Veritas™ System Recovery 18 Service Pack 3 Management Solution Administrator's Guide

To run an independent backup task

1. On the Veritas System Recovery 18 Management Solution Monitor Tasks tab, right-click Veritas System Recovery Tasks, and then click New > Task.
2. In the Client Tasks tree, click Veritas System Recovery Tasks > Independent Backup.
3. On the Create New Task panel, in the right pane, type a name for the task.
4. Specify the backup options you want.

   All drives on the selected computers	Lets you define a backup policy for two or more computers. You should select this option to protect all drives (including hidden or unmounted), that exist on the client computers.
   By drive	Lets you select the drives that you want to back up on the selected client computers. If you chose to create a recovery point set, hidden drives are not displayed in the By Drive list. Sometimes a selected drive letter is not available for backing up on a particular client computer. The drive has been deleted or the entire hard disk has been removed from the client computer since Veritas System Recovery was installed. In such cases, when the recovery point is created, it does not include the drive.
   Destination	Indicates the location where you want to store the recovery points, relative to the managed computers.
   Create subfolder for each computer	Lets you create new subfolders on the network share that serves as the backup destination. The new subfolders are given the same names as each client computer that is backed up. For example, suppose you have two client computers. One is named "CathyReadLaptop" and the other is named "MyLaptop". The new subfolders are named \CathyReadLaptop and \MyLaptop.
   Offsite Destination 1	Lets you use a primary Offsite Copy destination to make copies of your recovery points to store at a remote location or OpenStorage destination for added backup protection. See About Offsite Copy.
   Offsite Destination 2	Lets you use a secondary Offsite Copy destination to make copies of your recovery points to store at a remote location or OpenStorage destination for added backup protection. See About Offsite Copy.
   Enable password protection	Sets a password and enables AES encryption on the recovery point when it is created. This check box is selected by default.
   Password	Lets you specify a password for the backup. Passwords can include standard characters. Passwords cannot include extended characters, or symbols. (Use characters with an ASCII value of 128 or lower.) You must type this password before you restore a backup or view the contents of the recovery point.
   Confirm password	Lets you retype the password for confirmation.
   AES encryption	Encrypts recovery point data to add another level of protection to your recovery points. Note: If the Use Password check box is selected, you must define AES encryption. Choose from the following encryption levels: Standard 128-bit (8+ character password) Medium 192-bit (16+ character password) High 256-bit (32+ character password) You may have older backup policies created using Symantec System Recovery 2013 Management Solution or Symantec System Recovery 2011 Management Solution, where password protection was not enabled. If you edit the older policies using Veritas System Recovery 18 Management Solution, the AES Encryption field displays None. You need to select one of the options in the list to enable AES encryption. While higher strengths require longer passwords, the result is greater security for your data.
   Create new destination	Lets you define and use a new destination path for the recovery point.
   User name	Lets you specify the user name to a destination folder that is located in a network path.
   Password	Lets you specify the password to a destination that is located in a network path.
   Confirm password	Lets you retype the password for confirmation.
   Add destination	Adds the destination to the Destination list, and the Offsite Destination 1 and the Offsite Destination 2 lists.

5. Click Advanced, and then set the options you want on the various tabs.

   General tab: Compression options for an independent backup task

   None	Indicates that compression is not used on the recovery point. You can choose this option if storage space is not an issue. If the recovery point is saved to a busy network drive, using high compression can be faster than no compression because less data needs to be written across the network
   Standard (recommended)	Lets you use low compression for a 40 percent average data compression ratio on recovery points. This is the default setting.
   Medium	Lets you use medium compression for a 45 percent average data compression ratio on recovery points.
   High	Lets you use high compression for a 50 percent average data compression ratio on recovery points. This setting is usually the slowest method. When a high compression recovery point is created, CPU usage may be higher than normal. Other processes on the computer may also be slower. To compensate, you can adjust the operation speed of the backup process. Speed adjustments may improve the performance of other resource-intensive applications that you run at the same time.

