Backup solutions for Windows have evolved to the point where they are nearly invisible — they do their work automatically and silently in the background as we work. This tip focuses on such backup tools, as well as the degrees of automation you can expect to get from currently available backup packages.

Prior to Windows Vista, everyone running 32-bit or 64-bit Windows had a free built-in backup application available — Microsoft’s own NTBACKUP tool. It works with the Windows Task Scheduler to launch the program at a pre-designated interval and start a backup process — typically to another hard drive or maybe a network folder, since, unlike tape or DVDs, these don’t require user intervention to be available.

But NTBACKUP is still terribly limited. When a scheduled backup runs, the program pops up a window right in front of you. If you’re in the middle of typing, it might even wind up canceling the job by mistake. (It’s possible to run NTBACKUP in a separate user account via Fast User Switching, but that would have to be set up by hand — which doesn’t make it very automated!)

This brings out two criteria that need to be satisfied if you’re using a backup tool to automate the backup process with a backup tool.

A program like CVBackup can do both of these at a low cost for desktops — even if it has no support for tape devices. (But tape backups are difficult to automate without becoming very costly anyway).

A third and increasingly important option is automatic incremental backup — i.e., changes to files are replicated to the backup more or less in real

Automated backup programs, whether used to create local backups or copy data offsite via high-speed Internet connections, greatly simplify administrative tasks. Properly configured, automated backups — like CVBackup, Windows NT Backup — not only ease an administrator’s workload but provide some peace of mind.

Eliminating the daily pressure of having to manually back up an organization’s critical data opens valuable time that can be dedicated to other responsibilities. However, it’s possible to become overconfident in an automated backup.

Alaska officials, for example, recently revealed that a computer technician accidentally deleted data on a hard drive. Seemingly no trouble, the case took a bad turn when, attempting to recover the data from a backup tape, the state found the media unreadable. Recovery costs are estimated to exceed $200,000.

Review the following 10 things to know about automated backup programs. They could save you and your organization from a similar nightmare.

#1 Tapes aren’t trustworthy

It’s a sad truth. Many expensive tape backup systems fail when needed most. What’s worse, many tape failures are never caught. Whether it’s a case of a tape drive requiring cleaning or media failing over time, often tape errors aren’t caught until too late. Just ask Alaska’s Department of Revenue, whose $38 million oil account (including 800,000 electronic images) had to be painstakingly rebuilt by more than 75 employees because backup tapes proved unreadable.

#2 Tape maintenance is dicey

In addition to tape drives and tapes themselves proving questionable, even proper-operating media are only as good as the operator. Unless administrators and others charged with rotating the actual tapes complete the task on time using the correct media, tape backups can prove worthless. Even veteran IT professionals occasionally insert the wrong day’s tape or confuse recovery sets. For this reason, it’s important that schedules and media are carefully monitored and tracked.

#3 Data locations change

Data locations move and change over time. For example, an organization’s public relations files might originally be installed within a server data folder labeled PR. Following an acquisition, a new storage strategy might be implemented in which those same PR documents become part of a Marketing folder. The same thing happens with databases, e-mail accounts, user directories, departmental archives, and other data. Unless backup operations are updated every time data storage locations change, backups run the risk of missing critical data.

#4 Backup operations occasionally fail

Just because a backup operation is scheduled does not mean that backup procedure will complete. Electrical outages occur. Thunderstorms intervene. Backup media fills. Backup drives get dirty. Systems freeze. The list of elements that could derail a backup is unending. Thus, you should never consider backups covered just because they’ve been scheduled. Instead, make reviewing backup logs a daily routine. Better yet, make restoring backups to test their efficacy a regular event.

#5 Backups back up bad data, too

When backup operations complete properly, they tend to complete exactly as programmed. Backups don’t care if whole directories or partitions have been deleted since the last time they ran; backups usually back up what they’re told to back up. For this reason, administrators should not depend upon a single backup set. Users occasionally delete whole folders and directories by mistake but sometimes require several days to realize the error. If your organization is working with only a single backup set updated daily, the likelihood of recovering the erroneously deleted data decreases every day. Maintaining multiple backup sets (or performing differential backups throughout the week) provides organizations with additional options for recovering data.

#6 Databases and Exchange require TLC

Many applications — including those that depend on Microsoft SQL Server and the Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine (MSDE) to power their data — store their most critical information within multiple database files. Unless the complex instructions that link the information between those databases in meaningful ways is also backed up, just having those database files saved to a backup drive won’t enable successful restoration. Be sure to follow the manufacturer’s backup guidelines when working with such third-party software.

Exchange servers need special treatment, too. E-mail servers require applications that can perform online backups, as it’s impractical to assume an organization could down e-mail servers during specific windows daily just to complete backup operations. Instead, organizations must ensure their backup applications support online or active operations. In the case of Microsoft’s popular e-mail server, such programs are described as being Exchange-aware.

