Backing Up

Lesson 12

Skills Matrix
Technology Skill

Objective Domain

Objective #

Backing Up and
Restoring Group Policy
Objects

Plan and implement

group policy strategy

2.3

Planning a Backup
Strategy

Plan for backup and

recovery

5.3

Backups
A backup is simply a copy of the data on
a computers hard disks, stored on another
medium in case a hard drive fails. If a
drive failure occurs, an administrator can
repair or replace the drive, and then
restore the data from the backup.
Whatever disk technologies your servers
happen to be using, they are not a
replacement for regular backups.
Every server that contains valuable data
should be backed up on a regular basis,
with a copy of the backup stored offsite.

Backups
A backup solution consists of the following
two elements:
One or more backup drives.
A backup software product.

A backup strategy specifies what data you

will back up, how often you will back it up,
and what medium you will use to store the
backups.
The decisions you make regarding the
backup hardware, software, and
administrative policies should depend on
how much data you have to back up, how
much time you have to back it up, and

Storage Device Criteria

The three main criteria to consider
when evaluating the suitability of a
storage device for backups are as
follows:
Capacity
Speed
Cost

Storage Devices Used for Backups

Optical disks
Hard disks drives
Magnetic tape

Tape Library
Obviously, a magnetic tape drive array
moves you up into an even higher price
bracket, but that is still not the ultimate in
tape backup technology.
To minimize the tape changes you have to
make to complete your backups and
perform restores, you can purchase an
autoloader, sometimes called a tape
library.
An autoloader is a single device that
contains one or more magnetic tape
drives, as well as a robotic mechanism

Drive Interfaces
The interface that a backup device uses
to connect to a computer is of particular
concern to server administrators.
No matter how fast the backup device
itself, throughput will be slow if the
interface cannot deliver data to the drive
at a sufficient rate.
Magnetic tape drives, in particular,
require a consistent stream of data to
write to the tape with maximum
effectiveness.

Drive Interfaces
Backup devices can use any of the
standard computer interfaces, such
as Parallel Advanced Technology
Attachment (PATA), Serial ATA (SATA),
USB, IEEE 1394, and Small Computer
System Interface (SCSI).
In most cases, optical drives and
internal hard disk drives use PATA or
SATA and external hard drives use
USB or IEEE 1394. Magnetic tape
drives are available that use any of
these interfaces, but the vast

Backup Targets
One of the most basic functions of a
backup software product is to let you
select what you want to back up, often
called the backup targets.
Most backup software programs enable
you to select any combination of the
following:

Entire servers
Entire disks
Entire volumes
Specific folders
Specific files

The Backup Tab

Backup Job Types

Most backup software products include a
collection of standard backup job types
that are actually preset filter
combinations.
The most common of these job types are
the following:

Full Backs up all files to the storage

medium and resets their archive bits
Differential Backs up only the files that
have changed since the last full backup
and does not reset their archive bits
Incremental Backs up only the files that
have changed since the last full or
incremental backup and resets their
archive bits

Incremental Backups
When you run an incremental backup job,
you are only backing up the files that have
changed since the last backup, whether it
was a full backup or an incremental
backup.
Performing incrementals between your full
backups uses the least amount of storage
space, but it also lengthens the restore
process.
If you should have to restore an entire
disk, you must first perform a restore from
the last full backup, and then you must
restore each of the incremental jobs you

Incremental Backups
When restoring from incrementals,
the order of the tapes you restore is
crucial.
You must restore the incrementals in
the order they were written, or you
might end up with old versions of
files overwriting the newer versions.

Differential Backups
However, because differential jobs do not
reset the archive bits on the files they
back up, once a file appears in a
differential, it appears in every subsequent
differential until the next full backup.
When you use differential backups, the
jobs take a bit longer and they use a bit
more storage space, because in some
cases you are backing up the same files
several days in a row.
However, restoring from differentials is
simpler and faster, because you have to

Scheduling Jobs
All backup products enable you to
create a backup job and execute it
immediately, but the key to
automating a backup routine is being
able to schedule jobs to execute
unattended.
Not all of the backup programs
supplied with operating systems or
designed for standalone computers
support scheduling, but all fullfeatured backup software products
do.

Logging Backup Activity

As a backup software product feeds
data to the drive, it also keeps track
of the softwares activities.
Most backup software products
maintain a log of the backup process
as it occurs.
You can often specify a level of detail
for the log, such as whether it should
contain a complete list of every file
backed up or just record the major
events that occur during the job.

Cataloging Files
In addition to logging their activities,
backup software programs also catalog the
files they back up, facilitating the process
of restoring files later.
The catalog is essentially a database
containing a list of every file that the
software has backed up during each job.
To restore files from the backup medium,
you browse through the catalog and select
the files, folders, or volumes that you want
to restore.

Rotating Media
One of the most common media rotation
schemes is called the GrandfatherFather-Son method.
In this method, the terms grandfather,
father, and son refer to monthly, weekly,
and daily tapes, respectively.
For daily backups, you have one set of
son tapes that you reuse every week.
For the weekly full backup, you have
father tapes that you reuse every month.
Then, every month, you perform an
additional full backup to tapes in your
grandfather set, which you reuse every

Windows Server Backup

Windows Server 2008 includes a
backup software program that you
can use to back up your volumes to
an internal or external hard drive, to
a writable DVD drive, or to a shared
folder on the network.

