QCBackup FAQ

From qcwiki

What operating systems are supported?[top]


  • Windows 7, 8, 10
  • Windows Server 2008, 2012, 2016
  • Mac OSX
  • Linux
  • FreeBSD
  • Solaris (x86)
  • Synology NAS
  • QBAP NAS
  • Android / iPhone
  • Ubuntu





Where can I download the backup client?





What files and services are used by QCBackup


Directories

The default installation path for QCBackup is

  • QCBM - \Program Files\QCBM
  • QCDB - \Program Files\QCDB



Service

This Service incorporates Continuous Backup and Scheduler Services for QuikCloud Backup Manager

  • Service Name: OBScheduler
  • Display Name: QuikCloud Backup Manager Services



Processes

The Following process can be seen in task manager

  • bschJW - QCBackup Scheduler
  • bJW.exe - Backup Java instance




Compression of data


This applies for both QCBM and QCDB versions of the software. All file types will compress as they are being backed up. However the amount that they compress by is determined by the type of format. As an example. A simple 1MB Microsoft Word document may compress by 80%, whereas a photo (JPEG) format file will only compress by 1%. As a general rule, media files types are already in a compressed state and therefore cannot be compressed by much more.



What is an Encryption key?


Each backups set has an encryption key, which is effectively a password used to securely encrypt the data and must be used to restore that data. This encryption key can be

  • Automatically generated
  • User specified
  • The same one used as your login.

If you are defining your own this should be difficult not be a simple word such as "password" and should be kept safely. (uploaded to QCBackup)

When you restore data from the backup software, the application will first try and use the login password (this is the default encryption key), if that fails you will be prompted to enter the key manually. When you restore data from the website, you will always be prompted to enter the key manually.

All files are encrypted before they are transmitted to the QuikCloud Servers. So in unlikely event the data is intercepted it would be useless to the unauthorised recipient. The backup data is stored in encrypted format. QuikCloud provides three encryption options:

  • AES - Provides the highest level of protection
  • Twofish - Provides a lower level of protection
  • DESede - Provides the lowest level of protection

Different levels of encryption allows you to protect your backup sets at varying levels, as thereis a tradeoff between backup/restore performance and data security.

When encrypting data using an AES algorithm the backup speed may be affected verses DESede algorithm. Therefore, you may want to use AES for sensitive data such as client information, commercial secrets, and financial records. While for less sensitive data, you may consider using a lower encryption option such as Twofish or DESede.

The default encryption algorithm used provides the highest level of protection is the industry standard AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) encryption algorithm, with a 256 bit key length and CBC mode. This is only publicly available encryption algorithm approved by the US government for securing top secret information



What is an "in-file delta" and what are the various settings

An in-file delta is the term we use to refer to changes within a large file, for example an Exchange database file. By looking at a map of the file and comparing the changes to the previous version, we are able to upload a much smaller file at each backup making regular backups of large files possible.

The trade-off for this function is two-fold, time taken to create the delta file and time taken to restore the files from it's delta chain'. That is, to restore it is necessary to restore the original file, then the chain of incremental or differential delta files to reach the required restore point The more deltas there are, the longer this will take.

The default options are normally suitable for most configurations, but there may be occasions where tweaking may be helpful. The following options are available.


Options Purpose
Block size This defines the size of the file blocks, unless asked to do so by support this should remain set as Auto
Minimum Size This is the size of file that in-file deltas will be created for. The smaller the number the more time will be spent checking files rather than uploading, 25mb is suitable for most applications, fast lines may benefit from increasing this value.
In-file Delta Type Large jobs, such as SQL and Exchange benefit from adjusting this section. An incremental is the changes since the last backup regardless of type (incremental/full/differential), and a differential is the changes since the last full backup, regardless of any backups in between. Adjusting these settings to include a weekly or monthly differential will increase uploads times and data storage, but greatly reduce restore times.
Upload full file file when This section allows control of the maximum delta chain, usually these settings should be left as defaults




Understanding retention


What is the Retention area and Retention policy?

The retention area can be considered as a combination of "previous versions" and a "recycle bin". The amount of data that is kept in this area will depend on the policy that is set for the backup jobs and the amount of data that you change each day.

Examples
These examples show what happens to a single file in a number of different scenarios. In real life, an individual backup set will consist of many thousands of files, each affected in the same way by your retention policy. Also, all files will be compressed when they are uploaded, the affect of this is significant, but it has not been taken into consideration here.

Additionally, large files (over 25mb by default) will only have the changes within the file backed up, so the effect is greatly reduced.

Example 1

  • Retention policy set to "Simple" keeping for 90 days.
  • A 10KB Word document that changes daily is backed up.
  • The data area will keep 1 copy of this file.
  • The retention area will keep 90 copies of that document.
  • The total storage will be 910KB.
  • You will be able to restore a version of this file from any day in the last 90.

Example 2

  • Retention policy set to "Advanced" keeping 7 daily, 4 weekly, 3 monthly.
  • A 10KB Word document that changes daily is backed up.
  • The data area will keep 1 copy of this file.
  • The retention area will keep 14 copies of the file (7 daily + 4 weekly + 3 monthly).
  • The total storage will be 150KB.

Example 3

  • Retention policy set to "Simple" keeping 60 days.
  • A 100MB file was backed up, but never changed, this file was then deleted.
  • The data area will no longer hold a copy of this file.
  • The retention area will keep 1 copy (this copy will remain for 60 days after the files is deleted).
  • The total storage will be 100MB.
  • You will be able to restore a copy of this file to it's state before it was deleted.

