Windows Server 2019 Module 7 Section 3 Backup and Restore Infrastructure in Windows Server

What is Windows Server Backup

A feature that consists of Microsoft Management Console(MMC) snap in, wbadmin command, and windows PowerShell commands

How can you use Windows Server Backup

Wizards and PowerShell cmdlets

What are the tasks Windows Server Backup can do

A full server

Individual files and folders

System State

Individual VM host on Hyper-V

Microsoft Exchange database

Cluster Shared volumes

What are some more advanced task Windows Server Backup can do

Performing a bare-metal restore - A bare-metal backup contains at least all critical volumes, and it allows you to restore without first installing an operating system. This is done by using the product media on a DVD or USB key and the Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE). This backup type can be used together with the Windows RE to recover from a hard disk failure or to recover a whole computer image to new hardware.

Restoring system state - The backup contains all information to roll back a server to a specific time. However, you must install an operating system before system state can be recovered.

Recovering individual files and folders or volumes - The Individual files and folders option enables you to selectively back up and restore specific files, folders, or volumes. Specific files, folders, or volumes can be added to a backup even when using an option such as critical volume or system state.

Excluding selected files or file types - Unwanted files or file types, such as temporary files, can be excluded from a backup.

Storing backups in multiple storage locations - You can store backups on remote shares or non-dedicated volumes.

Performing backups to Azure - Azure Online Backup is a cloud-based backup solution for Windows Server that enables you to back up and recover files and folders offsite by using cloud services. You can use Windows Server Backup with an appropriate agent to store backups in Azure.

To backup multipule servers using Windows Server Backup you must

install and con

WBAdmin is

A command-line tool that’s built into Windows Server. The command is sured to perform backups and restores of operating systems, drive volumes, files, folders, and applications from a command-line interface

Is Windows Server Backup installed by default

No

How can Windows Server Backup be installed

Windows Admin Center

Server Manager

PowerShell cmdlet Add-WindowsFeature Windows-Server-Backup -includeAllSubfeature

What does Windows Server Backup use to perform backups

Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS)

A consistent shadow copy is known as a

snapshot or point-in-time copy

VSS solutions have which parts

VSS Service

VSS Requester

VSS Writer

Microsoft SQL or Exchange Server

VSS Provider

VSS Service Does what

The part of the Windows OS that ensure that the other components can communicate with each other properly and able to work together

VSS Requester does what

This software requests the actual creation of Shadow Copies or other high-level operations like importing or deleting them. This is typically a backup application.

VSS Writer does what

This component guarantees that you have a consistent dataset to back up. This is typically a line-of-business application such as Microsoft SQL Server or Exchange server . The Windows Server OS includes VSS writers for carious components such as registry.

Types of backups for Active Directory

Full Server Backup

System State Backup

Critical Volumes Backup

What is a Full Server Backup

Contains all the volumes on a domain controller.

What is a System State backup

A non incremental backup that requires the same amount of space each backup

What is a critical volumes backup

an incremental backup that includes only the difference between the current backup and the previous backup.

If a backup is older than 180 days you can’t

restore from it

Exchange Native Data Protection is a concept that

relies on native Exchange features to protect mailbox data without using traditional backups

If you want to make backups of Exchange servers you can use the

Windows Server Backup plug-in that exchange has.

How does the Windows Server Backup Plug-in work

enables you to create a Exchange aware VSS backup of the exchange data.

What is the plug-in for the exchange server

WSBExchange.exe

To schedule or modify a backup you can use the

Backup Schedule Wizard

What does the Exclusions option do in Backup Schedule Wizard

You can exclude files types within specific folder and their subfolders.

What does the VSS Option option do in Backup Schedule Wizard

You can select VSS full backup or VSS Copy Backup.

What is a VSS Full backup

An update that updates the backup history and the clears the log file

What is a VSS Copy Backup

A backup that includes the VSS writer log files

What factors should be included when planning a backup strategy

Type of backups that can be made

the state of VMs

type of storage the VMs use

Data being backed up

Exchange and SQL server have different

best practices for backing them up

In Hyper-V environments you can use both

Windows Server Backup and Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager to back them up

Methods of backing VMs up

Backup the VM from the host

Backup the VM’s VHDs

Backup inside the VM

Backup the VM from the host Backup Method

full server backup where the data in the backup includes VMs' configurations, VMs' associated checkpoints, and VMs' virtual hard disks (VHDs). When restoring data from a backup, it's not necessary to recreate VMs or reinstall Windows Server roles. However, the backup doesn't include virtual network settings, which must be recreated and reattached to the VMs. For this purpose, Windows PowerShell scripts that automate the process of creating and attaching the virtual switches might be created.

Most businesses today use this to backup VMs from the host

Backup the VM from the host method

Backup the VM’s VHDs backup method

access the storage and backup the VHDs. May be ineffective since to use the VHDs you would need to create new VMs and configure them first

Back up inside the VM backup method

This method backs up the storage within the VM from the VM. The downside is that the VM configuration isn’t backed up.

To perform backups that don’t incur VM downtime you must meeT these conditions

VM being backup has integration services installed and enabled

Each disk that the VM uses us running NTFS file system basic disks

VSS is enables on all volumes within the VM and snapshots for each volume are stored on the same volume