Our real interest in backups comes with Exchange Server 2003. However, we're not ready to tackle Exchange backup right now. Nevertheless, you should have a backup in place immediately. So, right now I'll take you through a simple backup scenario using Windows Server 2003's Backup Utility. In the next chapter, I'll show you how to back up Exchange Server.
We're going to schedule our backup, so we need to be sure that Windows 2003's Task Scheduler is running. In your MMC, go to \Computer Management (Local)\Services and Applications\Services. Find Task Scheduler. If it's not set to start automatically, double−click the service, set startup type to Automatic, and click Start. When the service starts, click OK.
To open the Windows Server 2003 Backup Utility, select Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Backup. This opens the Backup or Restore Wizard, shown in Figure 7.47.
Figure 7.47: The Windows Server 2003 Backup or Restore Wizard's welcome screen
We're going to use the wizard to set up a backup in just a bit. Let me talk about manual backups and restores first. To go to manual mode, click Advanced Mode on the first Wizard page. This turns the Wizard window into a manual backup/restore interface. You use the Backup, Restore, and Schedule Jobs pages to perform various tasks. You can also create a disk to be used for automated system recovery (ASR) by selecting Tools > ASR Wizard. This diskette is the equivalent of the pre− Windows 2003 emergency repair disk with the added capability to kick off an automatic recovery of your computer. You should create an ASR disk and update it whenever you change the hardware or software on your system. You should also heed Backup Utility's warnings to try everything else to get your computer running again before using the ASR diskette. OK, now let's set up a backup using the Backup or Restore Wizard. Click Next for the Backup or Restore page shown in Figure 7.48. As you can see, you can choose to back up or restore from a previous backup. Select Back Up Files and Settings and click Next.
Figure 7.48: Using the Backup or Restore Wizard's Backup or Restore page to select a backup job
The next wizard page (shown in Figure 7.49) asks if you want to back up everything on your computer or just selected disks and files. Ensure that Let Me Choose What to Backup is selected, then click Next.
Figure 7.49: Using the Backup or Restore Wizard's What to Back Up page to choose a backup of selected items on a computer
On the following page, Items to Back Up, shown in Figure 7.50, be sure that the drive that supports your Windows 2003 system (the C: drive in my case) and System State are selected. The System State is a collection of information on your computer including registry settings. When you capture the System State, you are in a position to recover from a major crash or a critical problem introduced by the addition of a piece of software or hardware. You should back up a server's System State as frequently as you back up other items on the server.
Figure 7.50: Using the Backup or Restore Wizard's Items to Back Up page to choose a backup of selected items on a computer
On the next wizard page, the Backup Type, Destination, and Name page (see Figure 7.51), be sure that the correct backup media type is selected. My server does not have a tape drive, so I'm offered only the option to back up to disk. I'm backing up to the second disk drive in the computer, drive E:. The name for the backup is BG01 Backup Normal. Having made the choice to use drive E: for backup, I really shouldn't install any software on the drive or use it for file storage and back it up. If the drive fails, I'll have neither the programs and files that were on it nor the backups that were written to it. If you use a tape drive, you are offered backup opportunities appropriate to tape drives, as well as an option to back up to disk.
Figure 7.51: Using the Backup or Restore Wizard's Backup Type, Destination, and Name page to select where the backup will be stored and how it will be named
Click Next, and you'll see a page like the one in Figure 7.52. This page summarizes the backup as it stands at this point.
Figure 7.52: The Backup or Restore Wizard presents its backup plan and offers an opportunity to set advanced options.
But you don't have to stop here. By clicking the Advanced button, you can set up some more interesting and valuable options. Go ahead, click Advanced to bring up the first of the advanced options wizard pages, the Type of Backup page (see Figure 7.53). Here you choose the type of backup that you want. This includes the way that you want files to be backed up and whether you want to back up files that have been migrated to near−line (remote storage) media. This second option is necessary now that Windows Server 2003 can move less−used files from disk to other media such as tape and bring them back if someone tries to use them.
Figure 7.53: Using the Backup or Restore Wizard's advanced options to select the type of backup to be performed
You have five options for the way that you want files backed up:
Normal backup Backs up all files that have been selected and marks them as having been backed up (clears or turns off what is called the archive bit for each file). When a file is changed or a new file is created, its archive bit is set to indicate that it is a candidate for backup.
Copy backup Backs up all selected files, but doesn't clear the archive bit.
Incremental backup Backs up all files with their archive bit set and clears the archive bit.
Differential backup Backs up all files with their archive bit set and does not clear the archive bit.
Daily backup Backs up all selected files that have been modified on the day of the backup, but doesn't clear the archive bit.