The Windows Server Backup Console

The Backup Options Page

The Select Backup Configuration Page

The Select Backup Items Page

The Specify Destination Type Page

System State
The system state includes the computers
boot files, the Windows registry, the COM
class registration database, and any
system files that are under Windows File
Protection.
The system state can also include certain
role-specific files and databases, if those
roles are installed on the computer, such
as the Active Directory Domain Services
and Active Directory Certificate Services
databases, the SYSVOL directory, and the
cluster service information.
It is also possible to back up the
computers system state by itself, using
the Wbadmin.exe program from the

The Select Backup Destination Page

The Specify Advanced Option Page

The Backup Progress Page

Creating a Scheduled Backup

The Specify Backup Time Page

The Select Destination Disk Page

The Label Destination Disk Page

Incremental Backups

Performing a Restore
Windows Server Backup enables you
to restore entire volumes or selected
files, folders, and/or applications,
using a wizard-based interface in the
Windows Server Backup console.

The Getting Started Page of the Recovery

Wizard

The Select Backup Date Page

The Select Recovery Type Page

The Select Items to Recover Page

The Specify Recovery Options page

Full Server Restore

If a disaster occurs in which all of a
servers data is lost, or even just the
volumes containing the boot and operating
system files, obviously the server cannot
start, Windows Server 2008 cannot load,
and you cannot run the Windows Server
Backup console to perform a restore.
It is still possible to perform a full
restoration of the server, as long as the
backup drive is intact.
To perform a full server restore, you must
boot the system using a Windows Server
2008 installation disk and access the

The Install Windows Page

The System Recovery Options Dialog

Box

The Windows Complete PC Restore

Wizard

The Choose How to Restore the Backup

Page

Backing UP Active Directory

When you perform a scheduled
backup of an Active Directory domain
controller, or perform a single backup
with the Enable system recovery
checkbox selected, Windows Server
Backup includes the system state as
part of the job.
The system state includes the Active
Directory database, among other
things.

Non-Authoritative Restore
When you open a Command Prompt window
in a standard Windows session and restore
the system state, you perform a nonauthoritative restore.
This means that the program will restore the
Active Directory database to the exact state it
was in at the time of the backup.
However, the next time an Active Directory
replication occurs, the other domain
controllers will update the newly restored
system with any changes that have occurred
since the backup took place.
This means that if you are trying to recover
objects that you accidentally deleted, the

Authoritative Restore
To restore deleted objects, you must perform
an authoritative restore, and to do this,
you must restart the computer in Directory
Services Restore Mode (DSRM) by
pressing F8 during the boot process and
selecting the appropriate entry from the
Advanced Boot Options menu.
After logging on using the Administrator
account and the DSRM password specified
during the operating system installation, you
can perform the system state restore using
Wbadmin.exe.
Once the restoration of the system state is
complete, you can use the Ntdsutil.exe tool to

Backing Up and Restoring

Group Policy Objects (GPOs)

To back up and restore GPOs, you

must use the Group Policy
Management console.
When you right-click a GPO in the
console and select Back Up from the
context menu, a Back Up Group
Policy Object dialog box appears in
which you can specify the location
for the backup.

The Back Up Group Policy Object

Dialog Box

The Manage Backups Dialog Box

Summary
A backup is a copy of the data on a
computers hard disks, stored on
another medium in case a hard drive
fails.
If a drive failure occurs, an
administrator can repair or replace
the drive and then restore the data
from the backup.
The three main criteria to consider
when evaluating the suitability of a

Summary
It is possible to use a CD-ROM or
DVD-ROM drive for backups.
Most servers come equipped with a
writable DVD-ROM drive or can easily
be retrofitted with one.
The drives and media are both
relatively inexpensive, and write
speeds are reasonably fast.

Summary
Magnetic tape is the traditional
choice for server and network
backups.
Tape drives are well suited for
backups because they are fast, they
can hold a lot of data, they can
archive that data indefinitely, and
their media cost per gigabyte is low.

Summary
The ever-increasing capacities of
hard disk drives, along with their
ever-decreasing prices per gigabyte,
have led to their use as the primary
backup medium for home users and
small networks in recent years.

Summary
Backup devices can use any of the
standard computer interfaces, such
as Parallel Advanced Technology
Attachment (PATA), Serial ATA (SATA),
USB, IEEE 1394, and Small Computer
System Interface (SCSI).
Depending on the type of backup
device you select for your servers, a
backup software product can be a
convenience or an absolute
necessity.

Summary
Most backup software products
include a collection of standard
backup job types that are actually
preset filter combinations.
The most common of these job types
are full, differential, and incremental.
To reuse backup tapes, you must
have a carefully planned media
rotation scheme so that you dont
inadvertently overwrite a tape you

Summary
It is absolutely essential that you
perform periodic test restores from
your backup tapes or other media to
ensure that you can get back any
data that is lost.
In Windows Server Backup, single
backup jobs provide more flexibility
than scheduled ones, with the
obvious disadvantage that someone
must be there to create and start the
job.

Summary
When you create a scheduled backup
job, the options are somewhat
different from a single, interactive
job.
When you perform a scheduled
backup of an Active Directory domain
controller or perform a single backup
with the Enable system recovery
checkbox selected, Windows Server
Backup includes the system state as
part of the job.