20-7LESSON 1 USING THE BACKUP UTILITYYOU MIGHT ALSO CHOOSE TO USE A CO...

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Lesson 1

Using the Backup Utility

You might also choose to use a combination of network and local backup jobs. Do thiswhen critical data resides on client computers and servers and you do not have aremovable storage media device for each computer. In this situation, users should per-form a local backup and store their backup files on a server. You then back up theserver.

Real World Backups on Large Networks

If you are working for a company with a large network, it is likely that a sophis-ticated backup infrastructure is already in place. More than likely, users store theirimportant documents on file servers rather than on their local computers, andthose file servers are backed up daily. Make sure you understand the backup sys-tem that exists on a network before you create a backup plan of your own.On large networks, you are more likely to use the Backup utility as a precautionbefore troubleshooting users’ computers—an extra step to make sure that youcan restore the computer should troubleshooting go wrong. On smaller networks,it may still be advantageous to centralize user documents on a file server, butmore likely users will store documents on their own computers. In this case, youshould consider backing up client computers to a file server daily and also back-ing up the data on the file server to a removable storage medium.Another challenge of backing up large networks is planning for notebook com-puters. Notebook users often disconnect their computer from the network to taketheir computers home at night or on trips with them. As a result, notebooks donot always fit into the same backup scheme as desktop computers. Althoughnotebook users can connect to the network and initiate a more traditional backupto a network server, you should consider planning for a backup system that note-book users can use while they are disconnected from the main network. Depend-ing on the amount of data that a notebook user stores, you might considerproviding users with an external hard drive or a CD writer, or even have themconnect to the company network (or an Internet backup location) periodically toback up data. If notebook users have small numbers of files that they work onwhile away, they can even back data up by e-mail.

Types of Backup Operations

The Backup Utility provides five types of backup operations that define which datais backed up, such as only those files that have changed since the last backup (seeFigure 20-3).

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Figure 20-3 Choose one of the available backup types.Some backup types use backup markers, also known as archive attributes, whichmark a file as having changed. When a file changes, an attribute is set on the file thatindicates that the file has changed since the last backup. When you back up the file,this clears or resets the attribute. Types of backups include the following:Normal During a normal backup, all the selected files and folders are backed up.A normal backup does not rely on markers to determine which files to back up.During a normal backup, any existing markers are cleared and each file is markedas having been backed up. Normal backups speed up the restore process becausethe backup files are the most current, and you do not need to restore multiplebackup jobs.Copy During a copy backup, all the selected files and folders are backed up. A copybackup neither looks for nor clears markers. If you do not want to clear markersand affect other backup types, use a copy backup. For example, use a copybackup between a normal and an incremental backup to create an archival snap-shot of network data.Incremental During an incremental backup, only the selected files and foldersthat have a marker are backed up, and then the backup clears markers. Becausean incremental backup clears markers, if you did two consecutive incrementalbackups on a file and nothing changed in the file, the file would not be backed upthe second time.Differential During a differential backup, only the selected files and folders thathave a marker are backed up, but the backup does not clear markers. Because adifferential backup does not clear markers, if you did two consecutive differentialbackups on a file and nothing changed in the file, the entire file would be backedup each time.