Windows 7

Configuring Windows Server Backups

The Windows Server Backup feature provides full server, bare metal recovery, system state, system reserve, and local/remote volume backup capabilities.

Once the Windows Server Backup feature is installed, it's time to refer to your backup strategy to answer several key questions. Before we review those questions, there are two important things to consider that will shape your overall strategy:

The maximum amount of time you will have to bring a system back online before it has a significant impact on your organization. This is called the Recovery Time Objective (RTO).
The amount of data you can afford to lose before it has a significant impact on your organization. This is called the Recovery Point Objective (RPO).

As you review the following questions, keep the RTO and RPO in mind:

How often will you perform the backup (hourly, daily, or weekly)?
When should you perform the backup (which days and times)?
Where will you store your backups (external hard drive, remote share, or DVD)?
What will you back up (full server, system state, files, folders, or volumes)?
What will you use the backup for (full server, system state recovery, or bare metal)?

Here are a few things to keep in mind when working with Windows Server Backup on Windows Server 2012:

Backing up directly to a tape drive is not supported, although you can still back up to this media if you have System Center 2012 - Data Protection Manager (DPM). This works by using a disk-to-disk-to-tape (D2D2T) approach in which data is initially copied to backup storage on a disk, and then copied again to the tape storage system. Third-party backup programs can also be used if you need to back up to tape.
If your backup strategy incorporates multiple disks, you must have all the disks online when performing the initial setup of the backup. These disks should be dedicated to the backup job, which means they will be formatted and configured as a single New Technology File System (NTFS) volume. NTFS is a proprietary file system developed by Microsoft.
The system state, which includes the core files and registry settings used by the operating system (boot files, system-protected files, shared system volume (SYSVOL), the COM 1 class registration database, and Active Directory files) cannot be backed up to a DVD drive. Active Directory service files and SYSVOL are included as part of the system state on domain controllers.
Applications can be backed up to attached disks or remote shared folders but not to a DVD drive, optical, or removable media. These disks must be attached and online and should support either USB 2.0 or IEEE 1394 as well as provide at least 1.5 times the storage capacity of the items you are backing up. The additional space allows you to store a couple of backup versions.
When backing up to folders on a local or remote volume, only one copy of the backup can be stored in the folder. Subsequent backups overwrite the contents from the previous one.
When using remote shares, you specify the Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path (\\servername\share) to provide the location for storing the backup. If you decide to change this after backups are executed, you will no longer be able to recover your backup data without performing a full restore and creating a new UNC path or resetting the share back to its original configuration.
Backing up to a folder on a volume where users access data frequently results in a degradation of performance while the backup is in process.

REVIEWING BACKUP CONFIGURATION OPTIONS

When configuring your backup, you select either a full server (recommended) or a custom configuration.

The following provides an overview of the configuration options:

Full s erver (recommended):
This option backs up all hard disk volumes (except for the volume where the backup is stored) as well as any critical data required for recovery. This includes your server data, applications, and system state. Full server backups can be used to recover the Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS), bare metal recovery restores, as well as specific files/folders.
Custom:
This option allows you to specify the items you want to include in the backup.
The options include:
- Bare metal recovery:
  This option allows you to recover your server from a hard drive failure to a machine running the same/different hardware. It does not support crossarchitecture (x86 to x64) and requires Windows Server installation media to start the recovery process. Selecting this option automatically includes system state, system reserved, and the critical volumes that are necessary for the operating system to run. Examples of critical volumes include those that hold the boot files (Bootmgr and the Boot Configuration Data [BCD] store), the operating system and registry, the SYSVOL, Active Directory database, and Active Directory database log files. When selecting this option as a substitute for a full backup, keep in mind that it will not automatically back up non-critical volumes that contains data you need.
- System state:
  This option backs up all the files needed to recover Active Directory. The system state includes the registry, boot files, the COM 1 class registration database, the Active Directory database (ntds.dit) and its associated log files, the Active Directory Certificate Services database, the SYSVOL folder, and system files under the protection of Windows Resource protection. Additional data can be included if the server performs additional roles.
- System Reserved:
  This option contains the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) files and can be used to boot the server in situations where the operating system becomes corrupted or fails to boot.
- Local disk (x:):
  This option represents local disks and volumes on the server.

