AccuGuard™ Enterprise for RDX® User Guide V 1.
Index Welcome ........................................................................................................................................ 1 Features ......................................................................................................................................... 2 Protection Plans .......................................................................................................................... 2 Viewing Archived Data ..............................................
Disk Drive .............................................................................................................................. 43 Network Drive ........................................................................................................................ 44 Removable Disk .................................................................................................................... 46 Use Existing Store ...............................................................................
Welcome Congratulations on your purchase of this software! This backup and restore software is designed for use with hard disk storage. Built on innovative deduplication technology, it virtually eliminates redundant data because unique data is stored only once. The effective storage capacity of the disk is significantly increased, making backup to disk fast, easy and affordable.
Features This software is fully-featured backup and recovery software. It is made up of an Archive Manager Server component and optionally, clients, as determined by license keys. The server component, once configured, is comprised of at least one store for storing archived data, and at least one protection plan. A protection plan defines which data is to be archived, which store to save it in, and when the plan should be run. Additional stores and plans can be added and modified as needed.
SQL Databases (only available if Microsoft SQL Server and proper licensing are installed on the computer being protected) The SQL Server protection plan lets you protect Microsoft SQL Server databases. Exchange Storage Groups (only available if Microsoft Exchange and proper licensing are installed on the computer being protected) The Exchange protection plan lets you protect Microsoft Exchange Storage Groups.
the unique data necessary to protect the versions of the files it encounters. It can reconstruct and restore all versions of files that have been protected. The Archive Manager user interface makes it easy to find each version of a file so you can quickly restore the latest version of the file or a previous version of the file. See Exploring and Restoring Folders and Files for more information. Restoring Data Restoring your data is quick and easy.
Overview of User Interface This section provides a general overview of the Archive Manager. Implemented as a standard Microsoft Management Console (MMC) 3.0 snap-in, the Archive Manager is the control center for the software. It resides on the Archive Manager server, the computer where the software is installed, and defaults to the standard MMC 3-pane view. The left pane, the console tree, provides a hierarchical view of the whole system.
Archive Manager The top-level category in the console tree is called Archive Manager. Actions defined for Archive Manager affect the overall system. Select the About action to view product version information. From here you can also gather product logs and history information; useful when working with product support personnel. Select the Edit License Keys action to Add or Remove product license keys.
License Keys The License Keys dialog allows you to view, add, remove, and activate your software license keys. Installing License Keys To add a license key, click the Edit License Keys action of the Archive Manager folder. After entering your license key in the edit box and clicking OK, you will be prompted for confirmation.
sender is a Microsoft Exchange account To: Sender: Host: Port: 25 Use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL): Leave unchecked. Sender password: sender is a Gmail account To: Sender: Host: smtp.gmail.com Port: 587 Use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL): Check this box. Sender password:
by checking the box to override the default listening port, then selecting a new port number. You will be prompted to restart the ViewStor service for the new setting to take effect. Note: On Windows 2003, only restore functions are available if the ViewStor listening port is not port 80. To change the ViewStor settings, open the ViewStor Settings tab of the Archive Manager properties page. -9- AccuGuard Enterprise for RDX User Guide v 1.
Storage The Storage folder shows the storage devices and locations for Stores and Store Groups configured for use by the system. This folder filters the view of your stores using All Stores, All Store Groups and by storage device. Stores are displayed as online or offline. Online stores are available to perform recoveries. Actions for Storage include: Add a Store – The Add a Store action launches the Add Store wizard for creating a new store or reconnecting to an existing store.
Recycle Bin – When an item is expired, its catalog entry is kept in this folder until the item is purged from the system. See Stores for more information. All Store Groups A store group is a logical collection of Stores that allows for creating multiple copies of protected data on different storage devices. Store groups enable automatic fail-over between online media, dynamic rotation of removable media, and round-robin selection of fixed drive media.
Local Plans The Local Plans folder contains protection plans configured for protecting local data (versus data on remote computers). From here you can create and manage plans to protect local data. Actions available for Local Plans include: Protection Plans – Select the Protection Plans action to show all local protection plans for the Archive Manager server. From this view, each local plan can be manually run, reconfigured, scheduled, and deleted.
