Recovery in case of operating system failure. Setting up a Windows server archiving system

For execution Reserve copy servers on Windows 2012 the built-in component is quite sufficient" ". First add the service via " Add Roles and Features Wizard".

2. In the first step, just click " Further".

3. In the archiving configuration, select " Customizable".

4. Check the box next to " System states"This will be quite enough for recovery.

5. Set an archiving schedule.

6. The most convenient and reliable destination is to make a remote network folder, for example, a second domain controller, and in turn back it up to the first one.

7. Next, specify the exact path to network folder.

8. Before completing the wizard, check again that all settings are correct and click " Ready".

9. The created archiving task can be found in the task scheduler along the path: " Task Scheduler Library -> Microsoft -> Windows -> Backup".

10. Also, do not forget to register the user under whom archiving of the system state will be launched in Group Policy " Default Domain Controller Policy -> Computer Configuration -> Policies -> Windows Configuration-> Security Settings -> Local policies-> Assign user rights -> Log in as a batch job".

Recovery Active Directory must be executed in mode DSRM ("Directory Services Restore Mode" - "Directory Services Restore Mode"). To enable this mode click " F8 "before the start OS to see additional download options.

Another option to get to DSRM : execute command " shutdown -r -o -t 0" For loading OS into diagnostic mode and there you can tell the system to offer additional boot options.

AND last method: use " msconfig"to specify the boot parameters (in our case, select " Safe mode-> Active Directory Recovery"). It must be added that this is the only way to boot into DSRM without the server having the domain controller role.

Let's consider two recovery scenarios:

First when the hardware fails and needs to be completely replaced. In this case, you will need to first install it on new server clean OS the same version, with the same service pack that was on the controller. It is desirable that the browser versions match I.E.. You also need to add the component " Archiving system Windows data Server".

The sequence of actions is as follows:
1. While in mode DSRM , open the console" Windows Server Backup System"and run the wizard" Restore...".

2. Specify that the archive is in a different location.

3. Next, select the remote shared folder.

4. Select the desired archive.

5. Specify that you want to restore the system state.

6. Select " Original placement"to restore and be sure to check the box" Perform trustworthy recovery of Active Directory files".

7. After the settings have been made, we start the recovery, agreeing with all system warnings.

8. When finished, the server will need to be rebooted. All changes in Active Directory, made after the backup will be automatically replicated from other domain controllers.

According to the second scenario it is necessary to restore accidentally deleted objects Active Directory: users, groups, etc. In this case, the shopping cart functionality is not used in the domain. In this case, we proceed completely according to the first scenario, with the exception of rebooting the server after recovery. Before you do this, launch the console" cmd " with elevated privileges and run the following commands:

ntdsutil -> Activate Instance NTDS -> authoritative restore -> Restore subtree "let_to_object"

For example, to restore all objects in a domain TEST.LOCAL indicate the path " DC=test,DC=local":

This command will disable replication by specified path from other controllers and thus allow objects to be restored Active Directory existing at the time of backup.

The archiving system replaced NTBackup with the release of Windows Server 2008 and today is a completely mature and proven product, but many administrators still do not use this OS component, preferring alternative products. There may be both objective reasons for this, and a lack of understanding of the principles of operation of the Windows Server archiving system. Therefore, we decided to address possible knowledge gaps with this article.

We quite often asked our friends system administrators Question: What tools do they use to back up the state of their servers? And they were very surprised that many of them did not even mention the Windows Server archiving system. To the next question: why don't they use this tool, we often received the answer that they do not understand how this system works, how to manage backups, etc., etc. In part, the reason can be called valid; when there is no understanding of how this or that product works, it is better to refuse to use it.

Better yet, figure out how it works and start putting it into practice. IN new system archiving, many expect to see a successor to the familiar NTBackup, but Microsoft has completely redesigned the backup mechanism and we have a completely different tool. The main storage for backup copies is a disk, which is independently marked by the archiving system and hidden from the user. You can also use an already partitioned volume or network resource, however, these methods have their limitations and negate all the advantages of the new technology.

