Local and Network drives 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.

Specify the backup drive and path either by typing it directly in the Backup directory field or by browsing for it.

You can also customize your backup path by inserting unique variables. Click Insert variable. 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.

An example backup path: User input: \%JOB_NAME%\%COMPUTER_NAME%\ Example path: \SQL Backup\SERVER-SBS\

When backing up to a NAS device you need to specify both the server name of the NAS, as well as the backup path where the backup files should be stored.

Input the NAS server name or IP address directly in the Server name field.

Specify the backup path either by typing it directly into the Path on server field or by browsing for it.

If the NAS server requires authentication with a specific username and password that is not the backup user identity, you can set it here. You may need to check the security settings on your NAS device to determine which users have full read/write access to the backup path you specified on the NAS device.

Input username for the NAS user in the Username field.

Input the password for the NAS user in the Password field.

Specifying the iSCSI server details and backup path

When backing up to an iSCSI target you must specify both the port (server name) and the target. Depending on the type of backup being performed you may also set the path where the backup files will be stored.

1. Enter the iSCSI portal name or IP address directly into the Portal field
2. Click Search to fetch a list of targets available on the specified portal
3. Select the desired target from the list of targets shown
4. Optionally set the Path if available
5. Select whether to attempt to disconnect from the target at the completion of each process
6. Configure CHAP Authentication. If the iSCSI target requires authentication with a specific CHAP username and secret, you may set it here:
1. Enter the CHAP Username
2. Enter the CHAP Secret

Testing the iSCSI connection

Before attempting to perform a backup to an iSCSI target, you must test the connection and if required, initialize the target. For targets smaller than 2TB initialization will be performed automatically if required. If BackupAssist determines that the target requires initialization and the target capacity is greater than 2TB, the user will be prompted to initialize the target utilizing either only the first 2TB (which is compatible with most Operating Systems), or utilizing the full capacity which may be compatible with only relatively new Operating Systems which support large capacity drives.

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 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

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.

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.