Remote Computers The Remote Computers folder contains the remote computers (clients) section of the console tree. This folder has an All Computers group underneath for adding your remote computers to the software. Actions for Remote Computers include: View Log - Click the View Log action for remote computers to see the commands that have run for remote computer plans. See the Log Files topic for more information.
Adding Remote Computers A remote computer, in terms of this product, refers to a computer protected by this software that is not the Archive Manager server. Note: For best results, you should use the same domain administrator account to schedule plans for your remote computers as for administering your Archive Manager server. To add a remote computer, select a computer group for your computer and then select its Add Computer action.
Protection Plans Protection plans specify which data to protect and where to keep the protected data (which store to use). You can optionally set up a schedule to automatically run the plan. See the following topics for more information: Creating Protection Plans Scheduling Protection Plans Run, Edit, Remove a Plan Protection Plan Results Creating Protection Plans This software allows you to create and save protection plans to store your data on storage prepared for use by the software.
Provide the following information to complete the protection plan wizard: folders, Exchange Storage Groups or databases, SQL Server databases, or Computer System drives to protect store to use a name for the plan a scheduling option and the administrator account credentials needed to run the plan When a protection plan is highlighted in the results (center) pane of the Archive Manager, the Actions pane will contain actions applicable to that plan.
selected disk/folder and sub-folders. Click Add again to add another path to be protected by this plan. Repeat as needed. Note: Once you've created a plan, you can refine your selection down to the file level via the Plan Settings action. You can also specify exclusions within the selected data. For instance, you could exclude all files with a .exe file extension.
Add Exchange Protection Plan The software detects Microsoft Exchange 2003 or newer on the computer you are protecting. With proper licensing, if Exchange is installed the protection plan type Exchange Storage Groups is enabled. An Exchange Storage Groups protection plan protects all of the required Exchange Storage Group files for each storage group selected. The software queries Exchange for their location; there is no need to specify folders for protection. Each plan run truncates all eligible log files.
Add SQL Server Protection Plan The software detects if Microsoft SQL Server 2005 or newer is installed on the computer you are protecting. If so, the protection plan type SQL Databases is enabled if proper licensing is installed. A SQL Databases protection plan specifies which SQL Server databases to protect and where to keep the protected data.
Note: This software uses Microsoft SQL VSS Writer to create a snapshot of SQL. Verify Microsoft SQL VSS Writer is present on the SQL server by running VSSADMIN LIST WRITERS at a command prompt on the server being protected. In addition, the SQL server you are protecting requires Microsoft CLR Types and Microsoft SQL Management Objects for SQL 2012. If not present, these components are installed automatically the first time a SQL protection plan runs.
as deduplication of data across servers is a big benefit when backing up several Windows computers. Next, provide a name for the protection plan. Protection plan names must be unique throughout the Archive Manager system. A good practice for a Computer System Protection Plan is to use the computer name as part of the plan name, for example "Denver1 System Plan", where Denver1 is the computer being protected. Next, select a schedule for running the protection plan.
To restore a computer system protected by a Computer System protection plan please refer to Saving the System Recovery Environment to Media and Restoring a Computer System. Saving the System Recovery Environment to Media Recovering a computer system starts by booting into the System Recovery Environment (SRE). The SRE must be saved to bootable media prior to a system recovery.
Copy SRE .iso file Selecting Copy SRE .iso file presents a Browse For Folder chooser dialog allowing you to specify a location to save the SRE .iso file. You can choose a folder on a local or mapped drive. Once you choose a folder and click OK the copy starts with a progress bar. The SRE .iso file is an ISO formatted file that can be used for booting virtual machines. Most virtual machine hypervisors allow a user to configure a virtual machine to boot from CD/DVD devices or ISO formatted files.
Scheduling Protection Plans Protection plans run on the computer as Windows Scheduled Tasks. When the Edit Schedule action for a plan is clicked, the standard Windows Task Scheduler is opened with some pre-filled settings for the plan. The Edit Schedule action allows you to run a protection plan as an alternate user. That is, a user account that is different from the user which is currently logged in to the computer where the software is installed.