The new archiving system independently manages the backup process, creating primary and additional copies of data, as well as their retention period. This is one of the main difficulties that arises when using a new tool. Many administrators are accustomed to explicitly specifying the type created archive, their quantity and shelf life, therefore, not finding the necessary options here, they make hasty and incorrect conclusions.

With Windows Server Backup, you give the service an entire disk and it manages the storage process as it sees fit. Is it good or bad? In our opinion - good. Because quite often there are situations when the administrator incorrectly estimates the size of the disk space required to store copies or there is a sharp jump in the volume of archived data. In this case, there is a very high probability that the backup service will fail due to lack of free space at the most inopportune moment.

Windows Server takes a fundamentally different approach. The easiest way to draw an analogy is with video surveillance systems, when a stream is continuously written to disk and at any given time we have a certain recording duration determined by the disk capacity. Let's say we installed a 500 GB disk - we have a week of video, replaced it with 1 TB - two weeks, etc.

The backup service works in a similar way, writing copies to disk until free space is exhausted, then overwriting the oldest copies. This way, you will always have a constant backup depth, limited only by disk space; even a sharp increase in the copied data will not lead to negative consequences, only the number of available copies will be reduced.

Another difficulty arises here. Many administrators associate the word disk only with physical hard drive, after which a lot of questions immediately arise: where to get so many disks, how to connect them to servers, how to ensure that archives are stored separately from the system, etc. and so on. Yes, and allocating even a 500 GB disk for backup of a member server looks somewhat wasteful. Therefore, it’s time to remember about technology that allows you to immediately solve the entire layer of “problems”.

Really, this technology today they support all systems, including even NAS price category slightly higher than the initial one, which allows you to wisely manage the available disk space and organize the storage of archives separately from the systems. Microsoft recommends having 1.5 times more disk space to store two copies of data; in our opinion, this figure is somewhat overestimated, especially if you are copying data that rarely changes, for example, server state.

We'll jump ahead a little and show the result of archiving test server with a volume of archived data of 29 GB:

As you can see, eight copies of the system state took up approximately 9 GB, which is quite good, and the total volume of the 60 GB iSCSI disk we allocated is enough for about three weeks of storing daily copies, which in our opinion is more than enough.

To create backup copies, the Volume Shadow Copy (VSS) mechanism is used, which allows you to work with open and system files without interrupting the operation of the system and users. Starting with Windows Server 2012, the archiving system also allows you to archive virtual Hyper-V machines and restore their condition separately. When using other software on the server that uses shadow copy capabilities, the archiving system has the ability to save the VSS log, which will ensure the correct operation of these services during recovery.

Separately, you should touch on database backups, if with products that support shadow copying, such as MS SQL Server or Exchange, there are no problems, then problems may arise with third-party products, for example, PostgreSQL. The shadow copy mechanism does not check the logical integrity of files, simply taking a snapshot of their state on certain moment time, systems that support VSS are able to handle this moment, bringing the database to a consistent state before the moment of creating a shadow copy. For unsupported systems, we will simply receive a slice of the database for a certain state of time; when restoring such a database, it will be brought to a consistent state using the DBMS, in other words, all pending transactions will be canceled and data loss may occur.

Based on the above, we can conclude that the Windows backup system is well suited for creating backup copies of the system and user data, as well as “native” services and applications. To archive complex third-party software, it is better to use the tools provided by the manufacturer of this software.

In order to start using the Windows Server archiving system, you first need to install the component of the same name, this is done through Add Roles and Features Wizard.

The service management snap-in can then be launched either through Facilities V Server Manager, or through a shortcut in Control Panel - Administration.

The equipment is absolutely typical for Windows services Server and does not cause any difficulties when working with it.

A quick glance at the screen immediately allows you to assess the current settings and status of the service; the available actions are concentrated on the right. There are a few of them: One-time archiving, scheduled archiving and recovery. We are primarily interested in the schedule, although one-time archiving is also a rather convenient tool that allows you to quickly make a copy of the server state before any potentially dangerous actions, so that you can roll back to their very beginning.

