Backup Set Wizard Overview of all Backup Set properties

     Backup Set is the heart of the EaseBackup. It fully controls how your backup will work.

     All Backup Set properties are concentrated in the Backup Set Wizard. You use it to add or edit Backup Sets. It walks you through an entire process of adding or editing of a Backup Set:

1. Choose Backup Set description
   

   Each Backup Set must have an unique description that will be used to identify this Backup Set on a backup media. It has to contain up to 50 symbols, digits or spaces. Enter the description at the field.      To make your work easier with many Backup Sets, you can separate them in to groups. That's a pure logical division and does not affect backup or restore operations. Just select your group at the combobox. Click the Next button to accept the entered description and proceed.

   
   
2. Files to backup
   

   The next page allows to include and exclude files, folders and registry keys to/from backup.  When you add a new Backup Set, all boxes are white.  You can include folders, registry keys, or files to backup by clicking on checkmarks near a folder or a file. The selected folders, files and registry keys have a white box with a red check.      To exclude folders or remove them from being included in the list, you simply have to click on the associated checkbox again.      A gray box with a black check means that this folder will not be included in the backup, but it contains included files or folders. Use this state to find included folders in the tree.

        A gray box with a red check means that this folder will be included in the backup, but it contains a number of excluded subfolders.

        You can backup network files and folders by specifying their UNC paths. Use "Add UNC path..." button to add a network folder at the tree. You can include or exclude network files and folders as you do that with local files.

        To preview a list of the selected files, press the "Show list of files to backup" button. Click the Next button to accept the selected files and folders, and proceed.

   
   
   
3. Backup Storage
   

   EaseBackup works with many types of backup storages. Here you have to select a backup storage to store backed up data. Click on a storage type to see its description. Read it carefully to find out more information about the selected backup storage.      Also you can select an encryption key that will be used to encrypt backup archives. Use "Generate a new key..." button to generate a new key and "Manage of encryption keys" button to view all keys, import a new key, ...

   1. Zip archive - A standard ZIP archive will be generated. That's not a good decision because such backup is not very reliable: if your hard disk is crashed you will lose everything. You can use this option only if you use another physical hard disk to store the zip archive.
      
      

   2. Removable or Hard disk - This option must be used for Disc-to-disc and CD/DVD backups. You have to select a CD/DVD Recorder or a folder on your hard or removable drive to store backup archives.

      In this mode EaseBackup generates several backup archives (30MB each) instead of making one backup archive. It does so because each of archives can be restored independently even if other archives are corrupted due media fault. It makes backup more reliable. When current removable disk is filled, EaseBackup asks for a new disk.
      
      

   3. FTP Server - Use this option to store backup archives on your FTP account of any standard FTP Server. EaseBackup works with FTP Server without using any external software!

      You can specify a secondary backup server that will be used in case the primary is down. To do that you have to specify all addresses separated by semicolon (e.g. primary.server.com;secondary.server.com). The secondary server will be used only if EaseBackup cannot login to the primary server. EaseBackup does not restore files from the secondary server. That's why you have to resend all backup archives to the primary backup server when it's up again.

      Standard FTP protocol does not encrypt FTP connections and that's why all information (username, password, file transfers) isn't encrypted. That gives a chance to hackers to steal your username and password and get access to your FTP account. To secure FTP connections you may use a standard SSL protocol (that uses to secure internet transactions). But not all FTP Servers support SSL protocol. There are few here:

      1. KieSoft Advanced FTP Server.
      2. FTP Serv-U

   4. Amazon S3 account - You can store your data on Amazon S3 account. To use that cost-effective remote storage you must have a valid Amazon Web Services account (You can create one here: http://aws.amazon.com) and be signed up to use Amazon S3 (You can sign up here: http://aws.amazon.com/s3).

      Select FTP Server option as a backup storage and press the Next button to enter preporties:

      Server/Port: fields must specify address of your Amazon S3 server in a special format: aws://host/user. user is an unique identifier of the backed up computer. It allows to store backup archives from few computers on a single Amazon S3 account. But note that any of these computers can read all stored backup archives. So, you have to encrypt backup archives if want to keep them totally protected. If you do not have HTTP Proxy Server, use s3.amazonaws.com for your host. If you use proxy server, use its address for host.

      
      
      Username: field must be your Amazon S3 Access Key ID.
      
      Password: field must be your Amazon S3 Secret Access Key.

   5. Tape - EaseBackup can backup on any Tape Unit that is recognized by the software.

      Corporate version of EaseBackup makes you be able to backup on a remote Tape Unit through network. That allows you to have only one Tape Unit and backup many workstations directly on that Tape Unit. To share a Tape Unit you have to start "Storage Device Console" and share the unit.

   6. Copy files - EaseBackup is able to copy files to another location without compression and encryption. This option is useful if you want to have a copy of your files but do not want to copy all files every day. Incremental backup will copy only new or modified files. Open files backup module allows to copy locked files too.

        Click the Next button to activate a page with specific storage's parameters.
   
   
   
   
4. Backup Properties
   

   Now you have to specify how often you would like to start automatic backups of this Backup Set and how backups will work.      At the Start backup combobox you have to select one of the values. If you select "Every week", you can choose week days to start automatic backups. At the Time to start fields you have to set a time to start automatic backups.      Advanced properties allow specifying a type of automatic backup (full or incremental). By default all backups are incremental.

        Enable backup of open (locked) files - A special kernel driver (Windows NT/200/XP/2003) can be used to backup open files.

        Enable patch backup - Enables patch backups for this Backup Set.

        Skip Temporary and Debug files - turn this checkbox on to exclude Temporary and Debug system directories from backup.

   
   
   
5. External programs
   
   

   EaseBackup allows to customize the backup process through the use of external commands. External command is an external executable file that can process different operations with source and archive files before, during, and after backup.      Each external command can have arguments. You can use few special variables in the command line. EaseBackup replaces variables on real names before executing the external command.

   
   

   $(FilesList)	Name of a file with a list of all files to backup (one line = one filename).
   $(TYPE)	Backup type ("inc" or "full" string).
   $(CurFile)	Name of currently backing up file.
   $(LF)	Name of a temporary log file. Its content will be added to the backup log.

   
   
   
6. Click the Finish button to save the Backup Set
   
   

   EaseBackup uses the standard Windows scheduler to run scheduled backups. If you use Windows NT/2000/XP/2003, it's necessary to enter your Windows account username and password. If you make a mistake, Windows won't be able to run your scheduled backups.      Click the Continue button. EaseBackup will edit all necessary scheduled tasks by itself.