Schedule Click the New button on the Schedule tab to edit the various scheduling fields. Use the Show multiple schedules option to set up multiple run times for the protection plan. You can create a single schedule for a plan that covers multiple days, times, and frequency of plan executions. The field Schedule Task specifies how often the scheduled task (your protection plan) runs.
Run, Edit, Remove a Plan Click on the links below for details on running, editing, and removing protection plans. Running Protection Plans Editing Protection Plans Removing Protection Plans Running Protection Plans After creating a protection plan, the plan name and scheduling behavior that you specified is displayed in the Archive Manager. You can configure protection plans to run either as unscheduled or scheduled. An unscheduled plan can only be executed by clicking its Run action.
Files and Folders Protection Plans From the Plan Settings page of a Files and Folders protection plan, you can: change the store that the plan uses for archiving add more folders/files to be protected remove folders/files to be protected exclude certain folders/files exclude predefined file types change the temporary file storage location To change which folders and files are protected by the plan, choose the plan settings Folders tab, then click Add to add Include or Exclude rules.
Computer System Protection Plans From the Plan Settings page of a Computer System protection plan, you can: change the store that the plan uses for archiving select/deselect Exchange Storage Groups to be protected change the temporary file storage location Excluding File Types Your computer contains many types of files. The types of files may range from simple text files to word processing, spreadsheet, picture, project, music, video, and so on.
Changing a Protection Plan Schedule You can change a protection plan run schedule by clicking on its Edit Schedule action. See Scheduling Protection Plans for information about scheduling protection plans. Removing Protection Plans A protection plan can be removed by clicking its Delete Plan action. After clicking Delete Plan, you will be asked to confirm the action.
which result you may want to view.
Restoring Your Data Click on one of the following topics for help with restoring your data. You can restore data from an archive, Local Plans folder, or protection plans configured for a remote computer by selecting the Restore action.
Explore a Plan You can explore data from an archive, Local Plans folder, or protection plans configured for a remote computer by selecting the Restore action, selecting an archive time that is listed as Available in the Status column, and then clicking Explore at the bottom of the page. A Windows Explorer view of the archive recovery point appears. Click on the folder in the window just like you would in any Windows Explorer view and see your individual files.
Restoring Files and Folders Step 1 - Find the protection plan archive time In addition to restoring an individual file or a group of files, the software can restore an entire archive at a given point-in-time. Generally, you only need to restore an entire archive in the case of moving files, accidental deletion, restoring a system after a disk change or crash, etc. The process of restoring an entire archive begins with finding the archive time for the plan you want to restore.
To restore to an alternate folder, click the Restore files to drop-down feature and click Alternate Location. When this action is done, the text next to Alternate location becomes active and is displayed as a blue link. When the link Click here to select an alternate folder is clicked, a dialog window opens where you can choose a folder to restore the files. Restore Options: There are four options to choose from when replacing the files.
alternate folder, then it is possible that all files will be restored since the alternate folder might not contain any of the files in the archive. After choosing the options, click Restore, and the software will begin to restore the files. After the restore is complete you can view the log file for the restore by clicking View Log. A record of the restore will also appear in the results page under the corresponding protection plan name. You can view the record of the restore by clicking the History action.
Restoring Exchange Storage Groups An Exchange protection plan backs up Microsoft Exchange databases and log files for each Microsoft Exchange Storage Group selected. After the plan runs, eligible logs are truncated. This page discusses the process of restoring and recovering Exchange databases. The software protects Microsoft Exchange using the Microsoft Exchange Writer for VSS included with newer versions of Windows.
To use the restored database files with Exchange, they must be recovered and reattached to the Exchange Server. For information on recovering and attaching databases to an Exchange Server please refer to the following links: Exchange 2003/2007 http://technet.microsoft.com/library/aa998848(EXCHG.80).aspx http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/824126 http://technet.microsoft.com/library/aa996168(EXCHG.65).aspx Exchange 2010/2013 http://technet.microsoft.com/library/dd876954.