Pressing Archiving schedule we will launch the wizard of the same name, which offers us to archive the entire server, or specify objects for selective archiving.

We will always have time to archive everything at once, so we will choose a custom archiving type. Next step we will be asked to select objects for archiving.

To add them just click Add elements.

If you select Recovery initial state systems, then they will be automatically added State of the system, system partition (drive C:) and service partition with bootloader. For educational purposes, we added to this data a folder with MS SQL databases, which should represent some user data.

And also set the parameters of the shadow copy service if you have applications that use this service, for example, MS SQL Server, then you should select the Copy VSS log setting, which will ensure their normal interaction with the shadow copy service, including during recovery.

Then you will need to create a schedule, the task is extremely simple, you can run archiving either once or several times a day, the minimum interval step is half an hour.

We've sorted out the schedule, now it's time to decide on the storage location for the archives. There are three options to choose from, each of them is quite well commented, which makes it easier right choice:

As we have already said, it is optimal to allocate an entire disk for archiving; we recommend using iSCSI disks for this purpose, which allows you to solve two main problems at once: optimally use disk space and store archives separately from the system.

It is worth mentioning the possibility of placing an archive in a network folder; despite strict restrictions, this method is convenient to use for one-time archiving, when you need to quickly create an archive and place it outside the server.

If you select a disk, it will be formatted and hidden, this provides additional protection from possible destructive influences, for example, encryption Trojans.

At the last step, you should once again make sure that the settings made are correct and confirm them by pressing the button Ready.

Now all that remains is to wait for the specified time and make sure that the archiving process was completed without failures. When creating a schedule, you should take into account the load on the network and disk storage subsystem, which may lead to a decrease in their performance.

After the backup has been created, it would be a good idea to check the possibility of restoring from it. To do this, select the action of the same name in the snap-in, and this will launch Recovery Wizard, which will first ask you to indicate the location of the archive:

Then we indicate the date and time the backup was created to which we want to roll back; the available dates are highlighted in bold.

Then we indicate what exactly we want to restore:

As you can see, these can be files and folders, virtual machines Hyper-V, volumes, applications and system state. Special mention should be made of applications. This feature is only available to applications registered with the archiving system, which must be able to work with the service's API and support VSS. Simply put, this list includes a limited number of programs, mainly from Microsoft itself, and for third-party software this function is useless.

At the same time, it is difficult to overestimate the possibility of system state recovery, which allows you to roll back the state of the OS without affecting user data. This is very helpful in situations where some time has passed between making changes to the system and identifying their negative effect.

Restoring the system state is carried out in two stages, each of which ends with a reboot.

Moreover, the second stage looks like a normal OS boot and does not display any messages, simply rebooting after a while. It may seem like there was an error or failure, but this is not the case.

Therefore, you just need to be patient and wait for the message about the successful completion of the operation. Depending on network speed, disk performance, and data volume, this operation may take a significant amount of time.

An alternative to a system state restore is a volume-level restore, which will destroy all data and return the volume to the state it was in on the specified date. This can be useful in the event of a virus incident where you want to ensure that no malware remains on the system, or in cases where the original volume has been damaged.

Overall, this operation is no different from restoring a volume from an image using any other software, for example, Acronis.

When restoring folders and files, you can flexibly manage the recovery parameters, for example, by saving both versions of the file: the current and the restored one, this is useful in cases where the file was accidentally overwritten, but the result of the current work is also needed. During recovery, you can also restore all access rights to files and folders, which is important if you have a complex rights assignment system.

As you can see, the Windows Server backup system is a very functional and convenient tool that allows for successful data recovery at any level and at the same time relieving the administrator of a significant part of the worries of managing this process. So if you are not already using this system archiving, then after reading this material it’s time to take a closer look at it.

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Good afternoon, dear blog readers, I have already shown you many times how an operating room is repaired and restored Windows system, but almost all of these articles were about client versions, today I want to correct myself and finally cover the question of how backups are made windows server systems, since leaving the server idle is fraught with financial losses for the business, unlike normal downtime office computer. I’ll tell you my real-life examples in which archiving Windows Server 2012 r2 would help me a lot.