As you can see from these examples, setting the retention policy can have a huge affect on the amount of data held in the retention area so you will need to tailor this to the orecise needs of your organisation. The retention policy that we recommend as providing a balance between data storage and restore flexibility is as follows:

Name Type Number Option
Daily Daily 7
Weekly Weekly 4 Set for Friday
Monthly Monthly 3 Set for first Friday of the month


System State Restore

2000/2003/XP

  1. Restart the computer in Directory Services Restore Mode, a special safe mode:
    1. Restart the computer
    2. During the normal boot process, look for the following message at the bottom of the screen:
    3. For troubleshooting and advanced startup options, press F8
    4. When this message is displayed, press F8. This message may only be displayed for a few moments; you must press F8 while it is displayed.
    5. From the Windows Advanced Options Menu, select Directory Services Restore Mode and press ENTER.
  2. When the computer finishes restarting, log in to Windows with local Administrator rights.
  3. Reinstall the Online Backup software on the computer
  4. Restore the Windows System State Backup File (i.e. SystemState.bkf) from the backup set
  5. Use [NTBackup.exe] to restore your Windows System State to its backup time from the backup by following the instructions below:
    1. Run [NTBackup.exe] from [Start] -> [Run]
    2. Press the [Restore Wizard] button and then press the [Next] button
    3. Press the [Import] button and use the [Browse] button to select the backup file [SystemState.bkf] downloaded
    4. Select the checkbox next to the description that matches your backup file
    5. Press the [Next] button and then the [Finish] button
  6. Restart the computer in normal mode.

How to restore Microsoft Windows System (WBAdmin)

Refer to the following instructions to restore a Windows System

  1. There are several methods which you can restore the Windows System
    1. Recover volumes with the Recovery Wizard
    2. Recover the operating system with the Install Windows Wizard
    3. Recover volumes with command
    4. Recover with the Windows Recovery Environment
    Important
    The volume to be recovered to must be the same size or larger than the volume that was backed up from.

Step1 - Restore the system data from the OnlineBackup Server

  1. Install OnlineBackup Client on the machine to be restored to.
  2. Login to the backup application's user interface.
  3. Select the Restore button and the corresponding backup set.
  4. Select the system file to be restored and its restore destination.
  5. Continue to the next sections for instructions to restore the Windows System.
    Important
    Before continuing, the Windows account which you are using must be a member of the Backup Operators or Administrators group.

Option1 - Recover volumes with the Recovery Wizard

Refer to the following instruction to perform a volume recovery with the Recovery Wizard

  1. From the Start menu, click Administrative Tools, and then click Windows Server Backup
  2. In the Actions panel under Windows Server Backup, click Recover to open the Recovery Wizard.
  3. In the Getting Started menu, specify the backup is stored on This server, click Next
  4. In the Select Backup Date menu, select the date from the calendar and the time from the drop-down list of backup to restore from.
  5. In the Select Recovery Type menu, click Volumes, and then click Next.
  6. On the Select Volumes Menu, select the check boxes associated with the volumes to be recover.
  7. From the associated drop-down list in the Destination Volume column, select the recovery destination volume, and click Next.

8. On the Confirmation menu, review the details; click Recover to begin the restore process.

Option2 - Recover the operating system with the Install Windows Wizard

Refer to the following instruction to perform an operating system recovery with the Install Windows Wizard

  1. Insert the Windows Setup Disc into the CD / DVD drive.
  2. Restart the computer.
    Note
    In some case, you may need to press the required key to boot up from disc.
  3. Specify the language settings, and then click Next
  4. Click Repair your computer
  5. Setup will search the hard disk for existing Windows installation, then displays the result in System Recovery Options
  6. Click Next afterwards.
  7. On the System Recovery Options page, click System Image Recovery
  8. Perform one of the following actions:
    1. Click Use the latest available system image (recommended) and then click Next.
    2. Click Select a system image and then click Next.
  9. If the option Select a system image is selected, perform one of the following actions on the Select the location of the backup page:
    1. Select the volume containing the backup data to be restored and click Next
    2. On the Select the date and time of system image to restore page, select the version to be restored, and then click Next
    3. Click Advanced to browse for a backup on the network, and then click Next
  10. On the Choose how to restore the backup page, perform the following optional tasks, and then click Next:
    1. Select the Format and repartition disks check box to delete existing partitions and reformat the destination disks to be the same as the backup
    2. Click the Exclude disks button and then the checkbox beside the disk to be excluded from being formatted and partitioned
    3. Select the Only restore system disk check box to perform an operating system only recovery.
    4. Click Install drivers to install drivers for the hardware to be recovering to.
    5. Click Advanced to specify whether the computer is restarted and the disks are checked for errors immediately after the recovery.
  11. Click Finish to begin the restore process.

Option3 - Recover volumes via command Line

Refer to the following instruction to perform a volume recovery with command:

  1. Open command prompt.
  2. Enter the following command, according to the backup data source, target:
>Wbadmin start recovery>
-version:<VersionIdentifiers>
- temType:Volume>
-items:<VolumesToRecover>
-backupTarget:<VolumeHostingBackup>
-recoveryTarget:<TargetVolumeForRecovery>
-Version Specifies the version identifier of the backup to recover in the following format
MM/DD/YYYY-hh:mm
Type in the following to list version identifier:
>Wbadmin get versions
-itemTypes Specifies type of items to recover, in this case Volume
-items Specifies a comma delimited list of volumes to be recovered
-backupTarget Specifies the volume containing the backup data to be recovered.
-recoveryTarget Specifies the volume drive letter of the alternate volume to restore to.
  1. Example
    To restore volume D, from backup version March 31, 2011, 9:00 to volume F (restored data are stored in volume E).
>Wbadmin start recovery –VersionIdentifiers:03/31/2011-09:00
–itemType:Volume –items:D: -backupTarget:E: - recoveryTarget:F: