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Two Phase Backup Process

BackupAssist uses a two phase (or two pass) backup process to backup your files and data.

Phase One
In this phase, your files and directories are backed up, together with the System State (including the Registry or Active Directory).

Phase Two
In this phase, BackupAssist will look for any open files that could not be backed up as part of Phase One, and will try to backup these files again. Also, your Exchange Server will be backed up, and also your SQL Server, as part of Phase Two.

Why use a two-phase backup process?

There are several reasons to use a two-phase backup process:

  1. To backup your open files, BackupAssist needs to run the initial backup, and then find out which files are open and could not be backed up. It will then try to backup these files again. This requires a two-step process.
  2. On Windows 2003 Server, there is a limitation in Windows Backup where you cannot backup the System State and an Exchange Server at the same time. In order to work around this problem, BackupAssist will firstly backup your System State in Phase One, and then complete that operation. In Phase Two, it will backup your Exchange Server. Therefore there are two separate backup operations.

When will a Phase Two backup run?

The Phase Two backup will run when any of the following happen:

  1. You are backing up an Exchange Server
  2. You are backing up a SQL Server
  3. One or more files were open and couldn't be backed up in Phase One, but BackupAssist has successfully captured a snapshot of these files and will backup the snapshots.

If you are not backing up an Exchange or SQL Server, you may notice that some backups will have a Phase Two operation and others will not. The Phase Two operation will only happen if BackupAssist backs up your open files.

Page last modified on October 10, 2004, at 07:07 AM