Archiving windows server 2012 r2

As you probably already guessed, windows backup server systems, is carried out using the built-in component of the Windows Server 2012 r2 data archiving system. I would like to immediately note that it is also available in 2008 R2, but I will talk using the example of a more modern version, although everything stated above is also suitable for previous version. If you still caught Windows times Server 2003, then you are probably familiar with the NTBackup component, it was with it that everyone backed up the system, and it even knew how to write to tapes. Then 2008 came to replace it, without R2, and showed a poor and redesigned windows archiving component, from which a lot of functionality was removed; I still don’t understand the logic of the people who released this component in this form. A year passed and R2 was released, which has already returned most of the functions that were in NTBackup and made Windows server backup very simple and convenient.

If anyone doesn’t know, unlike client versions of Windows, server versions do not have a system protection mechanism by default, and if the bootloader or other system files are damaged, you won’t be able to quickly recover from the previous version, and it’s all about the architecture of the server OS , since by default it uses the minimum of everything, for greater protection and less load. The system administrator himself will decide what he needs and this is correct, but the protection could have been enabled.

I’ll tell you an example from life, like all administrators, most of the server fleet has long been virtual machines, although there is a small part of the servers that are not virtualized, simply because it is not rational and will not produce any profit, I’m talking about servers with 300 GB random access memory and MS SQL server. One fine day there was a power failure and UPS couldn’t handle it. As a result, the servers turned off, not quite correctly. While restoring services, one of the servers did not boot and had an error: an error occurred while attempting booting Windows. It was possible to defeat it, but after 5-6 hours, which you will agree is not very fast, but if there was a backup copy of the system and a recovery tool, then everything would have passed in a couple of minutes.

If possible, always back up the OS on physical servers, then you will save a lot of time and effort

If you go to System Properties, you will not find the System Protection tab on Windows Server 2012 R2.

Why the Windows Server 2012 r2 data archiving system?

I understand perfectly well that there are a number of others software products for server OS backups, for example from:

Veeam
Acronis

But the Windows Server 2012 r2 data archiving system is already under the hood in the system itself, and the biggest shock is that most system administrators simply do not know about it, so they are forced to use third-party products. Someone told me that he doesn’t understand how it all works, which prompted me to write this article so that people could see all this in practice.

Where can I make a backup copy?

The windows server data archiving system can create backups for the following storages:

Ideally, the system should have a separate disk, which is marked by the archiving system and hidden from the user, for further creation of recovery points. Microsoft itself recommends this option. By the way, if anyone is familiar with Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager, then that’s how the backup system worked there.
You can use already marked sections
Network folders
iSCSI drives

The Windows Server 2012 R2 data archiving system can create a full copy and a differential (additional) copy, and it itself manages the storage period. Its operating principle is very simple, it will record and store as many copies as disk space allows, then it will cyclically rewrite, newer to older, very similar to video surveillance.

So after setting up the backup storage, the Windows Server Backup service will do everything itself and organize the data storage space. This is a huge plus for novice system administrators, since not everyone is immediately able to estimate the required amount of storage and data volume, many do not know that data in backup copies is compressed, and if you also know such a word as Windows deduplication, you can get the most out of your disk space.

Let's talk a little about the mechanism of the system itself. windows archiving server, there is nothing new here, it uses the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS), its task is to allow the archiving tool to work with open and system files, and not just work, but also not interfere with the system working, the service simply makes a certain snapshot of the state, this is very similar to virtual machines. On the Windows Server 2012 R2 engine, you can thus archive virtual machines on Hyper-V 3.0 without stopping their operation.

The capabilities of VSS also extend to databases; I can say with one hundred percent certainty that you will not have any problems with Exchange or MS SQL, but PostgreSQL can create certain difficulties. If we are talking about MS SQL, then it perfectly understands the VSS service and transfers the database to a consistent state before creating a shadow copy; VSS itself does not even think about checking the logical integrity of the data, it does not need this, since its task is to take a snapshot. If, for example, we make a PostgreSQL backup in this way, then when restoring we will receive a slice of the database for a certain state of time in an inconsistent state and it will not contain all the pending transactions at the time the backup was created. So, there is some kind of proprietary approach to their products.

