File Archiving

BackupAssist File Archiving backs up your data into a single ZIP file. This backup solution uses multi-threaded compression and includes support for encryption, incremental backups and VSS.

How to create a File Archiving backup job

Launch BackupAssist and follow the steps outlined below:

1. Select the Backup tab
2. Select Create a New Backup Job
3. Select File Archiving
   If this is the first time you have created a backup job, you will be asked to provide a Backup User Identity. To learn more, see Backup User Identity
4. Selections
   This step is used to select the data and applications that you want to back up. Any VSS applications detected will be displayed here as application directory containers.
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An Exchange VM Detection tab will be available if you are backing up an Exchange VM guest. To learn more, see Exchange VM Detection

Select the volumes, folders, files and applications that you want to back up, and click Next.

5. Destination media
   This step is used to select the type of media that you want to back your data up to. This step’s name will change to the media type selected, when you click Next.
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Follow these steps to select a media:
1. Select a media for your backup destination.
2. Select and encryption type if you want to encrypt your backup.
• ZIP encryption is available for all destinations. It will encrypt and password protect your backup file using 256 bit AES encryption.
• BitLocker encryption is available on supported versions of Windows Server for External disk and RDX drive destinations. To learn more, see BitLocker Encryption guide
3. Click Next.
6. Schedule
   This step is used to select when and how you want the backup job to run, and how long you would like the backup to be retained for. A selection of pre-configured schedules, called schemes, as well as a custom scheme, can be selected.
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Schedule considerations:

• The schemes available will depend on the type of destination media selected in step 5.
• Clicking on a scheme will display information about the schedule used.
• The scheme full plus incremental is only available when backing up to an external hard drive, but you can modify the schedule to force this type of backup, after the backup job has been created.

To learn more, see Backup Schedules

Select an appropriate scheme, and click Next.

7. Set up destination
   This step is used to configure the location of the media selected in step 5. The options presented will change with the type of media selected.
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Destination considerations:

• If your media is removable, selecting Eject media after preparation will eject the media after the backup job has finished.
• If you selected BitLocker encryption, enter a password and any requested encryption information into the fields provided.

Note: It is important that you keep a copy of your password in a safe place, as we cannot retrieve passwords if they are lost or forgotten.

 

Destination check report

If you are using a Local media or a Local network destination, a Check destination button will be available to check your backup destination for problems. After the checks have been completed, the results can be viewed by selecting the Report link. If you are using Removable media destinations, these checks are performed when you select Prepare on the Prepare Media step.

Configure your backup destination, and click Next.

Tape drives

If you are configuring a tape drive, the following selections are available:

1. Select the Device name of your tape drive from the drop-down menu.
• If your tape drive is not listed in the drop-down menu, click Detect.
• If the drive is not detected make sure you have installed the default Windows drivers for your device and try again.
2. Select Allow eject of media after backup if you want BackupAssist to automatically eject your tape media after each backup has been completed. This will make sure the data on the tape is not overwritten the next time a backup runs.
3. Block size should only be used to specify a manual block size if your tape backups are failing.
4. Append backup can be checked if you want subsequent backups to be added to the existing backups on the inserted tape.
5. If Append backup is disabled, BackupAssist will overwrite all existing data on the tape each time a backup is run. You should only enable append if you believe your tape has enough space to accommodate at least two full backups or if you have scheduled either differential or incremental backups.
6. ZIP encryption option will be available if you selected Enable ZIP encryption during the Destination media step. Add a password if you want to use backup encryption. Once encrypted, a password is required to restore your data.

Warning: It is important that you keep a copy of your password in a safe place, as we cannot retrieve passwords if they are lost or forgotten.

If you have more than one tape drive installed and want to back up to multiple drives, you will need to create a separate backup job for each drive.

8. Notifications
   Once a backup job has completed, BackupAssist can send an email to inform selected recipients of the result. This email notification is enabled during the creation of the backup job, but you must also provide your mail server settings so that the notifications can be sent. To learn how to configure your mail server for BackupAssist, see Email server settings.
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   To enable email notifications:

   1. Select Add an email report notification.
   2. Enter recipients into the Send reports to this email address field.
   3. Enter recipients into the Also send reports to this email address field. You can then use the drop down list to select the condition under which the email is sent.
   4. If you want to know when a backup media has been changed, select Add an email reminder notification and enter the email addresses to send the notifications to.
   5. Click Next.

   To learn more, see Manage : Notifications

   Note: After the backup job has been created, you can modify the notification's recipients, set additional notification conditions and include print and file notification types. To learn more, see Email address list.

9. Prepare media
   If you selected a portable media as your backup destination, you will be given the option to prepare and label it. The label allows BackupAssist to recognize the media and check that the correct media is being used on the correct day. For example, if you put an RDX drive in on Tuesday but it was labeled Wednesday, BackupAssist will warn you that the incorrect media was detected.
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Three selections are automatically selected on the Prepare media screen:

• Let BackupAssist keep track of your media. Deselect this if you do not want to prepare and label your media.
• If the wrong media is inserted : Back up anyway and warn the users. This can be changed to Do not back up.
• If new or unrecognized media is inserted : Do not back up. This can be changed to Back up anyway and warn the users.

The removable media listed are based on the backup schedule you selected in step 6. Each media will have a default label name based on your backup schedule, a drive designation drop-down and a Prepare button. A Prepare button becomes selectable when its media is attached.

To prepare the media:

1. Attach the removable media devices. If you can only attach one media at a time, repeat the steps for each media.
2. Change the label's description if you do not want to use the default description.
3. Select the drive designation.
4. Select Prepare. This will initiate the preparation and labeling process.

If you selected BitLocker encryption, the Prepare media button will mark those drives for encryption. The encryption process will be initiated by the final backup job creation step. To learn more, see BitLocker Encryption guide.

Destination check report

Once the prepare process has completed, a Report link will appear next to the Prepare button. This link opens the Destination Check report, which will advise if any problems were detected with the backup media. For System Protection backups, if the Make media bootable with RecoverAssist was selected in the Set up destination screen, the report will also advise if the media can or cannot be made bootable.

Once all of the media have been prepared, select Next.

10. Name your backup
    Provide a name for your backup job, and click Finish.
    If you are using BitLocker encryption, the option will be Next.
11. Next steps
    This step will be available if you selected Enable BitLocker encryption. The Launch BitLocker encryption tool will be selected and it will open when you select Finish. When the tool opens, you can use it to encrypt the drives. This should be done before the backup job runs, because if an unencrypted drive is used for a BitLocker backup job, the job will fail.

To learn about the BitLocker encryption tool, see BitLocker Encryption guide

Your File Archiving backup job has now been created.

Note: BackupAssist's reports can be used to review the results of each backup job. Backups should also so be checked by performing a test restore. Regular test restores should be part of your backup solution.

What's next

• To learn about monitoring backup jobs, see Monitor backups
• To learn about the other backup settings available, see Settings tab
• To learn about the options available when you edit a backup job, see Manage backup jobs