Backup System
Well, this seems to happen to me quite frequently - I create a system that works fine but then it is replaced by some standard (and often free) system. For example, many years ago, I created our first XML-based web page system. Which was completely overrun by blogging. I switched to blogging, setting up MovableType on a home server. Only to find that the momentum has shifted to hosted blogs (but I haven't switched yet).
Of course, this is a general phenomenon. Software companies often find that they need to create infrastructure for their products because there is nothing out there that meets their needs. The key is to transition to the standard infrastructure when it meets 90% of your needs - as much as the developers will resist this. It will save you major support headaches in the long run and allow you to focus on what really makes your products worthwhile.
But to today's topic - backup systems. Last year, I purchased a Maxtor Shared Storage Server to provide 300GB of Network Attached Storage (NAS). Just using the basic NT backup program, I set up a reasonable backup system that has actually been incredibly useful. I do a weekly backup and daily incrementals and rotate between two backup sets. So during week 1, I create the full backup, add the incrementals and then for week 2, I start a new full backup and add incrementals to that. For week 3, I overwrite week 1. This has been done for the five computers in our house. More details on that later.
In parallel with this, I had been using www.backup.com to backup my Quicken files for many years. At $50/year for 250MB it seemed expensive, but the peace of mind was worthwhile.
But there is now a new option - www.mozy.com - up to 2 GB of FREE storage. It was very easy to set up and experimental restores (run by a friend) worked well. I have canceled my www.backup.com account and shifted Quicken and other key data over to mozy). But, for everything else I am still using the NT backup system and the purpose of this entry is to blog the instructions in case I need to set it up again on a new computer.
The basic idea is that we set up two backup jobs (although I really think I only need one). I start the NT Backup program, making sure I am not in Wizard mode and I go to the backup tab. I start a new Job and choose the files I want. I enter \\NAS\Richard\My Backup\ABC\ABCBackup1.bkf as the filename, although I will overwrite this at runtime. Using Tools->Options, I set the "verify data" option. I save the job as as ABCNormal.bks. Then, again using Tools -> Options, I change the backup type to Incremental and save the job again as ABCIncremental.bks. Note: the reason I think I really only need one .bks file is that I overwrite all the options at runtime, except for the file selection. But I haven't tested the "one file option" - perhaps the next time.
Next I will set up four scheduled tasks. The full backups run on Saturday at 11:00PM, the incrementals at 2:00AM every day except Sunday (as I just did the full backup - in fact, it might still be running). Easiest way to setup the scheduled tasks is to go to ScheduledTasks and select "New" from the RMB.
I set up the following four schedule tasks:
NormalBackup1:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\ntbackup.exe backup "@C:\Documents and Settings\rberger\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows NT\NTBackup\data\ABCNormal.bks" /n "Normal" /d "Normal" /v:yes /r:no /rs:no /hc:off /m normal /j "ABCNormal" /l:s /f "\\Landisshare\richard\My Backup\ABC\ABCBackup1.bkf"
Scheduled every two weeks for this coming Saturday, June 10.
NormalBackup2:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\ntbackup.exe backup "@C:\Documents and Settings\rberger\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows NT\NTBackup\data\ABCNormal.bks" /n "Normal" /d "Normal" /v:yes /r:no /rs:no /hc:off /m normal /j "ABCNormal" /l:s /f "\\Landisshare\richard\My Backup\ABC\ABCBackup2.bkf"
Scheduled every two weeks for the following Saturday, June 17.
Now, for the incrementals....
IncrementalBackup1
C:\WINDOWS\system32\ntbackup.exe backup "@C:\Documents and Settings\rberger\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows NT\NTBackup\data\ABCIncremental.bks" /n "Incremental" /d "Incremental" /v:yes /r:no /rs:no /hc:off /m incremental /j "ABCIncremental" /l:s /f "\\Landisshare\richard\My Backup\ABC\ABCBackup1.bkf"
I start this at June 11.
IncrementalBackup2
C:\WINDOWS\system32\ntbackup.exe backup "@C:\Documents and Settings\rberger\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows NT\NTBackup\data\ABCIncremental.bks" /n "Incremental" /d "Incremental" /v:yes /r:no /rs:no /hc:off /m incremental /j "ABCIncremental" /l:s /f "\\Landisshare\richard\My Backup\ABC\ABCBackup2.bkf"
This starts on June 18th.
I used C:\WINDOWS\system32 as the start directory for all - and obviously ABC stands for the machine name.