set the additional full backups to run on a Weekly or Monthly basis.
- Additional full backups are disabled Manually & One Time backup schedules
- If you are selecting the additional full backups to run on a daily basis, then you have to select the start time to run the additional full backups.
- If you are selecting the additional full backups to run on a weekly basis, then you have to select a day and start time to run the synthetic merge. You can select one or more days in a week to run the additional full backups.
- If you are selecting the additional full backups to happen on a monthly basis, then you have to select the month, select a day in the month and start time to run the additional full backups. You can select one or more months in a year to run the additional full backups.
Advanced Schedule Settings
The Advanced Schedule Settings allow you to specify the Backup Window time and Backup Validity for your backup job.
Backup Window
If you don’t want the backup run at a specific time interval, then you can specify it in the backup time window. The backup window prevents the backup job from running during peak production hours and ensures there is no unwanted overhead in the production environment. Select one of the available options to set up the backup window for your backup job
Use Global Settings: Selecting the‘ Use Global Settings’ option will apply the Backup Window setting of your backup server to this backup job. You can set up the global backup window settings for your entire backup server at Backup > Configure Backup Settings > Backup Window.
In case, if you are selecting the ‘Use Global Settings’, but if global backup window settings are disabled for your backup server, then the job will run as per its schedule
If you are modifying the Global Backup Windows settings later, it will affect all the backup jobs that are selected with ‘Use Global Settings’
Use Custom Settings: On selecting ‘Use Custom settings’, you have to specify the start time and end time for the window. The backup job will not during the selected time interval. You can also specify the applicable days for the backup window settings such as Mon-Fri or All days. Selecting the ‘Use Custom settings’ will override the global backup window settings.
No Preferences: Selecting ‘No Preferences’ will override the global backup window settings and the backup job will run as per the schedule.
Backup Validity
Set the validity for your backup job by specifying the start date and the expiration date. The Backup job will start to run only after the start date.
If you want a backup job to start to run later, for example, 5 days later from the day you have created the backup job, then you can specify the start date of the backup job accordingly. The expiry date is optional for a backup job, if the expiry date is set the incremental backup or additional full backup does not proceed after that.
Step 6: Backup Job Settings
Retention
Retention for Incremental Backups
You can retain multiple versions of the backup in the backup server. Retention is aimed at optimizing storage utilization while adhering to your organization’s backup policy. Retention can be configured for backed-up files as well as deleted files. The BDRSuite Client for File Servers retains the version files at the backup server based on two types of retention:
Version-Based Retention
Version Based Retention will retain multiple versions of your backup in the backup server based on the value you provide. For example, if you have selected to keep the last 5 version(s) of the backup data, then the latest 5 versions of the backup data will be maintained in the BDRSuite backup server. When the sixth version of the file is created, it will automatically delete the first version. The count ‘5’ will be maintained at all times. This is the default retention type and the default value is ‘5’. Version count begins from ’00’ and runs up to ‘999’.
Time-Based Retention
Selecting Time-Based Retention will retain the version of your backup files in the backup server based on the age of the version. The period varies from the day, week, month, and year(default). The default count is for 5 years, which implies that until 5 years your version of the backup data will be retained in the BDRSuite backup server and will then be removed automatically. The maximum period that you can retain your files for is 10 years. You can further customize your retention based on two options provided:
Keep all the versions within the selected time period.
Keep only a particular number of versions within the selected time period.
Full Backup Retention
If the additional full backup is enabled in the scheduling section then you will also be given the option to choose the number of Full Backups to retain. Only the configured number of latest full backups will be retained. The oldest full backup and its associated incremental backups will be deleted.
Deleted File Retention
If the files that are configured for backup get deleted after a backup schedule, then the backed-up data of those files will not be deleted in the BDRSuite Backup Server. It will be marked as ‘Deleted’ during the subsequent backup schedule. The following options can be selected as per requirement.
No of version(s) to be retained for deleted files can be selected and you can retain up to 99 versions of the deleted files.
Keep all the versions of deleted files up to the particular number of year(s) chosen.
Don’t retain deleted files. This option is not recommended.
Encryption
You can encrypt all the backup data for an added protection. When encryption is enabled all the backup data blocks are encrypted using the AES-256 bit encryption algorithm both during the transfer and at the storage. For encrypting the backup data, you can use the system-generated encryption key or use a custom encryption key.
By default, encryption is disabled for all the backups jobs, you can slide the toggle to the right to enable encryption for your backup data.
- Select ‘Use System Generated Encryption Key’ if you want to encrypt all your backup data using BDRSuite’s automatic System Generated Encryption Key. You do not need to specify any during the recovery or editing the backup job later.
- Select ‘ Use a Custom Encryption Key’ if you want to encrypt all your backup data using your own Encryption Key. You can select the already created encryption keys that are created for other backup jobs from the drop-down list or you can
- Add a new encryption key by providing the encryption password, encryption key hint.
- After providing the password and hint for the encryption key, click on the Save button.
Advanced Settings
The following three options will be available and can be chosen as per requirement.
- Backup only the changed blocks during the incremental backup. Disabling this option will process a full backup in every schedule.
- Use Window directory monitoring: This option use Window directory change API to efficiently track the changed blocks of the files/folders on Windows machine.
- Use Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Services.
Step 7: Review
You can review all the configurations made for the particular backup job. You can choose whether or not to run the backup job immediately after saving irrespective of the schedule chosen.
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