After selecting the backup configuration, your next decision involves determining whether you want to run the backup manually or schedule it to start automatically.

EXPLORING YOUR SCHEDULING OPTIONS

You can run a manual backup (one-time backup) by using the Backup Once Wizard, which can be accessed via the Actions pane in the Windows Server Backup console. These types of backups can also be initiated using wbadmin and Windows PowerShell.

Never use manual backups as a replacement for your regularly scheduled backup. Instead, use them as a complement to your ongoing backups in the following situations when you want to:

Back up a volume that isn't included in your regularly scheduled backups.
Make a backup outside of your current backup schedule window.
Store a backup in a location that is different from the one currently being used by your automatic backups.
Make a change to the server (for example, install new programs and service packs).

Outside of the previous scenarios, schedule your backups to run automatically. Depending upon the needs of your organization, you have the option to schedule a backup to occur once a day or multiple times during the day at the times you specify.

Once you have a schedule in place, you're ready to select the target location to store your backups.

SELECTING WHERE TO STORE YOUR BACKUPS

Windows Server Backup provides three options to select from when deciding where to store your backups. These options include:

Backing up to hard disk(s) (recommended)
Backing up to a volume
Backing up to a shared network folder

The first two options involve storing your backups on the server locally. When backing up to a hard disk, you should dedicate the disks to the Windows Backup program, which means they will be formatted and used exclusively for storing backups and not for holding other data. In other words, you will no longer see them appear in File Explorer, and they will be managed by Windows Server Backup exclusively.

When backing up to hard disks, use multiple external hard disks and then rotate the disks offsite to further aid in disaster recovery. When setting up the backup, Windows Server Backup labels each disk with the server name, the current date and time, and the disk name you assign. To avoid any confusion while rotating disks between sites and when performing a restore, attach a physical label for identification purposes that matches the information provided during their setup.

Because a single NTFS volume is created to span across all the disks, you don't have control over exactly which disks the backup will use in the set. If for some reason you want to back up to a specific disk, you can detach or disable the other disks. The same goes for taking a disk offsite. When the disk is removed, the backup program will use the remaining disks for the next scheduled backup.

If you don't have the disk capacity to back up to a hard disk, you can target your backups to a local volume. Storing your backups on a local volume impacts the volume's performance; therefore, you should not place any additional server data on the volume. Windows Server Backup supports only backing up to a single volume per disk.

The last option, back up to a shared network folder, allows you to store your backups on a remote folder share that will hold only one backup at a time. This means that each time the backup is run, it overwrites the previous backup in the folder. An alternative approach, often used by administrators to avoid overwriting of the remote folder backup, is to create a Windows PowerShell script. The script is used to automate the process of moving the backup on a daily basis to a longer term storage location. To maintain multiple versions of your backups, consider using dedicated disks. Prior to backing up to a remote share, make sure the appropriate permissions are set on the share and its contents to maintain security and integrity of your backups.

After selecting a storage location for your backups, you are ready to perform the actual backup. Before you do, let's take a quick look at what the folder and file structure of a backup looks like and options for optimizing the backup process.

REVIEWING THE FOLDER AND FILE STRUCTURE CREATED DURING A BACKUP

When your backup starts, Windows Server Backup creates a folder structure in the target location you specified. The parent folder, named WindowsImageBackup , includes a subfolder with the name of the server you performed the backup on. If you expand this folder, you can see the following folder/file structure:

Backup <Date> <ID number>
Catalog
Logs
SPPMetadataCache
MediaID

These files and folders contain information and details about your backup. For example, the Backup <Date> <ID number> folder contains several XML files that provide backup history details along with virtual hard disk (VHD) files that are basically duplicates of your volumes.

The Catalog folder contains information about the volumes backed up and where your backups are stored. The MediaID file contains the identifier tagged to the backup storage location, whereas the Logs folder contains a text file that documents errors that occur during the backup process. The SPPMetadataCache folder contains files used by Metadata Cache Management to store information about metadata caches. You need to keep all of these folders/files together in order to perform a restore.

OPTIMIZING YOUR BACKUPS (FULL VERSUS INCREMENTAL)

After you complete the first full backup, you can then automatically run incremental backups, which saves only the data that has changed from the last backup. By default, Windows Server Backup creates incremental backups that function much like full backups allowing you to restore from a single backup. In the past, you had to restore a full backup followed by the necessary incremental backup(s) to complete the restore process.

