General Considerations
Backing up files and folders that are shared from another computer may not work with the backup agent software unless you take certain steps to ensure the backup. This issue is based on communication between the computer on which the backup agent is installed, and the computer that houses the shared files and folders.
Backups of shared files and folders:
- Are slower.
- Use more system resources.
- Do not let you back up open and locked files (VSS).
The best practice to ensure back up of shared files and folders is to copy them directly onto the machine that has the backup agent installed whenever possible.
If you cannot install the files and folders on the computer being backed up, and you need to back them up from the computer that is sharing them, use the Share Manager feature in the software to add access credentials.
The backup agent does not support encrypted file systems. Decrypt encrypted files or encrypted folders for back up.
Make sure the backup agent user has access to all the data you have selected so there are no access issues.
The backup agent leverages the built in VSS functionality within Windows to perform a snapshot of the data allowing backup of open or locked files. As a result, you must have the agent software running on each machine being used as a source for data (Windows only).
Process for File Backups
The backup agent uses the following process to ensure successful backups.
| Stage | What Happens |
|---|---|
| 1 | The backup agent uses Volume Shadow Service (VSS) to create a snapshot of the volume to back up open and locked files. |
| 2 | To determine which files and folders are backed up the backup agent uses these sources in the following order:
|
| 3 | The backup agent copies files and folders to a temporary location. |
| 4 | The backup agent encrypts, zips, and breaks files over 100 Mb into 100 Mb chunks for transit. |
| 5 | Intelliblox uploads only the changed parts. |
Note: File overhead contributes to processing time (number of files, type, and backing up from local or remote location).
Specific Restrictions and Recommendations
- If you want to run an image backup, use Image Rapid Recovery or Standard.
- If you use Stray File removal to clean up after backing up dumped files, do not overlap the start time of a backup with other VSS utilities like Shadow Protect.
Note: Files with different names qualify as different files.
- If you run backup sets first that contain less data, and schedule ones that contain more data to run later, do not start all of your backup sets at the same exact time. While you can overlap jobs (since a persistent snapshot is created using MS provider), stagger backup start times by at least a half hour.
- Verify that the backup set archiving settings are accurate.
Note: You can configure different archiving rules for each backup set to store what the client needs.