Setting Up a Real Backup Strategy
There's no need to back up every file every night. In spite of what I set up in this little demonstration of the Windows 2003 Backup Utility (daily full backups), the usual practice is to back up an entire disk once a week (normal backup) and then to perform either a differential or incremental backup every other day of the week. Differential backups grow larger every day because you're backing up everything that changed on all previous days, plus whatever changed on the day of the backup. Incremental backups are smaller because you back up only what changed on the day of the backup. Differential backups are easier to restore because you need to restore only from the last normal backup and the last differential backup to fully restore a disk drive. With incremental backups, you must restore the last normal backup and all incremental backups done since the normal backup. Take your pick, depending on the issues raised previously and the capacity of your tape backup hardware. I'll leave it to you to decide whether you can benefit from copy and daily backups.
You use the next wizard page, How to Back Up, shown in Figure 7.54, to specify whether data should be verified after backup, whether hardware compression is to be used, and whether volume shadow copy is to be used. Always select the first option. You are offered the second option, Use Hardware Compression, If Available, if you're backing up to tape. Select this option if you're sure that you'll always have the same kind of drive available to read the compressed data. Use volume shadow copy unless you have a strong reason not to. Volume shadow copy gives you a consistent snapshot−like backup of an entire disk volume at a given point in time. You can restore this backup to a computer and it will function just as it was when the backup was done. Do note, however, that third−party applications must support volume shadow copy for it to work on their open files. Remember, volume shadow copy is the default. Checking the box turns it off.
Figure 7.54: Using the Backup or Restore Wizard's advanced options to determine whether data verification, hardware compression, and volume shadow copy should be used
The Backup Options page shown in Figure 7.55 lets you choose whether to append to your backup medium or overwrite it. I've chosen to overwrite the disk file I'm backing up to. I could also set up another job that does a differential backup every day for the rest of the week and I might choose to append that backup to the same disk file. All of this applies to tape backups too. You can also use this wizard page to restrict access to the backup medium only to the person setting up the backup or to someone logged in as Administrator.
Figure 7.55: Using the Backup or Restore Wizard's advanced options to specify whether the backup medium can be overwritten and who can access the medium
The final advanced options page, When to Back Up, enables you to run your backup immediately or schedule it to run one or more times (see Figure 7.56). Leave the default setting of Now to run the backup immediately.
Select Later to schedule your backup. Enter a job name and click Set Schedule.
Figure 7.56: Using the Backup or Restore Wizard's advanced options to back up immediately or on a schedule At one or more points as you complete the Backup or Restore Wizard, you are asked to specify an account under which your scheduled backup will run. You do this with the Set Account Information dialog box shown in Figure 7.57. Accept the default, or enter a Windows 2003 account to run the backup under. This account should at least belong to the Backup Operators security group in the \Active Directory Users and
Computers\Built−in container. Don't forget to enter a password for whatever account you choose.
Figure 7.57: Using the Backup or Restore Wizard's advanced options to enter a Windows 2003 account and password to run the backup under
The Schedule Job dialog box comes up next (see Figure 7.58). It enables you to do some pretty fancy scheduling. I've selected to run my normal backup every day at 11:30 p.m. Click Advanced to open the Advanced Schedule Options dialog box shown in Figure 7.59. Here you can set an end date for your backup job and choose to do the backup more than once in a given time period (day, week, month). This is useful if you want to capture several images of a volume or specific files each day. It is especially useful for taking regular volume shadow copy snapshots each day. These might be snapshots of the Windows 2003 side of your server or, later, the Exchange 2003−side. Think how great it will be to get accurate hourly or even half−hourly snapshots of the volumes on an Exchange server, including mailbox and public stores. Wow!
Figure 7.58: Using the Backup or Restore Wizard's advanced options to refine the parameters for a scheduled a backup
Figure 7.59: The Backup or Restore Wizard's advanced options can be set to run a backup job more than once a day.
Figure 7.60 shows the Settings page of the Schedule Job dialog box. See Figure 7.58 (shown earlier) for the Schedule page of this dialog box. You use the Settings page to force the Windows Task Scheduler to stop a job if it runs for a period longer than normal. You must judge what is normal. For most jobs, 72 hours is far too long. You can also use the Settings page to specify that the job should start or stop, depending whether the computer is busy with other tasks or not. Finally, you can set various power management−related parameters.
Figure 7.60: The Backup or Restore Wizard's advanced options can be set to control how a scheduled backup job runs.
When you've finished with the Schedule Job dialog box, click OK to close it. This returns you to the Backup or Restore Wizard's When to Back Up page. Note in Figure 7.61 that the scheduled backup time is now 11:30 p.m., the time I selected for the backup earlier in Figure 7.58, not the time before I scheduled the backup as shown previously in Figure 7.56.
