Using NTBackup

Aside from using the Backup Wizard to create a fully recoverable system backup, it may be a desirable part of the plan to back up individual data structures such as large CAD or multimedia folders, databases, accounting data, CRM, or other line of business applications.

It can also be useful to back up individual structures such as the Exchange databases and log files prior to applying a service pack or patch, or doing other maintenance such as compacting the data stores.

You can access Windows NTBackup via either the Run command (Start, Run, NTBackup) or from the icon shortcut under the System menu.

When NTBackup launches, it starts in Wizard mode. You can click Next to continue with the wizard or click the Advanced Mode link. This section of the chapter covers the Advanced mode interface of NTBackup. In the Backup tab, select the files and folders you want to back up. To back up Exchange Server components, expand Microsoft Exchange Server, your server name, and from there you can select Microsoft Information Store to back up the entire Exchange database, or you can drill down into First Storage Group and select either the Mailbox Store or the Public Folder Store.

If you want to save the backup selection to a file, choose Job, Save Selection As from the menu and choose the location and filename for the backup script file.

When you click the Start Backup button, the Backup Job Information dialog appears. From there, you can start the backup immediately, click the Advanced button to select advanced backup options, click the Schedule button to set a schedule for the backup job to follow, or cancel the operation and return to the Backup Selection window.

In the Advanced Backup Options window, you can select the backup type as Normal, Copy, Incremental, Differential, or Daily (these options are described in the "Backup Types" section earlier in the chapter). You can also choose to back up data from Remote Storage (if configured on your server), verify the data after the backup (recommended), compress the backup data (if the device storing the backup supports compression), and back up system protected files with the System State backup (if the System State backup is selected in the backup selection).

When you click the Schedule button, the NT Task Scheduler runs to schedule the backup at regular intervals. The first step in the process is providing the credentials that the task will use to run the backup process. The username and password you provide must be for a user object that is a member of the Backup Operators group.

Caution

Although you can use the built-in Administrator account credentials to schedule a backup job, when you change the password for the account, the scheduled backup jobs will start failing. You will need to reenter the credentials for the backup job when you change the administrator password.

Next, you give the scheduled job a name and click the Properties button to set the frequency of the backup job. In the job scheduler, you can schedule the job to run daily, weekly, monthly, once, at system startup, at logon, or when idle. Each of those selections has its own settings. In the Settings tab, you can select other options related to power management, idle time, and even how to handle the job if it hasn't completed within a certain time frame.

Because NTBackup supports running from the command line, it is possible to configure more elaborate backups as part of a broader routine via batch or script commands. Run ntbackup /? to open the command-line reference help window for NTBackup and see all the command-line options available for NTBackup.