Windows Server Backup also provides performance enhancements by using block-level technology and Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS). Block-level backup technology increases performance by bypassing the files and file system. In other words, Windows Server Backup reads the blocks in the order they appear on the disk instead of reading them in the order they appear in files, which are usually fragmented across the disk. Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) takes a snapshot of the volume's current data, which is used by Windows Server Backup to back up the data. The snapshot, or shadow copy, is then deleted when the backup has completed.

If you are backing up full volumes, you have the option to optimize the backup process by selecting Configure Performance Settings... under the Actions panel in the Windows Server Backup console.

The following provides a brief overview of each option:

Normal backup performance (default):
Indicates you are performing full backups and that you want the volume's contents transferred in their entirety.
Faster backup performance:
Indicates you are performing incremental backups; therefore, Windows keeps a shadow copy on the source volume, which it will use to track changes. The next time you perform a backup, only the changes made since the last backup will be transferred. This is accomplished by reading from the "diff" area of the shadow copy. The "diff" area is storage space on a volume that is used to maintain a set of information that represents the differences between the current content and the content from a previous point in time. These differences are called snapshots and you look at them closer later in this lesson. To protect against data loss, Windows Server Backup still performs a full backup when you reach 14 incremental backups and more than 14 days have passed since the last full backup.
Custom:
Allows you to configure each volume separately.

Note:
remote share (\\server02\volbackup) needs to be created on Server02 before starting this article, and Server01 needs to have a simple volume named CorpData mapped to drive (E:) with a few sample folders and files to include in the backup.

PERFORM A MANUAL BACKUP OF A LOCAL VOLUME TO A REMOTE SHARE

To complete a backup on a volume on Server01 to a remote share on Server02, perform the following steps:

Log in to the Server01 and open Server Manager.
Click Tools → Windows Server Backup.
Select Backup Once from the Actions panel.
Select Different Options when prompted to select a Backup option and click Next.
Select Custom for the backup configuration and click Next.
Select Add Items, select the CorpData (E:) volume, and then click OK.
Select Next to continue.
On the Specify Destination type screen, select Remote shared folder, and then click Next.
Enter the location \\server02\volbackup and click the More information link to read and understand the security implications of backing up to a shared folder. Click OK and then click Next to continue.
Review the backup items to confirm your settings and then click Backup.
Click Close after the backup status changes to completed for the Corpdata volume.

PERFORM A SCHEDULED FULL BACKUP TO A REMOTE SHARE

To complete a full backup on Server01 to a remote share on Server02, perform the following steps:

Log in to the Server01 and open Server Manager.
Click Tools → Windows Server Backup.
From the Actions panel, select Backup Schedule and click Next when the Getting Started Wizard appears.
Select Full server (recommended) and click Next.
Select Once a day, select a time of day that is closest to your current time, and click Next.
Select Backup to a shared network folder and click Next.
Click OK after reading the message that each backup will erase the previous backup when using a remote shared folder as a storage destination.
Enter the location for the backup \\server02\fullbackup , and then click Next.
Enter the user name and password to use for scheduling the backup, and then click Next.
Review the settings and click Finish.
Click Close.
Confirm the backup was successful by viewing the status in Windows Server Backup after the scheduled time has passed.

Note:
A remote share (\\server02\fullbackup) needs to be created on Server02 before starting this article.

PERFORM A BARE METAL RECOVERY BACKUP OF A SERVER

To complete a bare metal recovery backup on Server01 to a remote share on Server02, perform the following steps:

Log in to the Server01 and open Server Manager.
Click Tools → Windows Server Backup.
From the Actions panel, select Backup Once.
Select Different Options when prompted to select a Backup option and click Next.
Select Custom for the backup confi guration and click Next.
Select Add Items and select the Bare metal recovery . Notice that a bare metal recovery includes the system state, system reserved, and c: but not data drives. To restore volumes that include data to a new system, you need to include them as part of the backup. Click OK.
Click Next.
Select Remote shared folder for the storage location, and then click Next.
Enter the location for the backup \\server02\BMbackup, and then click Next.
Confirm the settings and click Backup.
Click Close after the backup has completed successfully.

Note:
A remote share (\\server02\BMbackup) needs to be created on Server02 before starting this article.