NT Backup Using NTBACKUP Supplied
With every Windows NT License

Define Critical

Apart from your database files, very small percentage of what you have on your server is critical. A WinZip installation on your NT server does not qualify as a critical application. You can always reinstall it without sacrificing anything. An examples of critical files will be:

User/Developers' Files Kept on Server

System Registry Files

Database Files

Web Server Files/Log Files

Keep Your Windows NT System Configuration Current

Keeping your registry files current will save you a great deal of trouble later. Run RDISK utility every time you have installed/uninstalled any software or upgraded the hardware. After the hardware upgrade, give yourself a day or so to see if your hardware upgrade was stable or not.

Choose Update Repair Info option. Create Repair Disk is a useless option unless you have a server with nothing on it. Most of the time the size of registry files is more than what a 1.44" disk can take. Many of us forget to run this utility and there comes a time when we choose "Last known good configuration option" from the startup and realize that our server configuration resembles a lot like how it was when they first installed it.

You can run the Rdisk (Update Repair Info) option using batch file with the following command.

RDISK /S-

Keep Your Registry Files Backup Ready

Most of the important registry files are in use when the server is running. Most backup software will simply ignore the files and move on. There are some which claim to backup open files. Well, don't bank on it. You must create an offline backup copy of your registries somewhere else on the disk, which can be backed up daily. To create an offline backup copies of your registries I highly recommend to invest into Microsoft Resource Kit. The resource kit is sold separately for the server and workstation (I don't know why). Resource kit (both server and workstation versions) come with a utility, REGBACK. This utility can backup the entire registry or just a hive to a disk location. I use the following sample batch file every night to backup the registries for Server1.

DailyRegBack.bat
del F:\regbkp\Server1\*.* /q
regback F:\regbkp\Server1

del \\Server2\f$\regbkp\Server1\*.* /q
regback \\Server2\f$\regbkp\Server1

The batch file not only backs up the registry to a local drive, it creates a backup registry on Server2. This batch file is scheduled to run at 10:00 PM every night. While you are exploring the Resource Kit, check out the Command Scheduler. It is a GUI version of the AT command to schedule jobs.

Do Not Waste Time to Wait for Open Files

You can modify the following registry entries to adjust the skipped files options:

HKey_current_user\Software\Microsoft\Ntbackup\User Interface

  Name: Skip open files

  Type: REG_SZ

  Definition:

  0 = do not skip, wait

  1 = skip files that are opened unreadable

  2 = wait on open files for "Wait time"

Default is set fot 2. Change this value to 1.

Do Not Ignore the Open Files

We somehow need to back the open files too. The only way to close the open files is to close the program which is opening them. A bit of guess work may be required. Some of the Microsoft Software and database related software files are easy to figure out. Figuring out the source of opened files from one of your home grown application may be a problem.

There is a utility to determine the source of open files. This shareware utility tells you who has a particular file open, find it at:

http://www.sysinternals.com/

For database backups try to use the vendor supplied backup software. Most database vendors (I know of SQL Server and Oracle) come with a tape backup utility. The utility can backup the database safely to a tape even when it is opened. This is one instance where my rule, "Do not trust the software proclaiming to backup open files" does not apply. The reason is simple, database backup software does not take file system backups. Rather, it reads the database dictionary and the data like an application and writes it in a proprietary format. I do recommend the following for the "extra careful" types. If you have a lot of disk space, schedule disk dumps of the database. MS SQL Server (6.5) disk dumps can be schedules from SQL Executive. You can back these dumps using NTBackup. Schedule these dumps well before your NTBackup starts. Depending upon the size of the database the database dumps may run for some time. For services/applications which do not fall into this category, you have no choice but to shut them down before the backup starts. To minimize the downtime for those mission critical services, shut them down right before backing up those folders where the opened files reside. Use the NET START and NET STOP command to stop services. At this point I would like to mention another great utility supplied with the Resource kit, NETSVC. This utility can remotely start or stop services running on other servers. The following example illustrates its usage.

netsvc "FTP Publishing Service" \\Server1 /stop
ntbackup backup z:\Inetpub\WebDatabases /a /d "Server1 e:\Inetpub" /hc:on /l "d:\BkpLogs\%1.log" /e
netsvc "FTP Publishing Service" \\Server1 /stop