   General tab: Advanced recovery point options for an independent backup task

   Verify recovery point after creation	Checks whether a recovery point or recovery point set is valid or corrupt immediately following its creation. For steps on how to verify the integrity of a recovery point long after it has been created, refer to the Veritas System Recovery product documentation. When you verify a recovery point, it can approximately double the time that is required to create the recovery point.
   Disable SmartSector copying	Speeds up the copying process by copying only hard disk sectors with data. However, in some cases, it may be desirable to copy all sectors in their original layout, whether or not they contain data. If you want to copy both used and unused hard disk sectors, select Disable SmartSector Copying. When you select this option, it increases the process time, and usually results in a larger recovery point file size.
   Ignore bad sectors during copy	Creates a recovery point even if bad sectors are on the hard drive. Although most drives do not have bad sectors, the potential for problems increases during the lifetime of the hard drive.
   Divide into smaller files to simplify archiving	Splits a recovery point into two or more smaller files. This feature is useful if you create or export a recovery point that you want to copy to removable media later for safekeeping. The recovery point is split into smaller, more manageable files. You can then copy the files onto separate, removable media, such as a DVD or CD. If Veritas System Recovery creates an .sv2i file in addition to the .v2i files, you need to save the .sv2i file on the same media as the first .v2i file. If you create a recovery point of volumes with thousands of files on a computer that has low memory, splitting the recovery point into smaller segments may help speed the process. If a recovery point is divided into multiple files, the file names for subsequent files are appended with _S01, _S02, and so forth. For example, if the default file name were Dev-RBrough_C_Drive.v2i, the second file name would be Dev-RBrough_C_Drive_S01.v2i, and so on.
   Include system and temporary files	Includes indexing support for the operating system and temporary files when a recovery point is created on the client computer. Note: This option does not apply to Veritas System Recovery Linux Edition.
   Perform full VSS backup	Lets you perform a full backup on the VSS storage and send a request for VSS to review its own transaction log. This option is used for VSS applications, such as Microsoft SQL. VSS determines what transactions are already committed to the database and then truncates those transactions. Among other things, truncated transaction logs help keep the file size manageable and limits the amount of hard drive space that the file uses. If you do not select this option, backups still occur on the VSS storage. However, VSS does not automatically truncate the transaction logs following a backup. Note: This option does not apply to Veritas System Recovery Linux Edition.
   Description	Lets you type a description that you want associated with the recovery point.

   Command File Settings options for an independent backup task

   Use command file package to deliver command files to the local machine	Indicates if you intend to deploy the Veritas System Recovery command file package that is stored on the Notification Server computer. See Deploying the command files package to client computers for use during a backup. When you deselect this option, you can specify a folder on a network share where the command files are stored for deployment.
   Command files folder	Lets you specify the location of command files if you want them to be located in a place other than the default location. You can also specify a location on a per-job basis, as well as specify a location that can be shared among several computers. If you specify a network location, you are prompted for network credentials.
   User name	Lets you specify the user name to a command file folder that is located in a network path.
   Password	Lets you specify the password to a command file folder that is located in a network path.
   Confirm password	Lets you retype the password to a command file folder that is located in a network path.
   Run before snapshot creation	Lets you run a command file after a backup has started and before a recovery point is created. You can run a command during this stage to prepare for the recovery point creation process. For example, you can close any open applications that use the drive. Note: If you use this option, be sure that the command file has an error recovery mechanism built into it. If the computer has one or more services that must be stopped at this stage (such as stopping a non-VSS aware database or a resource-intensive application), and the command file does not contain any form of error recovery, one or more of the stopped services may not be restarted. An error in the command file can cause the recovery point creation process to stop immediately. No other command files can run.
   Run after snapshot creation	Lets you run a command file after a snapshot is created. Running a command during this stage is a safe point for allowing services to resume normal activity on the drive while continuing the recovery point creation. Because the snapshot takes only a few seconds to create, the database is in the backup state momentarily. A minimal number of log files are created.
   Run after recovery point creation	Lets you run a command file after the recovery point file is created. You can run a command during this stage to act on the recovery point itself. For example, you can copy it to an offline location.
   Timeout (applies to each stage)	Lets you specify the amount of time (in seconds) that a command file is allowed to run.

   Image File Name tab options for an independent backup task

   Image file name

   Lets you type a name for the image file or you can leave the default name.

6. Click OK to return to the Create New Task page.
7. Click OK.
8. In the Task Status field for your selected backup task, do one of the following.

   To run the task immediately on a computer	Click Quick Run. Select the computer on which you want the task to run, and then click Run.
   To run the task immediately on multiple computers	Click New Schedule, and then do one of the following: Click Now and then select the computers for which you want to apply the task. Click Schedule at the bottom of the page.
   To run the task on multiple computers using a schedule	Click New Schedule. Click Schedule. Specify the date and time to run the task, and then select the computers for which you want to apply the task. Click Schedule at the bottom of the page.

9. Double-click the description in the Task Status table to review a detailed summary of the task's progress.