Removable media 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.

For locally attached external disks

1. Select the Locally radio button.
2. Specify the drive letter from the drop-down menu. Drive letters that correspond with external drives should be automatically detected. If the drive does not appear or you have just connected the drive click Detect. If it still does not appear you can input the drive letter manually (ie. J:\ ).
3. Specify the backup path either by typing it directly into the Path on drive field or by browsing for it.
4. You can also customize your backup path by inserting unique variables:

Click Insert variable and 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. You can also order the variables as you like. An example backup path: User input: \%JOB_NAME%\%COMPUTER_NAME%\ Example path: \SQL Backup\SERVER-SBS\

5. To enable hard drive eject: Check Safely eject the hard drive after the backup has completed

Enabling hard drive eject acts to safely remove/disconnect your drive from Windows. If the drive is not safely ejected in this way, you risk corrupting or losing data on the drive. Hard drive eject also ensures that data on your external drive is not overwritten the next day.

6. To back up to prepared media, regardless of the drive letters assigned: Check Backup to my prepared media, even if it is the wrong drive letter

This is useful if the drive is connected to the machine but shows as a different drive letter to that in BackupAssist. If the drive has been prepared for use with BackupAssist, BackupAssist can detect the drive and create the backup on it. This means you can have multiple external drives connected to the machine at the same time, and provided each drive has been prepared, the backup will be created on the correct drive, regardless of the letter assigned.

Note: This option is not available for RDX drives

For remote external disks

1. Select the Remotely radio button.
2. Specify the network path of the external drive by typing it directly into the UNC path to drive field or browsing for it.

Specifying the number of drives of each type

The categories listed for the types of disks you can specify (daily, weekly, monthly, etc) depend on what rotation scheme you have selected in the Scheduling section of your job. For each backup type listed (daily, weekly, monthly, etc) specify the number of external disks you have available.

It is recommended that you have at least two drives of each type to allow for rotation of media and offsite archiving. For example, if you had selected the Daily + Weekly + Monthly Rotating Full scheme we would recommend you purchase at least 6 external drives. Having multiple drives will ensure that your data is well protected in the event of disaster and that you have a large archive of backups to restore from.

Specifying the date of the first weekly backup

After setting the number of external hard drives in your backup pool you can specify a date for when your media rotation should commence. This is useful if you have more than one weekly drive as it will determine how the drives are rotated.

For example, if you had two weekly drives and set the start date to 5-Mar-2016, the Week 1 drive would be used on 5-Mar-2016, and the Week 2 drive would be used on 12-Mar-2016. The following week, 19-Mar-2016, would use the Week 1 drive, and you would continue to rotate the two weekly drives for each subsequent week.

To specify a start date choose a calendar date from the Start the first week of backup on this date drop-down menu.

BitLocker is a Microsoft encryption solution that is supported by BackupAssist for System Protection, File Protection and File Archiving backups to removable drive destinations.

BitLocker encryption key location

An encryption key is a file that can be used to unlock a specific encrypted drive. The BitLocker encryption key location is used to identify the USB flash drive that the BitLocker encryption key is saved to. You can use the Detect option to identify the drive, or use the drop down list to select the drive letter that has been allocated to the USB flash drive.

• Each time an external drive is encrypted (prepared), a BitLocker encryption key will be created. The USB flash drive must be connected so the encryption key can be saved.
• When the USB flash drive is connected, the encryption key will allow access to the corresponding encrypted external drive, so that you can restore data from any of the backups on that drive.

When an encrypted drive is attached to the server, it will be locked until it is manually unlocked using a password or by a backup job using the encryption key on the USB flash drive. After a backup job has run and unlocked an encrypted drive, that drive will remain unlocked until the drive is detached or the server restarted.

• If an encrypted drive is LOCKED when the backup job runs, the USB flash drive containing the encryption key MUST be connected to the server running the backup job.
• If an encrypted drive is UNLOCKED, the external USB flash drive is not required.

Password for encrypted backup drive

The Password for encrypted backup drive field is used to provide a password that will allow access any external drive that was encrypted by this backup job. The password is saved as a part of the backup job.

