Advanced System Protection

Fast and secure drive imaging technology optimized for full system recovery and immediate business continuity for both Physical and Virtual environment.

Advanced System Protection Datasheet

How to create an Advanced System Protection backup job

Launch BackupAssist and follow the steps outlined below:

1. Select the Jobs tab.
2. Select Home.
3. Select Create a New Backup Job.
4. Select System Protection.
5. Select Advanced System Protection engine - available in v12 and later.



If this is the first time you have created a backup job, you will be asked to provide a Backup user identity

6. Selections.
   Select the volumes and applications you want to back up. VSS applications will be displayed as application directory containers. Individual files cannot be selected to ensure the backups have full file restore and system recovery functionality.
Show more



There are two selections to choose from:

Back up the Entire System.

This option will create an image of your system that can be used to perform a full recovery of your computer. Critical Volumes is selected by default and required for a bare-metal backup. A bare-metal backup can be used to recover your computer, after hardware has been replaced or an operating system failure has occurred and your computer can no longer start itself.

Back up selected items only.

This option is used if you only want to create a backup of specific volumes and applications. The option will allow you to deselect Critical Volume’s and select specific VSS applications and drives.

Critical Volumes.

This part of the Selections screen displays the drive that Windows is installed on. Critical Volumes must be selected if you want to be able to use the backup for a bare-metal recovery.

Full VSS mode and Copy VSS 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.

Make your selections, and click Next.

7. Destination media.
   Select the media you want to back up to. This step’s name will change to the media type selected when you click Next.
Show more

Follow these steps to choose your options:
1. Select a media for your backup destination.
2. Click Next.
8. Schedule
   Select the Daily backup scheme and review the options available.
Show more



To learn more, see Backup Schedules

Make your selections and click Next.

9. Set up destination.
   Configure the options for the destination selected in step 7.
Show more



Backup destination

• Select the Backup drive.
• If you select Encrypt the backup, provide a password and keep it safe as it will be required when restoring or recovering data.
• Once encryption is enabled, it cannot be changed.
• Enter the minimum and maximum number of backups you want to keep in your backup rotation.

Destination check report

If you are using a Local media or a Local network destination, a Check destinationbutton 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.

10. 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.
    Show more

    

    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

11. Prepare media
    This step will allow you to prepare removable media (External disk destination selection) and label it. If you are not using external drives, we recommend Editing the backup job once you have created it and using the Prepare Media option to label each drive. 
Show more



These 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 drives listed are based on the backup schedule selected. Each drive will have a default label name based on your backup schedule, a drive designation drop-down and a Prepare button that is selectable when the media is attached.

To prepare the media:

1. Attach the removable drives. 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.

The drives will be labeled and marked for encryption. Labeling the drive allows BackupAssist to check that it is being used on the correct day.

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.

12. Name your backup.
    Provide a name for your backup job, and click Finish.
    

Your Advanced System Protection backup job has now been created.

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