Some Notes on the Machines

Sometimes, StorageCraft ShadowProtect retention fails. One cause of this, is a corrupt database. There is no such warning in logs. The way to confirm, is to stop the ShadowProtect service, delete or rename SPX.DB3 located here:

%ProgramData%\StorageCraft\SPX

to SPX.SP3.OLD, restart the service, recreate both destination and job settings, and test. If the retention policy works, you’ve fixed it. Interestingly enough, when this works, it often will not need manual cleanup of the destination folder, but will take care of much or all of the cleanup of old chains automatically. Does not always happen however.

Try the steps here:

https://support.storagecraft.com/s/article/How-To-Manually-Uninstall-ShadowProtect-5-x?language=en_US

Use the components in the downloadable zip file. Run them thus:

vssins64.exe /unregister

stcinst.exe -u

stcinst.exe -w

If it is needed, the last indicates reboot as well.

At this writing, here’s the best info:

http://www.storagecraft.com/contact_information.php

This works with USBDLM as USBDLM.ini in the program install folder. You’ll need to set the VolumeSerial items to the serial numbers reported by the ‘DIR’ command in CMD, at the top of the directory listing, for each drive. The idea is that backups run directly to X drive, and then are mirrored (in StorageCraft, with ImageManager) to the Y drives, which are swapped.

[DriveLetters1]
; X drive, direct backup destination
VolumeSerial=5011-1C44
Letter=X

[DriveLetters2]
; Y drive, the first swap drive
VolumeSerial=6430-826B
Letter=Y

[DriveLetters3]
; Y drive, the second swap drive
VolumeSerial=6230-8823
Letter=Y

When restoring a volume in StorageCraft, there are several choices to make. Here is an excellent document.

http://www.storagecraft.com/support/forum/what-restore-choices-do-i-make

Here’s a new one:

http://www.qtdtools.de/page.php?seite=0&sub=1&lang=en

Appears very good, does email notification and other helpful things. Nice quality GUI.

Here is Windows and Linux software:

http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/info.html

which will backup a system across network to server, via Windows share, tar over ssh/rsh/nfs, or rsync.

It is very possible. Here is a good way.

Windows 2008 Backup Reporting by Email

I    Prepare the script.

The purpose of the script is to actually send the email. We don’t use any built-in email capability, because to do so would make configuration much more complicated. The full text of the script is at the end of this document (as section III). You will need to modify the values for EmailSubject and EmailBody to match the site at which the server is located, and put this modified copy in a good safe location on the server.

The script is pre-configured for gmail. For other ISPs you may need to modify the TCP/IP email port number and/or turn SSL off.

This example will use the location “C:\0DCST\bin”, and the script file name “ReportBackupFailureByEmail.vbs”.

II    Insert the script into the Task Scheduler.

1. Open up Task Scheduler, and view the Task Scheduler Library.

2. Select Create Task… under Actions. This gets you here:

Enter a name and description for your new task. Be sure to select the option to “Run whether user is logged on or not” to ensure the task still runs after you log out.

3. Click on the Triggers tab and click on New. Select “On an Event” from the drop down. Choose “Custom” under Settings.

4. Click on “New Event Filter…”. Then, choose as follows:

Select all of the event levels except “Information” and Verbose”. Then select “By log”. In the Event Logs dropdown, open Applications and Services Logs, then Microsoft, then Windows, then Backup, and choose Operational.

Once your end result looks like this:

press OK.

5. Head over to the Actions tab and select “New…”. For this example, the following is correct:

Press OK and OK, put in your authentication, and you’re done!

III    The Script:

''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
' Report Backup Failure by Email '
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

' Script version 1.0
' Needs to be run by Task Manager, triggered by appropriate events

' Modify lines below only to fit site, server, and email configuration

ServerName = "SERVERNAME"
SiteName = "SITENAME"

Const EmailFrom = "emailfrom@gmail.com"
Const EmailFromName = "From Name"
Const EmailTo = "emailto@domain.xyz"
Const SMTPServer = "smtp.gmail.com"
Const SMTPLogon = "emailfrom@gmail.com"
Const SMTPPassword = "gmailpassword"

Const SMTPSSL = True
Const SMTPPort = 465

' Do not modify anything further below

EmailSubject = ServerName & ":  Windows 2008 Backup has failed"

EmailBody = "A failure of Windows 2008 Backup has been recorded " & _
		"at site " & SiteName & " on server " & ServerName & ", " & _
		"on " & Date & ", " & Time & " ."

Const cdoSendUsingPickup = 1 	'Send message using local SMTP service pickup directory.
Const cdoSendUsingPort = 2 	'Send the message using SMTP over TCP/IP networking.

Const cdoAnonymous = 0 	' No authentication
Const cdoBasic = 1 	' BASIC clear text authentication
Const cdoNTLM = 2 	' NTLM, Microsoft proprietary authentication

' First, create the message

Set objMessage = CreateObject("CDO.Message")
objMessage.Subject = EmailSubject
objMessage.From = """" & EmailFromName & """ <" & EmailFrom & ">"
objMessage.To = EmailTo
objMessage.TextBody = EmailBody

' Second, configure the server

objMessage.Configuration.Fields.Item _
("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/sendusing") = cdoSendUsingPort

objMessage.Configuration.Fields.Item _
("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpserver") = SMTPServer

objMessage.Configuration.Fields.Item _
("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpauthenticate") = cdoBasic

objMessage.Configuration.Fields.Item _
("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/sendusername") = SMTPLogon

objMessage.Configuration.Fields.Item _
("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/sendpassword") = SMTPPassword

objMessage.Configuration.Fields.Item _
("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpserverport") = SMTPPort

objMessage.Configuration.Fields.Item _
("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpusessl") = SMTPSSL

objMessage.Configuration.Fields.Item _
("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpconnectiontimeout") = 60

objMessage.Configuration.Fields.Update

' Now send the message!

objMessage.Send

After a whole lot of looking:

http://www.paulhite.com/2010/02/notification-wsb-can-do-notifications.html

The above requires Microsoft SMTP to be installed, which means no SMTP auth on the outbound — but a solution to that is at hand. Use this Gmail-sending VBscript, as the “action” to the error event list Paul Hite gives us:

5,8,9,17-22,49,50,52,100,517,518,521,527,528,544,545,546,561,564,612

and we’re in! I will try to get permission from Paul to rewrite all of this step-by-step in detail. For now, the idea is, we set up a “scheduled” task which triggers on the above event list (and not by a timed schedule). We go to Server Manager, Configuration, Task Scheduler, Task Scheduler Library, Microsoft, Windows, and Backup, and create a new task, beginning the task on an Event, settings Custom not Basic, with a New Event Filter; set it “By log”, and drill down “Applications and Services Logs”, “Microsoft”, “Windows”, “Backup”, and choose “Operational”. Then, set its “Action” is the above-mentioned VBscript.

And if we want a separate notification on successes, we can make a copy of the VBscript with a “success” message, and instead of the above error event list, we just use event 4.

Voila!

Windows Backup on Server 2008, is very different than previous backup tools provided by Microsoft. It is block-level, meaning that it handles only whole volumes (drives) at once. But it works very well, it has much lower impact on resources. It uses VSS as its basis.

Data difficult to identify, but useful for setting up monitoring, follow.

Service name: Block Level Backup Engine Service
Executable (on 32-bit, default): “C:\Windows\system32\wbengine.exe”
Command-line utility (runs from elevated CMD): wbadmin