• This password MUST be provided if you want to use this backup to perform a RecoverAssist recovery. Entering the password will allow RecoverAssist to access the encrypted external drive that the backup is on.
• The password OR the USB flash drive containing the encryption key, can be used to access a BitLocker encrypted drive when you use that drive to perform a restore.

Note: It is important that you keep a copy of your password in a safe place, as we cannot retrieve passwords if they are lost or forgotten.

To learn more, see BitLocker Encryption guide

This involves checking if your external drive media has been prepared for use with BackupAssist. If the media has been prepared, BackupAssist will determine if the label for the media (eg. Monday 1, Month 1, etc) is correct according to the rotation scheme selected and that the media required for that day (ie. that Monday's drive) has been connected to the machine for Monday's backup.

BackupAssist can be configured to take different actions depending on whether unrecognized or unprepared media is detected, or if the wrong media has been inserted for that day (eg. Tuesday's drive is connected on a Wednesday).

The two settings available are as follows:

If the wrong media is inserted

There are two options if media with a different label than the rotation scheme required for that day is detected:

• Backup anyway and warn user: BackupAssist will attempt to back up to the incorrect media and add a warning to the backup report to inform you that incorrect media was detected. This option is recommended as it is preferable, in terms of data protection, to have a backup to incorrect media than no backup at all.
• Do not backup: BackupAssist will not perform a backup to the incorrect external drive and you will receive a message in your backup report indicating that the backup did not take place because of incorrect media.

If new or unrecognized media is inserted

There are two options if BackupAssist detects media that has not been prepared:

• Back up and warn user: BackupAssist will attempt to back up to the unrecognized or new media. A warning will be added to the backup report to inform you that unrecognized media was detected. You will need to prepare the external drive to avoid this warning in future.
• Do not back up: BackupAssist will not perform a backup to the unrecognized external drive and you will receive a message in your backup report indicating that the backup did not take place. You will need to prepare the external drive to ensure that the backup is attempted in the future.

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.

Specifying how to replicate data on portable backup media

There are two ways in which files can be replicated on (copied to) your portable backup media (REV disks, external hdds, rdx QuikStor), which are described below:

• Mirror : Mirroring will create one exact replica of your selected files and folders to the backup media connected/inserted for backup. Only a single mirror of the selected data will ever be kept on each backup drive or disk with this option selected. If you want to create a series of mirrors on each drive or disk choose Backup with history instead.
• Backup with history : Backup with history means that a separate replica of your selected files and folders will be created on the backup drive or disk each time a backup runs (a new folder will be created on the device for each backup). This means that you will have an archive of backups on each drive or disk that you can restore from. You can also combine this option with Single Instance Store (see below) to potentially store hundreds of day's worth of backup history on each drive or disk. We recommend using Backup with history combined with disk space management (see below) to allow for multiple restore points and data archiving.

Specifying how to manage disk space on portable media

If you choose to keep a history of backups on each of your portable backup media (see above), there are a number of ways in which disk space can be managed on each disk or drive:

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 set, the oldest backup set on the drive will be removed. BackupAssist will continue to remove backup set in age order (oldest to newest) as required to ensure that enough disk space is free to store the latest backup set. If each drive or disk 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 set will be removed from the drive. BackupAssist will continue to remove backup sets 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 sets while a backup is in progress and if the amount of disk space used for backup sets goes above this value, the oldest backup set will be removed from the drive. BackupAssist will continue to remove backup sets 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 sets that should be constantly maintained on the drive. BackupAssist will delete the oldest backup set on the drive if this number of backup sets is ever exceeded.

Keep backups from the last X days

Here you can choose to have BackupAssist remove any backup sets 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 backup sets on the drive.

Unmanaged

Here BackupAssist will continue to fill your backup drive with backup sets. 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. This option is generally not recommended.

Enabling Single Instance Store

Single instance store, means that only one unique copy of each file is stored on your backup device. Single Instance Store saves both time and disk space. We recommend that you leave Single Instance Store enabled.

Note: If 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.