#7 Some apps work better than others

Many vendor promises amount to sweet nothings; not all products work as promised. Some applications fail to back up all the files, folders, and drives you specify. Others perform a differential backup even though you called for an incremental. Still others fail to properly write data to specific media or don’t complete within reasonable timeframes.

Worse, competition within the online backup space results in many providers going out of business. Often firms go under with little notice and take your data with them. So shop carefully when considering software manufacturers and online providers. Reputation and reliability typically outweigh cost savings when selecting a backup partner. Whenever possible, don’t forget it’s a best practice to first test an application before deploying within a production environment, too. Doing so helps reveal anomalies and incompatibilities before damage can be done.

#8 Documentation is critical

The best defense against data loss, and a crucial component of any disaster recovery plan, is documentation. Only by documenting which systems are backing up what data and when (and where that data is stored) can an organization have confidence its critical data is properly protected. In addition to tracking this information, documentation should provide instructions for testing backups to ensure the backup sets enable proper recovery.

#9 Proper backup strategies require regular reviews

Data locations change. Often, documentation doesn’t keep pace. As a result, it’s easy for an organization’s backups to begin tracking the wrong data. IT departments can help prevent disaster by scheduling regular reviews of its backup strategy. Scheduling quarterly meetings to review backup strategies can help ensure backup operations keep pace with organizational changes.

#10 Security is easily overlooked

Once data is committed to a backup, that does not mean the data’s safe.There is security to consider. Headlines are rife with stories of sensitive data slipping from the hands of couriers or being misplaced or even stolen. Since backups often contain confidential and protected information, companies must take pains to protect not only the principal data but the backups, too.

In fact, depending upon the industry within which the organization operates, legislation may require special steps be taken to protect backups from public release. When extending backup and restoration privileges and handling backup media, be sure that appropriate steps are taken to guard against unauthorized access. For online backups, this means ensuring the provider supports 128-bit encrypted data streams (and a separate encryption key for recovery).

Automated backups are a good thing, but many of these programs suffer from some major design flaws.

If your backup program maintains a single backup (no versioning), then a corruption of your original file means automatic corruption of your backup. This is just as bad as having no backup at all. It means that unless you notice a file is bad in between the time it goes bad and it gets copied, you’re screwed.

Similarly, if your backups are not kept on a separate computer, or at another physical location, one catastrophe could wipe out everything you’ve created. Losing your computer to fire, water, theft, power surge, etc. leaves you without an archive of your essential data, and again, is just as bad as not having any backup at all. Even across thousands of miles, a virus could infect files on a network drive backup.

On a really paranoid level, x number of previous copies might not be enough if you don’t realize your data is corrupted through all x cycles, but if you’re worried about that, it may be time to look at a more industrial strength solution.

The ultimate automated backup tool doesn’t seem to exist (and if it does, please tell me). This ultimate tool would have a combination of features found in the above programs.

• Compresses backups.
• FTP’s the backups so you can get them off site.
• Keeps several versions
• • Local versions should focus on the most recent changes rather than archival. This way you can quickly grab a copy if you see something nasty happen (like you delete several paragraphs just before hitting save). If you need to grab an old version, you shouldn’t mind waiting to get an FTP.
  • Remote versions should have current, previous, end of last week, end of last month, and perhaps monthly if you have the space to spare.* The files should have the date in them, and FTP’d up that way so that a failure to upload one time won’t end up in the corruption of the backup. A log file should be kept so the program will recognize if something went wrong last time and not assume the previous files are valid. (* This feature should be highly configurable, I don’t want to dictate when I think backups should occur on someone else.)

Some of you might think this is overkill, but I think versioned, off-site backups are your best assurance against catastrophic failure.

This system could be fairly reasonably mimicked using SyncBack. The more clever among you can distill this to fewer steps, and if bandwidth isn’t a concern, it can be distilled even further, but the basic concepts are as follows:

Create 4 profiles

1. Copies your files to backup1.ZIP every other day.
2. Copies your files to a backup2.ZIP on days the first profile doesn’t run.
3. FTP’s backup1.ZIP soon after profile 1 runs.
4. FTP’s backup2.ZIP soon after profile 2 runs.

You can expand this as much as you want, creating 7 daily backups (monday.ZIP, etc.), weekly backups (weekly.ZIP), monthly (monthly.ZIP), or even 12 monthly backups (january.ZIP), but at this point, if this data is that mission-critical, “automatic” and “hands-free” shouldn’t be terms you’re using to describe your backup process.

Of course, none of this protects you from the simplest of failures – for some reason your backup software dies or doesn’t start up, or gets manually closed and never opened again. It’s all a matter of knowing what you’re comfortable with and planning accordingly.