Backup Exec 20.2 Administrator's Guide

About selecting data to back up

When you back up a server, Backup Exec includes all of the data on the server in the backup selections by default. If you want to modify the backup selections, you can click Edit in the Selections box on the Backup Definitions Properties dialog box.

Figure: Selections box on the Backup Definition Properties dialog box

See Backing up data.

Instead of backing up all of the data on a server, you can select drives, folders, files, System State, network shares, or databases on the Browse tab.

To expand or collapse the view for an item, click the arrow next to it or double-click the item's name. To view the contents of an item, double-click the item's icon. The item's contents appear in the right frame of the backup selections view. You can traverse file levels from either side of the window by clicking folders and subfolders as they appear.

When you browse remote selections, Backup Exec requires a valid logon account to expand the computer contents. If the default logon account does not enable access to a remote selection, Backup Exec prompts you to select another existing logon account. You can also create a new logon account that can access the selection.

See Testing credentials for backup sources.

See Replacing the credentials for a backup source.

See Creating new credentials for a backup source.

To include data in the backup, select the check box next to the drive or directory that you want to back up.

This topic includes the following information:

Tagging resources as business-critical

Including and excluding specific files or subdirectories

Selecting multiple servers or applications

Selecting critical system components

Using fully qualified domain names in backup selections

The Tag as Business-Critical option lets you select which resources are most important to you. When an item is tagged as a business-critical resource, Backup Exec prioritizes the backup of that resource within the backup window before any resources that are not tagged as business-critical. If you tag a resource as business-critical, all of its children are also tagged as critical. When you tag an item as a business-critical resource, Backup Exec changes the icon for that resource in the backup set view and in the restore wizard.

Note that the Tag as business-critical option is disabled on partial selections. In addition, the option is not applicable to Enterprise Vault resources, such as Compliance Accelerator or Discovery Accelerator.

When an item is tagged as a business-critical resource, it applies only to that job. It is not a global setting. When you tag a server's resource as business-critical and also select other resources from the same server, then the backup priority for the business-critical resource is evaluated in relation to the other resources for that server only. For multi-server jobs, business-critical resources are backed up by the order in which the servers are prioritized, with the business-critical resources for servers at the top of the list being backed up before business-critical resources for the servers that are lower on the list.

Critical system resources can be tagged as business-critical as well. If critical system resources are not selected, then the resources that are tagged as business-critical are backed up before critical system resources if they are in the same backup job. However, the best practice for critical system resources is to back them up in a separate backup job. If you include both business-critical resources and critical system resources in the same backup job, note that system state is always backed up last regardless of whether it was tagged as a business-critical resource or not.

After you tag items as business-critical resources you can use the arrow buttons on the Selection Details tab to change the order in which the items are backed up. However, an item that is not tagged as a business-critical resource cannot be moved ahead of an item that is tagged as a business-critical resource. For example, if you tagged your C drive as a business-critical resource, but did not tag your E drive as a business-critical resource, you cannot move the E drive ahead of the C drive.

See Changing the order in which backup sources are backed up.

The Selection Details tab lets you include or exclude files for backups by specifying file attributes. Exclusions apply to all of the jobs in a backup definition.

See Excluding files from backups.

See Including specific files with a backup job's backup selections.

If you select to back up data from multiple servers or applications, you can create separate backup definitions for each server or application. Alternatively, you can create one backup definition that includes all servers and applications. If you create separate backup definitions, it is easier to identify problems when backup jobs fail. Also, if an issue arises with one server that causes a backup job to fail, the other backup jobs can still complete successfully. If you create one backup definition that includes all of your servers and applications, it takes less work to monitor the job's status. You can select a default method for backing up multiple servers in the Backups dialog of the Backup Exec Settings.

See Configuring the default setting for backing up multiple servers or applications.

When all the critical system components are included in your backup job selections, the Simplified Disaster Recovery indicator on the selections pane reads ON. If you deselect one or more critical system component files, the indicator changes to OFF.

Figure: Simplified Disaster Recovery indicator is ON in the Backup Definition Properties dialog box

See About backing up critical system components.

If you deselect any critical system components, it can disqualify your backup data from being used in certain types of restore scenarios.

You can enter fully qualified domain names in Backup Exec anywhere that you can enter a computer name. In addition, Backup Exec can show fully qualified domain names where computer names are listed.

It is not recommended using both fully qualified domain names and non-qualified domain names. It is recommended that you use fully qualified domain names.

For example, if you have a computer named Test_Computer, you can have two selections for it. One selection is called Test_Computer. The fully qualified selection is called Test_Computer.domain.company.com. In this case, Backup Exec treats each selection as a separate computer, even though both selections are for the same computer. For any backup jobs that use the short computer name, the catalog contains the short computer name. For any backup jobs that use the fully qualified name, the catalog contains the fully qualified name.