BackupAssist Drive Imaging and Windows Server Backup

How does BackupAssist help Windows Server Backup?

It is possible to script Windows Server Backup (WSB) to run scheduled backups. However, there are some drawbacks and limitations to using the built-in Microsoft scheduler, as is the case with NTBackup on Windows Server 2003. BackupAssist adds some significant management features to make sure that the backups run reliably.

• Easy setup & scheduling (with a simple point-and-click interface)
  You'll be able to easily setup your jobs and their schedule with the brilliant simplicity that BackupAssist is famous for. Our scheduler allows for Monthly, Weekly, Daily, and intra-day backups so you can choose how often you want to image.
  
• Support for media rotation
  Media rotation allows you to have backups from multiple points in history (important if you need to restore from an older backup, as is common in cases of gradual malware or virus infestation). It also means your backups are on multiple media for extra redundancy. Simple user instructions are emailed to the backup operator to minimize the possibility of human error.
• Support for removable disk cartridges
  Proper management and integration with devices like the Tandberg QuikStor, Quantum GoVault, Iomega REV.
• Multiple backup jobs (overcome backup size problems)
  On larger systems where it is impractical to perform daily full image backups, you can create multiple jobs to different hardware.
  
• Removable HDD management
  Safely eject your HDD after the backup; automatically re-map the drive letter if incorrectly assigned.
• Comprehensive reporting (beyond a simple "success" or "fail")
  Emailed HTML reports show you vital statistics and inform you of progress, including the cause of any failures and any human errors in the media rotation; the media usage report shows you how much HDD backup space is used, and what backups are present on the disk.
• In-built rotation schemes (out of the box strategies)
  Automatically select from different rotation schemes (similar to the NTBackup schemes), including onsite and offsite rotation, to ensure that you have multiple backups to restore from; automatically check that the drives have been rotated according to plan, and warn the user if it hasn't been done.
• Monitoring integration (notify your management systems)
  Events are logged in the Windows Event Log for success, warning or failure, for easy integration with monitoring systems.
  
• Scripting (for advanced requirements)
  Easy to write scripts to run before and after backup and conditional scripts (run specific commands based on whether the backup failed or succeeded).
• Complete data protection (a flexible solution to suit all needs)
  BackupAssist lets you combine drive imaging with file backup, SQL & Exchange backups and internet based synchronization for complete data protection. One vendor, one product, one console... no hassles!
  

Other drawbacks that BackupAssist overcomes (compared to configuring the backup without BackupAssist):

• USB HDD becomes “invisible” when formatted for use with Windows Server Backup – you cannot see its contents or use it for any other purpose, or share one device for multiple computers. BackupAssist overcomes this by using USB HDD's in NTFS mode, and using its own management capabilities to assign drive letters, eject the disk, etc.
• Monitor the “live” progress of your backups – BackupAssist allows you to do this through its Administration Console.
  

What happens to my tape drive? File backups?

We know that new Windows drive imaging features in Server 2008 is not the “be all and end all” of backup. In fact, it leaves several holes such as long-term data archival backup, application (email, database) backup, and automatic offsite backup. There are a variety of reasons for combining drive imaging with these other backup types::

• Long term archiving
• Legal compliance
• Having multiple redundant copies of data in different formats (so if one backup fails, you have another to fall back on)
• Easy ability to select individual files and directories to backup, not just an entire drive
• Backing up and replicating important files to a different medium, like DVD, FTP Server, etc.

BackupAssist does not currently support tape drives on Server 2008. However, we are currently developing (at time of writing – August 2008) a file-based backup engine that will allow users of Windows Server 2008 to backup and restore individual files. Backups will be compressed and optionally AES-256 encrypted. Depending on demand, we will likely extend this engine to interface with tape drives.

Recommended configurations

We recommend that you have multiple backups of your systems. This means that you have multiple USB HDDs, or other media. This gives you redundancy if one of these media develops a fault.

In comparison to NTBackup-based backups, using multiple media for backup history is not as important. Windows Server Backup will automatically attempt to store as many points in backup history as your media will permit, and automatically delete the oldest data when needed.

Hardware options provided by BackupAssist

1. USB Hard Drive – uncompressed backups, useful for backing up and restoring files, applications and volumes.
2. NAS – uncompressed backups, useful for backing up and restoring files, applications and volumes. Not suitable for bare metal restore due to limitation in Windows Server Backup (WSB). The NAS location must be available at the time of restore.
3. Iomega REV – compresses your backups, and useful for backing up and restoring complete volumes and bare metal restore.
4. rdx drives such as Tandberg QuikStor / Quantum GoVault – compresses your backups, and useful for backing up and restoring complete volumes and bare metal restore.

See also
Hardware compatibility matrix for Windows Server Backup