Restoring SQL Server Databases A SQL Server protection plan backs up all required files for each SQL Server database selected. This page discusses the process of restoring and recovering SQL Server databases. In addition to restoring an individual database or a group of databases, the software can restore the entire protection plan. Generally, you only need to restore an entire protection plan in the case of accidental deletion, or restoring a system after a disk change or crash.
Restoring a Computer System The Computer System protection plan stores all of the system information to needed to restore a computer, and optionally any attached data disk volumes. You can also restore individual files and folders using the Explore and Restore actions. See Restoring Files and Folders. You must use the System Recovery Environment to restore an entire system.
Restoring your Computer System From the SRE Launch screen, select Restore your computer and follow the step-by-step wizard. The first step is to identify the storage that contains recovery points created by Computer System protection plans. There are two locations the wizard can search to find recovery points: local disks and network locations. Note: To search network locations the SRE needs to bind to a network adapter.
column. If the volume mapping you have specified is smaller than the original capacity, the mapping will have a warning icon; otherwise, it will have a checkmark icon. Note: If a drive is missing for a volume mapping you may need to install a driver for a storage controller. To install a driver click Load Driver and browse to a location containing a compatible 32-bit driver (or 64-bit driver if using the SRE for systems that boot using UEFI).
Stores The All Stores folder shows the current availability of archive storage and available free space. After adding a store, the status in the center console pane of the Archive Manager shows the new store and its status. To change the settings for a store, select the store and click Properties. The Status column shows the availability status of the storage media. If the status is Available, then this media is available for use. An Offline status means that the media is currently not available.
Adding Storage A new installation of the software will not have any storage assigned to it. Highlight the Stores folder in the console tree and click the Add a Store action to start the Add Store wizard. There are four categories of storage to choose from. Click on a topic below for more information. Disk Drive Storage Network Drive Storage Removable Disk Disk Drive Choose Disk Drive if you want to create a store on a locally-attached hard disk.
target of a store copy task and the source store is a legacy store that only supported NTFSformatted disks.) Click the Prepare now (or Reconnect) button. When the prepare or reconnect process is complete, the progress indicator will show Preparation Complete and the Next button will be enabled. Click Next to continue to the Store Added screen. The Store Added screen shows a high-level summary of the store configuration. Notice the Storage location value is :\ObjectStore{...}.
Click Next on the Shared Folder screen. Unlike disk drive and removable disk stores, you must share network stores; therefore, this is not optional. If this is an existing store, the Prepare Store screen will have a Reconnect button. Otherwise, it will have a Prepare now button. Preparing a store creates the file and folder structure used by the software to store and track your protected data.
Removable Disk Choose Removable Disk if you want to use a removable disk drive. This option creates a store at the root of the drive that you select on the Add Storage screen. Choose a removable disk drive, then click the OK button. If there are stores already on this disk (perhaps from a previous installation of this software), you can reattach by choosing the Use existing option and selecting a storage location from the dropdown list. See Use Existing Store for more information.
Use Existing Store You can reattach a store to this software if it had been removed with the Keep the data on the media for future use option. See Storage Remove for more information. You can also add existing stores from another system in the same manner. To use an existing store, first click the Add a Store action, then choose the physical storage containing the existing store. The software will detect that there are stores already on the physical storage and will enable the Use existing option.
Removing Storage You can remove stores from this software. You might remove a store if you want to set the storage aside for just restoring data. This action helps reduce the number of stores you are viewing in the store status panel to just the current ones being used by your protection plans. Note that removing storage is an optional procedure.
Permanently delete the data on media When storage is permanently deleted from the software, the stored data is destroyed. You can reuse the media for new storage, but you will not be able to access any old data. When Cancel is clicked the Remove Store dialog will close and the software will take no action. When Continue is clicked, the software will ask for confirmation. Click No to return to the Remove Store dialog without removing the storage. Click Yes to remove the storage.
Store Tasks Store tasks are tasks that operate at the store level. You can create tasks for copying stores, verifying data in a store, expiring data in a store, and purging expired data from a store. Please refer to the following links for more information: Store Copy Store Verify Store Expiration Store Purge Store Copy Store copy tasks allow you to copy the contents of one store to another. You can copy stores within the same Archive Manager system.
