Removable media for File Archiving

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 common options in the list, similar to the steps completed during the back job creation. There is also a option specific to each backup type.

For locally attached external disks

1. Select the Locally radio button.
2. Specify the drive letter from the drop-down menu. Drive letters that correspond with external drives should be automatically detected. If the drive does not appear or you have just connected the drive click Detect. If it still does not appear you can input the drive letter manually (ie. J:\ ).
3. Specify the backup path either by typing it directly into the Path on drive field or by browsing for it.
4. You can also customize your backup path by inserting unique variables:

Click Insert variable and choose a variable from the list. The variable will now be inserted into your backup path enclosed with percentage signs (eg. %JOB_NAME%). You can insert as many additional variables as required. You can also order the variables as you like. An example backup path: User input: \%JOB_NAME%\%COMPUTER_NAME%\ Example path: \SQL Backup\SERVER-SBS\

5. To enable hard drive eject: Check Safely eject the hard drive after the backup has completed

Enabling hard drive eject acts to safely remove/disconnect your drive from Windows. If the drive is not safely ejected in this way, you risk corrupting or losing data on the drive. Hard drive eject also ensures that data on your external drive is not overwritten the next day.

6. To back up to prepared media, regardless of the drive letters assigned: Check Backup to my prepared media, even if it is the wrong drive letter

This is useful if the drive is connected to the machine but shows as a different drive letter to that in BackupAssist. If the drive has been prepared for use with BackupAssist, BackupAssist can detect the drive and create the backup on it. This means you can have multiple external drives connected to the machine at the same time, and provided each drive has been prepared, the backup will be created on the correct drive, regardless of the letter assigned.

Note: This option is not available for RDX drives

For remote external disks

1. Select the Remotely radio button.
2. Specify the network path of the external drive by typing it directly into the UNC path to drive field or browsing for it.

Specifying the number of drives of each type

The categories listed for the types of disks you can specify (daily, weekly, monthly, etc) depend on what rotation scheme you have selected in the Scheduling section of your job. For each backup type listed (daily, weekly, monthly, etc) specify the number of external disks you have available.

It is recommended that you have at least two drives of each type to allow for rotation of media and offsite archiving. For example, if you had selected the Daily + Weekly + Monthly Rotating Full scheme we would recommend you purchase at least 6 external drives. Having multiple drives will ensure that your data is well protected in the event of disaster and that you have a large archive of backups to restore from.

Specifying the date of the first weekly backup

After setting the number of external hard drives in your backup pool you can specify a date for when your media rotation should commence. This is useful if you have more than one weekly drive as it will determine how the drives are rotated.

For example, if you had two weekly drives and set the start date to 5-Mar-2016, the Week 1 drive would be used on 5-Mar-2016, and the Week 2 drive would be used on 12-Mar-2016. The following week, 19-Mar-2016, would use the Week 1 drive, and you would continue to rotate the two weekly drives for each subsequent week.

To specify a start date choose a calendar date from the Start the first week of backup on this date drop-down menu.

BitLocker is a Microsoft encryption solution that is supported by BackupAssist for System Protection, File Protection and File Archiving backups to removable drive destinations.

BitLocker encryption key location

An encryption key is a file that can be used to unlock a specific encrypted drive. The BitLocker encryption key location is used to identify the USB flash drive that the BitLocker encryption key is saved to. You can use the Detect option to identify the drive, or use the drop down list to select the drive letter that has been allocated to the USB flash drive.

• Each time an external drive is encrypted (prepared), a BitLocker encryption key will be created. The USB flash drive must be connected so the encryption key can be saved.
• When the USB flash drive is connected, the encryption key will allow access to the corresponding encrypted external drive, so that you can restore data from any of the backups on that drive.

When an encrypted drive is attached to the server, it will be locked until it is manually unlocked using a password or by a backup job using the encryption key on the USB flash drive. After a backup job has run and unlocked an encrypted drive, that drive will remain unlocked until the drive is detached or the server restarted.

• If an encrypted drive is LOCKED when the backup job runs, the USB flash drive containing the encryption key MUST be connected to the server running the backup job.
• If an encrypted drive is UNLOCKED, the external USB flash drive is not required.

Password for encrypted backup drive

The Password for encrypted backup drive field is used to provide a password that will allow access any external drive that was encrypted by this backup job. The password is saved as a part of the backup job.