Where is the best place to copy?

It’s not easy to answer this question, since everyone’s backup situation is different and their infrastructure is different. Let's look at the pros and cons of different storage options. Let me remind you that we have several of them. Firstly, if you put a backup copy locally on the server, then you will make it faster and be able to recover faster if necessary, but on the other hand, the server may break down locally, and even worse if it is RAID, then everything will be sad. The second example is that you are making a backup on ISCSI disks, it’s good that it is stored remotely from the server, you can quickly reconnect to another server if necessary, but the speed of creating a backup and the speed of recovery are slower, and the servers and disks from which you are doing may also fail iSCSI disks. To summarize, you should ideally have copies in several places, it is clear that this is not always possible, but you need to strive for this, here you need to understand the criticality of the data and implement the system based on this.

Installing a windows server archiving system

Let's look at how the Windows Server 2012 r2 data archiving system is installed. Since 2008, it has been a component of the system and it is logical that you need to look for it in the server manager. Select Manage > Add Roles and Features

leave the option to install roles and components

Select Windows Server Backup System

and click install.

In a couple of moments, you will have the required component installed.

Setting up a Windows server archiving system

After installing the archiving component, you need to configure it, let's get started. Open Server Manager > Tools and find the Windows Server Backup System item.

You can also call this snap-in by pressing WIN+R and entering wbadmin.msc, see the full link. Once you open the snap-in, you will immediately see that you are strongly recommended to set up the first schedule. This can be done through the action menu:

Archiving schedule
One-time archiving
Recovery

I click the archiving schedule, you will see a setup wizard window, in the first step you will have a choice whether to backup the entire server or a custom backup. I always recommend going with the Custom option since you'll explicitly specify what needs to be backed up and what doesn't.

in the archiving objects window, the windows server data archiving system will ask you to add elements using the corresponding button.

Among the elements you will have:

Restoring the system to its original state
State of the system
Local disks
Hyper-V role, if installed.

As a result, the objects for archiving will be added to the list. I would like to note that if you click the Additional parameters button, you can set the VSS parameters:

Full VSS archiving > suitable if you don't use third party applications for backup.
Copy VSS archive > if another program is used to archive applications on volumes included in the archive.

For example, if you are using Exchange or MS SQL, then select the Copy VSS archive option for normal interaction with the shadow copy service.

Also on the exceptions tab, you can add folders that do not need to be copied; for example, they may contain temporary files, convenient when you have previously added full copy drive C:.

Now, in order to back up the windows server, you need to set a schedule, here either once a day or more often, we set it at our discretion.

Archiving on HDD for archives > here the physical HDD is completely given over, formatted and hidden from the user, such foolproof protection so that playful hands don’t spoil everything.
Archiving on a volume > the same is very common, you take an existing volume (it can be part of a RAID or another physical disk) and put it there, the same thing also applies to an ISCSI disk, which is seen in the system as local.
Well, the shared share is very convenient, everything is located outside the physical server.

If you select Backup to hard drive for archives, then in the next step you will be required to specify the drive that will be used for Windows server backup.

From my point of view, you should have a local backup of the system and a backup on ISCSI disks that are not tied to a physical server

If you select archiving to a shared network folder, you will see a warning window that if you specify a remote shared folder Only the latest archive will be available as a scheduled archiving destination if in simple language, then there will simply be constant overwriting, convenient for a quick backup so that it is on a remote storage.

If you select Backup to volume, then you need to specify the destination volume to which the windows server will be backed up.

We look at the summary information and confirm the schedule.

We see that the Windows server archiving system has successfully created a schedule.

Recovering Windows Server 2012 R2

Once you have a backup, let's consider a situation in which you will need to perform the procedure Windows recovery Server 2012 R2. Firstly, you can view the backup details Windows copy Server (size, date)

How to recover a single file or folder

If you need to restore, for example, a single file, then there is no point in restoring it through a snap-in, since a backup copy is a virtual disk that can be attached to the system. Let's look at the file structure itself; they are located in the WindowsImageBackup folder.