Creating a Store Copy Task Assuming both stores exist, select the store from the Archive Manager console tree that you want the store copy task to be associated with and then click the Create Store Task action. This action opens the Create Store Copy Task wizard with the selected store shown in the Source Store window of the Create Store Copy Task screen. Other stores configured for this Archive Manager server are listed in the Destination Store window.
Common usage scenarios for the Store Copy task Copy local drive store to store on removable storage A good backup plan often includes taking the backup media to an off-site location. You could set up a store copy task to run, for instance, once a week, and only copy the most recent recovery point from each archive, thereby allowing for many weekly backups on removable disk or USB storage.
computer name>\. Once mapped, the share appears in the Select a Network Drive window. Select the share and click Next. Name the store with a unique name (for example, the permanent store name plus "_temp"). Click Next. Prepare the store by clicking Prepare Now and complete the Add Store wizard. 3. Add a protection plan for the remote computer. In Archive Manager, expand the Remote Computers folder, select the All Computers group, right-click and select Add Computer.
select the Use existing radio button. The field becomes active, and you can then select the store on the USB device. Click OK. Click Next, then click the Reconnect button, then click Finish. If the store is located in a folder on the USB device, do not select Disk Drive, select File Folder and click the link to select a folder. Browse to the folder on the USB device that contains the store, then finish reconnecting to the store.
Store Verify To maintain store integrity, the software can verify the contents of a store and identify corrupt files sometimes caused by disk corruptions. If a corrupt file is found, it is moved to the store Quarantined Items folder. A quarantined item is no longer available from the store, but if the data is available on primary storage, it will automatically be replaced (repaired) in the store during the next protection plan run.
Store Expiration By default, all data is retained indefinitely in a store. A store expiration task lets you set the number of days that data is retained in a store and how often to expire the data. Only one store expiration task is allowed per store. Once the task is created, you can edit the retention settings from the store Properties action.
Store Purge Expired items can be removed (purged) from the Recycle Bin with a store purge task. Purging also scans the entire store for data no longer referenced. Unreferenced data is then deleted and the integrity of the store is verified before the purge process is completed. To create a store purge task, select the store from the Stores folder in the Archive Manager console tree and then click Create Store Task from the Actions pane.
Store Actions When a store is highlighted in the Stores folder of the console tree the actions available include: Usage History The Usage History action lists tasks that have been run against the store. Statistics such as start and stop times and results are shown for each task. Below the task list is a graph depicting the Free Space Trend for the store. The graph line begins at the left by showing the space available when the store was created.
Store Properties From a store property page you can control data retention settings and sharing. Expiration The default setting is to retain archived data indefinitely. This setting can be overridden from the Expiration tab of the store property page by changing the selected radio button from Infinite Retention to Number of days to keep recovery points. Choose the number of days you want to retain archived data and optionally change the Minimum number of recovery points to keep value.
Sharing Protection plans for remote computers archive the files to a store through a shared folder. You can edit the share settings and create additional shares from the Sharing tab on the store property page. If there is more than one share for the store, you can select which one a remote computer protection plan uses when you are creating the plan on the Select a Destination page of the protection plan wizard.
Archives When a protection plan runs for the first time, an archive is created in the store that is targeted by the plan. This archive appears in the Archive Manager console tree as a sub-folder of the Archives folder of the store, and it is given the same name as the protection plan. A recovery point is also created for exploring and restoring this point in time. Each subsequent run of the plan adds another recovery point to the archive.
Store Groups A store group is a logical collection of Stores that facilitates creating multiple copies of protected data on different storage devices. Store groups enable automatic fail-over between online media, dynamic rotation of removable media, and round-robin selection of fixed drive media. Automatic fail-over between online media The first available store will be used in the priority order specified.
Adding Store Groups A Store Group is a logical grouping of stores. Store groups are used to configure a Protection Plan or Store Copy Task to use media in a rotation scheme. Using a store group with removable media is a good practice for getting data off premise, providing an offsite copy in case of a site wide disaster. To create a new store group, right-click either the Storage node or All Store Groups node and then select the Add a Store Group action.
