File Protection Whitepaper

BackupAssist's File Protection is a feature for administrators who want a powerful, yet simple, file backup solution out-of-the-box. File Protection can be configured in minutes to create scheduled backup jobs without the need for complex scripts or settings.

File Protection backups replicate data to backup media and can take advantage of technologies such as data encryption, backup-with-history replication and single-instance store. File Protection can be used with other BackupAssist technologies, such as System Protection and RecoverAssist, for a complete data protection and data recovery solution.

This whitepaper provides a comprehensive guide to BackupAssist File Protection and can be used in conjunction with other BackupAssist guides.

Licensing

File Protection is a standard feature included with the BackupAssist license. To back up data across the internet with Rsync requires the BackupAssist for Rsync Add-on license, once the initial trial period has expired.

Create a New Backup

The New menu will open the Create A New Backup screen. There are 5 types of backups to choose from, and a description of each type is provided below. All of these backup types are administered using the Manage, Monitor and Reports menus.

BackupAssist is VSS-aware, so File Protection, File Archiving and System Protection backups can detect and backup Volume Snapshot Service (VSS) applications such as Exchange, SQL and SharePoint.

Manage backup jobs

The Manage menu is used to run and administer your backups. The options include configurations that are not available during the creation of the backup job.

When the Manage menu is selected, a list of all backup jobs will be displayed, along with the results of the last backup, when the backup started, its duration and if the backup job is currently active or disabled.

Monitor live backup

The Monitor menu will display the details of a backup job running in real-time. It can also be used to view the progress information of completed backup jobs.

This is the default screen when a scheduled backup is run, or when a backup is run ad-hoc. The information is displayed in real-time and any checks, changes and error are displayed as they occur.

View backup reports

When the Reports option is selected, a list of all the backup jobs that have run will be displayed. Double clicking on a backup job, will open the backup report.

These reports can also be sent as notifications, as explain in the notifications section. The backup report should be checked after each backup has been run, to verify that your job ran as intended.

The Date, Name, Label, Computer and Status columns can be used to sort the reports. The filter bars at the top can be used to filter the reports by month, day, job name, computer name and backup result.

Tools menu

BackupAssist Restore Console

The BackupAssist Restore Console can access File Protection, File Archiving or File Protection backups and restore selected files or applications.