Figure 7.61: A backup has now been scheduled using the Backup or Restore Wizard's advanced options. Click Next on the Backup or Restore Wizard's When to Back Up page and you'll see a page similar the one shown in Figure 7.62. This summary page tells you everything you need to know about your scheduled backup. If you don't like what you see, click Back to fix things or click Finish to schedule the backup and exit the Backup or Restore Wizard.
Figure 7.62: The Backup or Restore Wizard shows summary information about the backup and allows you to finish setting up the backup or go back and make changes.
Before we move on, I want talk a bit about the integration of backup job scheduling into Windows 2003 task scheduling. Backup job scheduling is done using interfaces integrated into the Windows 2003 Backup Utility. However, the Windows Task Scheduler actually manages and runs backup jobs and any other jobs scheduled in other applications or directly in the Task Scheduler. If you look at a job in the task scheduler, you'll see many of the same interfaces you saw in the Backup Utility. Just open a backup job or any other task. To do so, select Start > Windows Explorer and expand the Control Panel. Look in the Scheduled Tasks folder (see Figure 7.63) and you'll find your scheduled backup jobs. Double− click a job and, as Figure 7.64 shows, you'll see a dialog box with the same pages you used when scheduling a backup job.
Figure 7.63: The Scheduled Tasks folder in Windows Explorer shows scheduled backup jobs.
Figure 7.64: The dialog box for a scheduled backup job includes scheduling pages like the ones used in the Windows 2003 Backup Utility.
You can check out and manage your backups on the Schedule Job page of the Backup Utility window. Remember, you open this dialog box by clicking Advanced Mode in the Backup or Restore Wizard welcome screen (see Figure 7.47, shown earlier). In Figure 7.65, you can see the jobs that I've scheduled. A blue letter 'N' indicates a normal job. Differential jobs are marked with a green letter 'D.'
Figure 7.65: Managing scheduled backups in the Schedule Jobs page of the Backup Utility window That handlike cursor that you see on the 20th of the month in the calendar functions just like the hand in Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser. Hover over a particular backup, and you see its name, as in Figure 7.65. If you click the backup you're hovering over, you get a dialog box that lets you manage the backup (see Figure 7.66). This is better by several magnitudes than backup scheduling with NT 4's Backup program.
Figure 7.66: Managing scheduled backups in the Scheduled Job Options dialog box
You can do a number of other tasks using the Advanced Mode dialog box. For example, to look at the log for a job, select Tools > Report and then select the log you're interested in from the list. Figure 7.67 displays the log for the completed backup that we set up earlier. Notice that backups to local disk are pretty fast. It took seven minutes to back up 1GB.
Figure 7.67: The log for a completed backup job
Use the Restore Wizard to restore some data from your backup. After our little trip through the Backup Wizard, you should find it pretty easy to use. You've probably heard this before, but I'll say it anyway: Be sure to do test restores frequently. A perfectly executed backup scheme isn't worth anything if you can't restore what you've backed up.
Note Consider third−party backup solutions for Windows Server 2003. These offer a range of options not available in Windows 2003's Backup Utility. They can, for example, back up system state and registry data on remote computers. See the Appendix, 'Cool Third−Party Applications for Exchange Server and Outlook Clients' for information on some very nice third−party backup products for Exchange Server
2003 that also have much to offer when used to back up Windows Server 2003.
Summary
This chapter covered the installation of both Windows 2003 domain controllers and Windows 2003
stand−alone servers. Domain controllers make Windows 2003 networks happen. Stand−alone servers are the workhorses of your network, hosting applications such as Exchange Server 2003.
Before installing the Windows Server 2003 operating system on any computer, you need to ensure that your hardware ducks are in a row. Your server hardware should have adequate capacity to support the Windows 2003 and application functionality that you require. You also should exhaustively test your hardware to ensure that it is functioning properly.
The actual installation of Windows Server 2003 software is fairly easy. This is especially true if you've prepared well by tracking through the planning steps described in Chapter 5. If you're familiar with NT Server 4, you need to adjust your thinking a bit to deal with such things as Active Directory forests and trees, as well as the fact that domain controllers come into being after, not during, installation.
After your Windows Server 2003 is installed, you can turn to managing it. Microsoft Management Console (MMC) is the home for a range of snap−in Windows 2003 management tools. For example, you use the Active Directory Users and Computers MMC snap−in to create and manage users.
Dynamic DNS is central to Windows 2003 networking. Working in tandem with DHCP, it enables you to install new servers and workstations without having to worry about assigning IP addresses or other