Windows Server BackupChapter 18

Windows Server Backup

• Business continuity

• Data redundancy

• Backup and Restoring Windows Server

• Limitations

• Full Server Backups/Restores

• Recovering System State

• Backing Up and Restoring Just Files and Folders

• WSB Command-line

Business Continuity

• Business continuity—the activity performed by an organization to ensure that critical business functions will be available to customers, suppliers, regulators, and other entities as required 24 hours a day to those functions.

Business Continuity

• Methods used to maintain business continuity may include but is not limited to:

• Creating a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP)

• Data backups

• Server redundancy

• Off-site backups

• Using Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS)

• Implementing alternative power sources.

Data Redundancy

• Data redundancy—a property of some disk arrays (most commonly in RAID systems) which provides fault tolerance, so that all or part of the data stored in the array can be recovered in the case of disk failure.

• RAID 1—Mirrored disk drives.

• RAID 5—Data striping with parity

• Fault tolerance —the property that enables a system to continue operating properly in the event of the failure of some of its components.• RAID 5

• Redundant power supply  

Data Redundancy

• Windows Server Backup (WSB)—provides a basic backup and recovery solution for computers running the Windows Server 2008 operating system.

• WSB is not installed by default. It must be added as a Feature through Server Manager:

Backing up and Restoring Windows Server

• Can be used to back up remote computers

• Uses Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS)

• New improvements:• Can backup single files and folders

• 2008 had to back up entire volumes

• System state backups and recoveries can be performed using WSB in Server Manager

• Full functionality via command line and PowerShell

• Will automatically delete old backups to make room for current backups

• Can backup up to remote shared folder or virtual disks.

Limitations

• Only supports backing up to internal, external or to optical media (CD/DVD). Tape is no longer supported.

• Data size limit of 2TB per volume that can be backed up

• Only backs up volumes that are formatted with NTFS

• Cannot read backups created with NTBackup.exe

Full Server Backups/Restores

• Full server backups are the easiest to perform and one of the best types for recovery

• Full server backup includes(QUIZ):• All local volumes

• Critical volumes

• System state

• You can recover individual files/folders

• Can perform “bare-metal” recovery

Full Server Backups/Restores

Full Server Backups/Restores

Full Server Backups/Restores

Recovering System State

• What is system state?

Component When this component is included

Registry Always

COM+ Class registration database

Always

Boot files, including the system files

Always

Certificate Services database If it is a Certificate Services server

Active Directory Domain Service If it is a domain

SYSVOL directory Only if it is a domain controller

Cluster service information If it is within a cluster

IIS Metadirectory If it is installed

System files that are under Windows File Protection

Always

Backing Up and Restoring Just Files and Folders

• Used when you are more concerned with recovering data than the operating system

• Good for virtual systems or when the operating system can be restored through imaging

• Ghost

• Imagex.exe

• Bare-metal backup option in WSB: Can restore an image of your server after suffering a catastrophic failure without having to load operating system and WSB.• Boot to 2008 R2 Installation media

• Choose Repair computer and VIOLA!• Must have good bare metal backup image first though

WSB Command-line

• Backups Can be scheduled or performed manually

• Command line options—

• Wbadmin.exe

• Wbadmin.exe START RECOVERY –version:09/30/2010-18:30 –items:d:\common –itemtype:File –backupTarget:E: -recursive

• START RECOVERY—tells wbadmin.exe to begin restore operation

• -version—defines the backup version to use for the restore

• -items—provides comma-delimited list of items to restore

• -itemtype—specifies the type of objects in a –items list

• -backTarget—location of the backup file you want to use for the restore operation

• Backups can also be performed using PowerShell• Add-PsSnapin Windows.ServerBackup (this adds the backup

module to PowerShell)

Questions?