Here is an example of my virtual disk, by right-clicking on it, you can click Connect.

You will be warned that the disk image is not initialized, contains unrecognized partitions, or volumes that do not have drive letters assigned to them. Use Disk Management to verify that the disks, partitions, and volumes are usable.

Here we just go to the Disk Management snap-in, right-click on the start button.

We see our under mounted disk, right-click on it and select change drive letter or disk path.

We assign the desired letter, for me it is the letter E.

We all open my computer and see a new local disk.

When you are finished working with the disk, use the Disk Management snap-in to mount it. As you can see virtual disks very useful thing.

Recovery in case of operating system failure

No one is immune from this, I have seen many times in my practice that the Windows Server system failed, and restoring it without a backup took much more time than simply reinstalling the system and further reconfiguring, an example would be the an error error occurred while attempting to read the boot configuration data. Therefore, a couple of times when you get burned, you will understand that the Windows Server 2012 R2 data archiving system is a great thing that allows you to backup Windows Server and right moment recover from it.

We go to the Windows server archiving system and in the right corner select the Restore item. You will have two options to choose from:

This server > means that the backup is local
The archive is located in a different location.

First, let's select the second item "The archive is in a different location"

There are two options, either you slip in a CD-ROM or external drive, or specify a UNC path in the format \\folder

The main thing is that the system has rights to read it.

If you select This server at the beginning, you will see a list of available Windows Server backups; you just need to select a rollback date.

Files and folders
Hyper-V
Applications
State of the system

By selecting the first option "Files and folders" you can restore separate files or folders from a backup.

If you select Hyper-V, you will be offered:

Restore to original location > this is essentially an overwrite
Restore to another location
Copy to folder

The application item is a little specific, since it does not work for all applications, but for those who know how to work with the archiving service API and support VSS. Well, system recovery:

Original location > will be rolled back to the state that was at the time of the Windows Server backup
Another placement > will essentially create a folder with a set of files.

Click restore

It will calculate how many files are recoverable and the process will begin.

After reboot you will see the message:

The system state restore operation started on 02/08/2017 was completed successfully

We quite often asked the system administrators we know: what tools do they use to backup the state of their servers? And they were very surprised that many of them did not even mention the Windows Server archiving system. To the next question: why don't they use this tool, we often received the answer that they do not understand how this system works, how to manage backups, etc., etc. In part, the reason can be called valid; when there is no understanding of how this or that product works, it is better to refuse to use it.

Better yet, figure out how it works and start putting it into practice. In the new archiving system, many expect to see a successor to the familiar NTBackup, but Microsoft has completely redesigned the mechanism for creating backup copies and we have a completely different tool. The main storage for backup copies is a disk, which is independently marked by the archiving system and hidden from the user. You can also use an already mapped volume or network resource, however, these methods have their limitations and negate all the advantages of the new technology.

The new archiving system independently manages the backup process, creating primary and additional copies of data, as well as their retention period. This is one of the main difficulties that arises when using a new tool. Many administrators are accustomed to explicitly specifying the type of archive being created, their number and storage period, so if they do not find the necessary options here, they make hasty and incorrect conclusions.

Another difficulty arises here. Many administrators associate the word disk only with a physical hard drive, after which a lot of questions immediately arise: where to get so many disks, how to connect them to servers, how to ensure that archives are stored separately from the system, etc. and so on. Yes, and allocating even a 500 GB disk for backup of a member server looks somewhat wasteful. Therefore, it’s time to remember about iSCSI technology, which allows you to immediately solve the entire layer of “problems”.

Indeed, this technology is supported today by all systems, including even NAS in a price category slightly higher than the entry level, which allows you to wisely manage the available disk space and organize the storage of archives separately from the systems. Microsoft recommends having 1.5 times more disk space to store two copies of data; in our opinion, this figure is somewhat overestimated, especially if you are copying data that rarely changes, for example, server state.