• This password MUST be provided if you want to use this backup to perform a RecoverAssist recovery. Entering the password will allow RecoverAssist to access the encrypted external drive that the backup is on.
• The password OR the USB flash drive containing the encryption key, can be used to access a BitLocker encrypted drive when you use that drive to perform a restore.

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.

To learn more, see BitLocker Encryption guide

This involves checking if your external drive media has been prepared for use with BackupAssist. If the media has been prepared, BackupAssist will determine if the label for the media (eg. Monday 1, Month 1, etc) is correct according to the rotation scheme selected and that the media required for that day (ie. that Monday's drive) has been connected to the machine for Monday's backup.

BackupAssist can be configured to take different actions depending on whether unrecognized or unprepared media is detected, or if the wrong media has been inserted for that day (eg. Tuesday's drive is connected on a Wednesday).

The two settings available are as follows:

If the wrong media is inserted

There are two options if media with a different label than the rotation scheme required for that day is detected:

• Backup anyway and warn user: BackupAssist will attempt to back up to the incorrect media and add a warning to the backup report to inform you that incorrect media was detected. This option is recommended as it is preferable, in terms of data protection, to have a backup to incorrect media than no backup at all.
• Do not backup: BackupAssist will not perform a backup to the incorrect external drive and you will receive a message in your backup report indicating that the backup did not take place because of incorrect media.

If new or unrecognized media is inserted

There are two options if BackupAssist detects media that has not been prepared:

• Back up and warn user: BackupAssist will attempt to back up to the unrecognized or new media. A warning will be added to the backup report to inform you that unrecognized media was detected. You will need to prepare the external drive to avoid this warning in future.
• Do not back up: BackupAssist will not perform a backup to the unrecognized external drive and you will receive a message in your backup report indicating that the backup did not take place. You will need to prepare the external drive to ensure that the backup is attempted in the future.

The media usage report is part of the overall report generated for each backup. It outlines how much disk space has been used by backups on the backup destination and how much free space is available using totals and percentages.

Depending on the destination you are backing up to as well as the number of backup sets that are present, the media usage report can take several minutes to generate.

The Warn when backups exceed [90%] of the total capacity of the destination setting allows you to set a threshold that will add an additional condition to the backup report if the backup usage goes over that value.

There are a number of ways in which disk space can be managed through BackupAssist on your external hard disks:

Use all available space (recommended)

BackupAssist will check the backup drive for free disk space while a backup is in progress. If the drive is running low on disk space and cannot accommodate the new backup file, the oldest backup file on the drive will be removed. BackupAssist will continue to remove backup files in age order (oldest to newest) as required to ensure that enough disk space is free to store the latest backup file. If your entire external drive is dedicated to backup storage this option is recommended.

Use available space but always leave X Gb of free space

Here you can define an amount of disk space to always leave free on the drive. BackupAssist will check the backup drive for free disk space while a backup is in progress and if the drive's free space goes below this value, the oldest backup file will be removed from the drive. BackupAssist will continue to remove backup files in age order as required to ensure that this amount of free space is always maintained on the drive.

Use a maximum size of X Gb for backups

Here you can define a maximum amount of disk space that should be used for backup storage on the drive. BackupAssist will scan the backup drive for backup files while a backup is in progress and if the amount of disk space used for backup files goes above this value, the oldest backup file will be removed from the drive. BackupAssist will continue to remove backup files in age order as required to ensure that backup storage does not exceed this value of disk space.

Keep the last X backups

Here you can determine the number of backup files that should be constantly maintained on the drive. BackupAssist will delete the oldest backup on the drive if this number of backup files is ever exceeded.

Keep backups from the last X days

Here you can choose to have BackupAssist remove any backup files on your backup drive that are older than a specified number of days. For example: you may like to set this value to "14" to always have the last two week's worth of backups on the drive.

Unmanaged

Here BackupAssist will continue to fill your backup drive with backup files. You will need to manually manage the disk space yourself. If the drive ever runs out of space and a backup cannot complete you will receive an error in your backup report alerting you to this fact.

Here you can configure BackupAssist to keep a second copy of your backup files on a different drive location. This is useful for redundancy purposes (an extra level of protection in case the original backup file is lost or corrupted) and for quick restore of data from a local and readily available location (no requirement to locate the correct external drive or retrieve one from an offsite location). You can also determine how the disk space of the secondary backup location is managed.

