Local and Network drives for File Protection

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.

Enabling Single Instance Store

Single Instance Store is enabled by default, which is the recommended setup. To disable/enable Single Instance Store:

Uncheck or check Use the Single Instance Store.

Note: Single Instance Store is disabled a duplicate of each file will be stored in every backup set and each duplicate will take up separate disk space. Backups will take longer to complete and use more disk space.

About Single instance store

Single Instance Store is only available in the File Protection engine. If Single Instance Store is enabled only one unique copy of each file will be stored on your backup device. Single Instance Store is similar to an incremental backup, because only new or modified files are actually copied to your backup device each time a backup runs after the initial full backup. This saves both time and disk space.

The powerful difference of Single Instance Store, however, is that the process is totally transparent. If no previous backup exists on the backup device BackupAssist will first perform a full backup of the selected files and folders; but for future backups, if files are modified or new ones created, such changes will be merged into a new and complete backup set on your backup device, rather than the creation of a smaller set of just the modified and new files. So you will see a complete list of all files selected for backup within each backup set, even though only one unique copy of each file actually exists in terms of disk space on your backup device. In other words, the same file can appear within four different backup sets, but still only be stored once on the backup device.

With each backup set looking like a complete full backup, restoration is easy and does not require any proprietary software. If Single Instance Store is enabled you can potentially keep hundreds of day's worth of backup history with minimal storage requirements; and because each backup only copies new or modified files, backups are extremely fast.

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.