We'll jump ahead a little and show the result of archiving a test server with a volume of archived data of 29 GB:

To create backups, the volume shadow copy (VSS) mechanism is used, which allows you to work with open and system files without interrupting the work of the system and users. Starting with Windows Server 2012, the backup system also allows you to backup Hyper-V virtual machines running on the host and restore their state individually. When using other software on the server that uses shadow copy capabilities, the archiving system has the ability to save the VSS log, which will ensure the correct operation of these services during recovery.

Separately, we should touch upon database backups; if there are no problems with products that support shadow copying, such as MS SQL Server or Exchange, problems may arise with third-party products, for example, PostgreSQL. The shadow copy mechanism does not check the logical integrity of files, simply taking a snapshot of their state at a certain point in time; systems that support VSS are able to handle this moment, bringing the database to a consistent state before the moment the shadow copy is created. For unsupported systems, we will simply receive a slice of the database for a certain state of time; when restoring such a database, it will be brought to a consistent state using the DBMS, in other words, all pending transactions will be canceled and data loss may occur.

In order to start using the Windows Server archiving system, you first need to install the component of the same name, this is done through Add Roles and Features Wizard.

The service management snap-in can then be launched either through Facilities V Server Manager, or through a shortcut in Control Panel - Administration.

The equipment is absolutely typical for Windows Server services and does not cause any difficulties when working with it.

Pressing Archiving schedule we will launch the wizard of the same name, which offers us to archive the entire server, or specify objects for selective archiving.

We will always have time to archive everything at once, so we will choose a custom archiving type. The next step will be asking us to select objects for archiving.

To add them just click Add elements.

If you select Restoring the system to its original state, then they will be automatically addedState of the system, system partition (drive C:) and service partition with bootloader. For educational purposes, we added to this data a folder with MS SQL databases, which should represent some user data.

And also set the parameters of the shadow copy service; if you have applications that use this service, for example, MS SQL Server, then you should select the Copy VSS log setting, which will ensure their normal interaction with the shadow copy service, including during recovery.

Then you will need to create a schedule, the task is extremely simple, you can run archiving either once or several times a day, the minimum interval step is half an hour.

If you select a disk, it will be formatted and hidden, this provides additional protection from possible destructive influences, for example, encryption Trojans.

At the last step, you should once again make sure that the settings made are correct and confirm them by pressing the button Ready.

Then we indicate the date and time the backup was created to which we want to roll back; the available dates are highlighted in bold.

Then we indicate what exactly we want to restore:

As you can see, these can be files and folders, Hyper-V virtual machines, volumes, applications and system state. Special mention should be made of applications. This feature is only available to applications registered with the archiving system, which must be able to work with the service's API and support VSS. Simply put, this list includes a limited number of programs, mainly from Microsoft itself, and for third-party software this function is useless.

Restoring the system state is carried out in two stages, each of which ends with a reboot.

Moreover, the second stage looks like a normal OS boot and does not display any messages, simply rebooting after a while. It may seem like there was an error or failure, but this is not the case.

In general, this operation is no different from restoring a volume from an image using any other software, for example, Acronis.

As you can see, the Windows Server backup system is a very functional and convenient tool that allows for successful data recovery at any level and at the same time relieving the administrator of a significant part of the worries of managing this process. Therefore, if you are not yet using this archiving system, then after reading this material it’s time to take a closer look at it.

In Windows Server (2008, r2, 2012, r2) when setting up archiving via GUI There is one big drawback: you have the choice to archive every day or more than once a day. Therefore, you cannot configure data archiving to start on different days. With a large amount of data, copying every day is impossible (the system simply does not have time to complete the copy). Approximately starting from 3 TB.

The system has one 4TB partition with data and two 3TB disks for backup.

Section with data under the letter d:

Backup section f: and e:

Let's start creating a bat file that will start archiving data.

