Manage : Imaging Options

Once you have created a backup job, you can modify its settings using the Manage screen's Edit option.

This allows you to change selections that were made when the job was created. There are also options that are not available when you create a backup job.

To modify a backup job:

  1. Select BackupAssist's Backup tab
  2. Select Manage Backup Jobs
  3. Select the backup job that you want to change.
  4. Select Edit from the top menu
  5. Select the part of the job you want to change from the list on the left
  6. Once you have made the required changes, select Apply changes

There are 8 standard Edit options, similar to the steps completed during the backup job creation. There may also be backup specific options.

Imaging options for System Protection backups

The Imaging options section allows you to modify the settings of System Protection backup jobs. This includes enabling checks for potential errors, managing VSS and addressing VSS problems.

Manage : Imaging options

Below is a list of the sections and options available. What you see in BackupAssist will depend on the backup job's current settings.

Here you can select the operating system's language. Use the Operating system language drop-down menu to select the appropriate language for your operating system.

Autodetect is recommended for most systems, unless otherwise specified by the BackupAssist support team.

Here you can select which version of Windows Backup your server is using to perform the drive imaging backups. It is best to leave this option as Autodetect to allow BackupAssist to detect your operating system version. Use the Version of Windows Backup drop-down menu to select the appropriate operating system.

Autodetect is recommended for most systems, unless otherwise specified by the BackupAssist support team.

If a backup job run by Windows own backup process is running, BackupAssist backups will fail. This section can be used to perform a check to see if a Windows backup is running and to set a timeout for the BackupAssist job.

VSS Backup mode

Full VSS mode is selected by default and means that VSS will clean up log files in the guest after the backup has been created. For example, the logs of an Exchange Server. If Copy VSS mode is selected, VSS will not perform a post backup cleanup and the size of logs will continue to grow and take up disk space.

Shadow Copy Protection Mode

Shadow Copy Protection Mode (SPM) is a solution for backup jobs that are losing backup history. In rare instances, VSS can delete backup history when the backup job is having trouble writing to the backup destination. This can occur in backups that use low performance (iSCSI / NAS with Data container) destinations. SPM allows a failed write by the backup job to be retried. If the retry does not work, the backup job will stop and report a failed backup job. No backup history will be lost.

Shadow Copy Protection Mode should only be used if you are experiencing backup history loss.

  • If you are unsure if you have lost history, try a test restore from your oldest available backup.
  • If you are using iSCSI / NAS with a Data container, try to resolve the problem by improving the performance of your network or backup destination, and use SPM if the problem persists.

There are two space management options with Shadow Protect Mode.

  • The GB selection is used to reserve space for Shadow Copy Protection to use for storage management purposes.
  • The storage space percentage bar, allows you to specify the amount of space reserved for historical backups. As the full backup grows, historical backups are deleted to make room. However, you can specify a % of protected space within which the historical backups cannot be deleted. These will be the most recent historical backups, and the backup job will report that the destination is full, rather than write over them.

    • The full backup can use this reserved space, if the space is not being used by historical backups. For example, if 12.5 % is reserved on a 1TB drive, then 125GM will be reserved for historical backups. If the historical backups are only using 100GB, then the full backup can use 25GB of that reserved space.

BackupAssist manages the space at the backup destination for System Protection backups.

  • If you are using Shadow Protect Mode, you can set the percentage of protected storage space for the backup history.
  • If you are not using Shadow Protect Mode, the percentage of protected storage space is not managed by SPM so the bar will be set to BackupAssist’s default of 12.5%