1. Enable second copies of backup files by checking keep a local copy of this backup in the following directory.
2. Specify the location where the backup file copy should be stored either by typing in the path directly or browsing for it.
3. Specify how disk space should be managed on the secondary location:

Use all available space (recommended)

BackupAssist will check the secondary location for free disk space while copying the backup file. If the drive is running low in disk space and cannot accommodate the backup file copy, the oldest backup file on the drive will be removed. BackupAssist will continue to remove backup files in age order as required to ensure that enough space is free to store the new backup file. If your entire secondary location is dedicated to backup storage this option is recommended.

Use available space but always leave X Gb of free space

Here you can define an amount of disk space to always leave free on the drive of the secondary location. BackupAssist will check the drive for free disk space while a backup is in progress and if the drive's free space goes below this value, the oldest backup file will be removed from the secondary location. BackupAssist will continue to remove backup files in age order as required to ensure that this amount of free space is always maintained on the secondary location.

Use a maximum size of X Gb for backups

Here you can define a maximum amount of disk space that should be used for backup storage on the secondary location. BackupAssist will scan the drive for backup files while a backup is in progress and if the amount of disk space used for backup files goes above this value, the oldest backup file will be removed from the drive. BackupAssist will continue to remove backup files in age order as required to ensure that backup storage does not exceed this value of disk space.

Keep the last X backups

Here you can determine the number of backup files that should be constantly maintained on the secondary location. BackupAssist will delete the oldest backup on the drive if this number of backup file copies is ever exceeded.

Keep backups from the last X days

Here you can choose to have BackupAssist remove any backup files on the secondary location that are older than a specified number of days. For example: you may like to set this value to "14" to always have the last two week's worth of backup copies on the drive.

Unmanaged

Here BackupAssist will continue to fill your secondary location with backup files. You will need to manually manage the disk space yourself. If the drive ever runs out of space and the copy cannot complete you will receive an error in your backup report alerting you to this fact.

Here you can specify the name of backup files that are written directly to your external hard disk each time a backup runs.

Input the filename directly into the available field and ensure that the filename is followed with the extension .bkf which is the file format of Windows Backup files (eg. myBackupFile.bkf).

You can further customize your backup filename by inserting unique variables:

1. Click Insert variable.
2. Choose a variable from the list.

The variable will now be inserted into your filename enclosed with percentage signs (eg. %JOB_NAME%). You can insert as many additional variables as required.

An example filename: User input: dataBackup_%DATE%_ %COMPUTER_NAME%.bkf. Example output: dataBackup_2007-01-02_SERVER-SBS.bkf

Selecting the tape drive for backup

Select the Device name of your tape drive from the available drop-down menu.

• 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.
• If your tape drive is not listed in the drop-down menu click Detect; if the drive is still not detected make sure you have installed the default Windows drivers for your device and then try again. If your drive is still not detected contact the BackupAssist support team.

Enabling tape eject after backup

Check Allow eject of media after backup if you want BackupAssist to automatically eject tape media after each backup has been completed. This will make sure that the data on the tape is not overwritten the next time a backup runs if someone forgets to insert a new tape. You may also like modify Media checking options to specify what action BackupAssist should take if unrecognized or unprepared tapes are detected, or if the wrong media has been inserted.

Setting the block size (advanced users only)

Tapes are segmented into specific block sizes to allow for easier access and retrieval of data. Certain tape drives, such as LTO Ultrium 4 drives, sometimes report the block size for the drive incorrectly in Windows. BackupAssist will attempt to automatically detect the block size for your drive using the value from Windows, but if this value is incorrect, the backup to the tape is likely to fail. You should generally only specify a manual block size if your tape backups are failing. Auto detect should work for most environments, but if you do experience failures backing up to your tape drive, it may be worth checking your tape drive manufacturer's website to identify the correct block size for your tapes.

Enabling tape append

Check Append backup if you want subsequent backups to be added to existing backups on the inserted tape. If append is disabled BackupAssist will overwrite all existing data on the tape each time a new backup runs. 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 for your job.

Once enabled, use the available slider to set the maximum percentage of free space that must be available on the tape for BackupAssist to attempt appending to the tape instead of overwriting.

Note: If append is enabled, if the backup size is beyond the free space threshold selected (0% or higher), a warning will appear in the backup report indicating that the next backup will be an overwrite rather than an append. This ensures that your next backup will fit on the tape.