Open Notepad (press the keyboard shortcut windows+r recruiting a team notepad and press enter)

Paste the following command with parameters

wbadmin start backup -backupTarget:f: -include:d:\folder1,d:\folder2 -systemstate -vssFull -quiet

wbadmin- standard archiving application

-backupTarget:f:- the place where the archive will be located (in the first bat file we indicate drive f:)

-include:d:\folder1,d:\folder2- folders in section d: which we will archive

-systemstate - Creates a backup that includes the system state in addition to all other items specified with the -include parameter. (The entire section relating to the system and its state, including the section “reserved by the system”)

-vssFull- Performs full backup using Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS). The fact of archiving of each file is reflected in the corresponding log. If this option is not used, the "WBADMIN START BACKUP"+B192 command performs a copy backup, but the history of the files being backed up is not updated. Attention! Do not use this option if you are using a product other than Windows Server Backup to back up applications on volumes included in your current backup. This may cause incremental, differential, or other backups created by another product to become corrupted.

-quiet- suppresses all requests for the user

Save the file with the extension .bat

We create a task, say once a week on Saturday, in the scheduler and specify this file.

Now let’s create a second bat file, only now we’ll insert the command with different parameters

wbadmin start backup -backupTarget:e: -include:d:\folder4,d:\folder5 -exclude:d:\folder4\temp -systemstate -vssFull -quiet

This bat file will start archiving two other directories and onto another disk; we will also create a copy of the system (in case the first disk for archiving stops working).

This command uses the -exclude option: d:\folder4\temp(excludes the folder from copying).

Save the file with the extension .bat

We create another task for Sunday in the scheduler and specify this file.

In this article we looked at the archiving method from command line at a time that is convenient for us and used two disks for backup.

This cannot be done through the GUI.

Additional options that may be useful

-exclude- Specifies a list of items to be excluded from archiving, separated by commas. You can include multiple files, folders, or volumes. Volumes can be specified using a drive letter, volume mount point, or GUID-based volume name. If a GUID-based volume name is used, it must end with a backslash (\). When specifying a file path, you can use a wildcard character (*) in the file name. It should only be used in conjunction with the -backupTarget option.

-nonRecurseInclude- Specifies a non-recursive comma-separated list of items to be included in the archive. You can include multiple files, folders, or volumes. Volumes can be specified using a drive letter, volume mount points, or GUID-based volume names. The GUID-based volume name must end with a backslash (\). When specifying a file path, you can use a wildcard character (*) in the file name. It should only be used in conjunction with the -backupTarget option.

-nonRecurseExclude- Specifies a non-recursive list of items to be excluded from archiving, separated by commas. You can include multiple files, folders, or volumes. Volumes can be specified using a drive letter, volume mount point, or GUID-based volume name. The GUID-based volume name must end with a backslash (\). When specifying a file path, you can use a wildcard character (*) in the file name. It should only be used in conjunction with the -backupTarget option.

-hyperv- Specifies a list of components included in the archiving, separated by commas. The identifier can be the name or GUID of the component (with or without curly braces).

-allCritical- Creates a backup that includes all important volumes (important volumes contain files and components operating system) in addition to all other elements specified with the -include parameter. This option is useful when creating a backup to restore the system to its original state. It should only be used in conjunction with the -backupTarget option.

-noVerify- Prevents checking backups written to removable media (such as DVDs) for errors. If this option is not used, backups saved to removable media, are checked for errors.

-user- If the backup is saved to a remote shared folder, specifies a user name with write permission to that folder.

-password- Specifies the password for the username specified for the -user parameter.

-noInheritAcl- Applies permissions from the access control list (ACL) corresponding to the credentials specified by the -user and -password parameters to the folder \\<имя_сервера>\<имя_общей_папки>\WindowsImageBackup\<архивируемый_компьютер>\ (backup folder). To access the backup later, you must use these credentials or be a member of the Administrators or Backup Operators group on the computer with the shared folder. If the -noInheritAcl option is not used, ACL permissions from the remote shared folder are applied to the folder<архивируемый_компьютер>by default, which ensures that every user who has access to the remote shared folder has access to the backup copy.

-vssCopy- Performs copy archiving using VSS. The log of archived files is not updated. This is the default value.

-allowDeleteOldBackups- Overwrites found backups before updating.

It is not necessary to create bat files, you just need to correctly add the command and parameters to the task scheduler.

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