If you choose "Selects the least recently used available store", the least recently used and available store in the group will be used for the next plan or copy task run. Stores are selected in circular order creating copies of data on multiple stores. Choose this setting for round-robin selection of fixed drive media. After you have selected the stores to include in the group and a selection preference, click Next. You can review the store group settings before finishing the Add Store Group wizard.
Exporting History You can export store usage, and store task and protection plan histories into the Excel spreadsheet (.xls) format. After choosing an export action, you will be presented with a very powerful tool for organizing the history data prior to exporting.
another column heading up above the row of column headings. To restore the view, click the 'X' in the heading or just drag the heading back down. To export the formatted data to an Excel spreadsheet, click the Export button in the upper-right corner of the history page, specify a location and filename, then click Save. -66- AccuGuard Enterprise for RDX User Guide v 1.
Best Practices Click on the links below for suggestions that will help you obtain the best experience from this software. Getting the most from this software User Account Protecting Your Archive Manager System Getting the most from this software Introduction This software contains an advanced technology called data deduplication or capacity optimization. This technology reduces standard business data by as much as a twentieth of the original size of the data during backup to disk.
Backup scenarios This software offers you the flexibility to create backup processes that fit your needs. You can choose exactly which folders to back up, and you can run protection plans as often as needed, even more than once per day. The software allows you to designate specific storage for specific protection plans.
Protecting Your Archive Manager System The Archive Manager system can automatically create restore points of its configuration files. Usage Scenario Let's assume that you have been periodically running an Export Settings Task to archive your settings to a folder. Then one day your Archive Manager computer dies. No problem; you can quickly and easily restore your system and data as follows: Install the Archive Manager software and license keys on a new computer.
Importing Settings Prior to importing settings, you must install the software and activate your license keys. Add your removable disks to the computer if applicable. If you have backups of your stores, attach them to the new computer. To import saved configuration settings, select the Archive Manager folder and then choose the Import Settings action to launch the Archive Manager Import Settings wizard.
Troubleshooting To aid in troubleshooting, this software records its activity in log files and writes significant events to the Windows Application Event Log. See the Log Files topic for more information. See Remote Computer Connection Issues for help with adding protection plans to remote computers. Log Files The software logs information that is useful for troubleshooting and historical purposes. Two types of logs are used by this software, internal component logs and protection plan logs.
Plan logs Each time a plan is run, its results are appended to a log file: \Logs\.log. The most recent logging information can be found at the end of the file. By default only summary information is logged, but you can change the configuration LogLevel setting to record more or less information. If a plan fails or completes with warnings, you should check its log file for details. For this reason, LogLevel=none is not recommended.
Remote Computer Connection Issues This topic addresses the following scenario: In Archive Manager, you add a remote computer that is a member of the domain. You are logged on to the Archive Manager server with an account that has permission to connect to the remote computer from the network. After the remote computer is added, you click it and wait for communication to be established. Eventually, a yellow triangle appears in the remote computer icon.
Verify that the firewall is not preventing remote administration of the computer by allowing exceptions. 1. On the remote computer, click Start, Control Panel. 2. Add the following exceptions to the firewall. Note: Some of these may not be listed for your firewall because this list was compiled from several different Windows operating systems. If the exception is listed on your computer, then add it as an exception to the firewall. If it is not listed, just continue to the next exception in the list below.
3. Try to establish communication with the remote computer from Archive Manager again. Right-click the remote computer and select Refresh. If the Create Protection Plan action does not appear in the Actions pane, continue with the next step. 4. Archive Manager uses the credentials of the currently-logged-on account to connect to the remote computer. So, make sure you are logged on with a domain administrator account, and that the remote computer is in the domain. 5.
Trademarks and Notices The information contained in this document represents the current view of Data Storage Group, Inc. (DSG) on the issues discussed as of the date of publication. DSG cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information presented after the date of publication. This document is for informational purposes only. DSG MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS DOCUMENT. Complying with all applicable copyright laws is the responsibility of the user.