Backup Your Critical Files Every Day

We must backup all the critical files by applying all the techniques above.  You should schedule daily tape backups to backup all critical folders on local and remote servers.  You should shutdown services as needed and restart them after the backup is done.  The following batch file will show you some tricks I use to backup my servers.  The batch file takes the tape id as an argument.  I give each tape a unique ID most likely coinciding with the day the tape is used.  For example a DDS2 tape used on the 24th of every month is named as DDS2-24.  A well thought out scheme for naming your tapes is important in the event you want to recover the data.  The output of the NTBackup is written to <TapeId>.log file.   Overall progress is written to DailyBackup.Log file.  Once your backup strategy is stable you need to look at DailyBackup.Log file only to determine how your backups are going.  I have scheduled this file to run every day.  There are actually 31 entries in the schedule for each day's run as the argument (Tape ID) passed to the batch file is different every day.  Little program called NOW.EXE is supplied with the resource kit.  It is a character mode application which displays the current date and time on the console (Command Prompt).

rem Use this batch file to perform daily backups.
rem Arguements passed to the batch file: TapeName
rem We will be using DDS2 tapes for daily backups.
rem All DDS tapes are named as DDS2-1 DDS2-2 and so on.
rem Use the number after the dash to indicate the day of the month.
rem Supply full tape name as the arguement.

rem Backup logs will be stored on D:\BkpLogs

rem The backup will be a multi steps process.
rem First map the drive to be backed up.
rem Shutdown the services (If necessary)
rem Perform the backup.
rem Start the services (If you shut them down before)
rem Disconnect the drive.

if "%1==" goto err1

rem Do the following only once. Just in case if the last backup failed.
net use z: /d

now >> d:\BkpLogs\DailyBackup.log
echo ....Starting daily backup >> d:\BkpLogs\DailyBackup.log

rem Backup Server1 now
rem This is the first set it must not have /a option
rem Missing /a option starts the first backup from the beginning of the tape.
net use z: \\Server1\c$
ntbackup backup z:\bat /d "Server1 c:\bat" /hc:on /l "d:\BkpLogs\%1.log" /e
net use z: /d

rem These are the following sets. They must have /a option
net use z: \\Server1\d$
ntbackup backup z:\IntDevProjects /a /d "Server1 d:\IntDevProjects" /hc:on /l "d:\BkpLogs\%1.log" /e
net use z: /d

net use z: \\Server1\e$
now >> d:\BkpLogs\DailyBackup.log

echo ....Stopping Server1 IIS services >> d:\BkpLogs\DailyBackup.log

netsvc w3svc \\Server1 /stop
netsvc "FTP Publishing Service" \\Server1 /stop
netsvc "Site Server LDAP Service" \\Server1 /stop
netsvc "Microsoft SMTP Service" \\Server1 /stop

ntbackup backup z:\Inetpub\WebDatabases /a /d "Server1 e:\Inetpub" /hc:on /l "d:\BkpLogs\%1.log" /e
ntbackup backup z:\Inetpub\Weblogs /a /d "Server1 e:\Inetpub" /hc:on /l "d:\BkpLogs\%1.log" /e

netsvc w3svc \\Server1 /start
netsvc "FTP Publishing Service" \\Server1 /start
netsvc "Site Server LDAP Service" \\Server1 /start

echo ....Starting Server1 IIS services >> d:\BkpLogs\DailyBackup.log

netsvc "Content Index" \\Server1 /stop
rem The files may be in use in Inetpub backup. Refer to prior backups for good files.
ntbackup backup z:\Inetpub /a /d "Server1 e:\Inetpub" /hc:on /l "d:\BkpLogs\%1.log" /e
netsvc "Content Index" \\Server1 /start

ntbackup backup z:\Devlp /a /d "Server1 e:\Devlp" /hc:on /l "d:\BkpLogs\%1.log" /e
net use z: /d

REM Backup other machines here

now >> d:\BkpLogs\DailyBackup.log
echo ....Finished daily backup >> d:\BkpLogs\DailyBackup.log
echo .... >> d:\BkpLogs\DailyBackup.log

goto eoj
:err1
echo You must supply a tape name
:eoj
rem Over

Perform Full Backups, Too

A complete backup of your system will beat a daily critical files or an incremental backup any day.   The trouble is that the full backups take too long and too many tapes.  Depending upon your resources and the size of the tape drive, perform a full backup of your servers at least once a week.  You can use some of the ideas from the batch file above.

 
This article is by Ashish Kumar of Jagat Technology, Inc.