IFW and Windows Server 2019

[fairlane32]

Hello all,
As a new owner of IFW, I'm curious about using IFW on a new Dell Server running windows server 2019 with three drives in RAID 5. I was planning on installing IFW on the server and back up an image, scheduled about once a month (overnight preferably) to an external drive. (probably a 1Tb Western Digital My Passport) The total volume of the server is 300Gb. This is something I am able to do, right? It should be easy to do, right?

So one question I have is when an image is backed up in this manner, do subsequent backups need any user input about the image name already exists, etc? Is it really automatic or is it going to ask me "image/filename already exists, do you want to overwrite/replace?" I'm guessing it won't, and that when I schedule the time to do the back up it should just overwrite onto the external WD....right?

I'm sorry, I've never used IFW before but Steve Gibson highly recommended it and he uses it himself. http://www.grc.com

Thanks for your input. I'm hoping I'll never have to restore a server image (god forbid) but if I do it looks like Restore is as easy as doing a backup, from the screenshots.

Philip

P.S. I've added a screenshot of the drives. (Obviously It's larger than 300gb? *shrug*)

[fairlane32]

Ugh, I have no idea why it's upside down.

[Bob Coleman]

fairlane32 wrote:

> So one question I have is when an image is backed up in this manner, do
> subsequent backups need any user input about the image name already exists,
> etc? Is it really automatic or is it going to ask me "image/filename
> already exists, do you want to overwrite/replace?"

Do you want it to overwrite the existing backup? I think I'm deducing that you do.

I use IFW all the time, but I've never scheduled it, so I may not be able to answer exactly what you want to know.

I use the GUI occasionally, but mostly I create backups using a batch file, actually a REXX script, but that doesn't really matter.

One example of a command executed by my REXX script is

C:\ProgramFiles32'\TeraByte Drive Image Backup and Restore Suite\imagew64.exe
/b /uy /d:w0@0x1,0x3,0x404,0x405 /f:G:FULL

The above is split onto two lines just for readability. The command causes IFW to create a backup named FULL.TBI and to overwrite the existing FULL.TBI.

From the manual:

/uy
Use this parameter to perform an unattended backup and tell Image for Windows to
assume the answer to all Yes/No prompts is Yes, the answer to all OK/Cancel
messages is OK, and the answer to all Abort/Retry/Ignore prompts is Ignore.
This option should be placed just after the action parameter (/b /r /v) to ensure this
parameter is in effect for prompts that may occur in other command line options.
This option is disabled when additional media is needed (file not found) and /um is not
specified.
Default if omitted: Image for Windows does not run an unattended backup.

I'm reasoably confident that absent this parameter, you would need user input that I think you don't want. With the parameter, you won't and a previous backup with the same name will be silently overwritten.

[fairlane32]

Bob,
Yes, I'd like to overwrite the existing backup. Does the Scheduling feature in the GUI not allow for this to be done automatically? I'd assume that it would, otherwise why even offer the ability; only to do a backup once and that's it? Daily, Weekly, or Monthly wouldn't be an option? I'll admit I haven't installed the app yet so I don't know what scheduling options are available. If someone has a screenshot I'd gladly take a look - obviously I can just stop being a baby and just install it and see for myself.

[TeraByte Support]

I wouldn't because you could run in to the disk failure as it's overwritten
your only backup. There are scripts on the downloads page for Image for
Windows to create cycles, or just use simple operations mode and let the
program handle it.


"fairlane32" wrote in message news:[email protected]...

Bob,
Yes, I'd like to overwrite the existing backup. Does the Scheduling
feature in the GUI not allow for this to be done automatically? I'd assume
that it would, otherwise why even offer the ability; only to do a backup
once and that's it? Daily, Weekly, or Monthly wouldn't be an option? I'll
admit I haven't installed the app yet so I don't know what scheduling
options are available. If someone has a screenshot I'd gladly take a look -
obviously I can just stop being a baby and just install it and see for
myself.


[fairlane32]

TeraByte Support wrote:
> I wouldn't because you could run in to the disk failure as it's overwritten
>
> your only backup. There are scripts on the downloads page for Image for
> Windows to create cycles, or just use simple operations mode and let the
> program handle it.
>

I'm confused. You wouldn't do what exactly? Run scripts? I'd like to have the program do a backup each month automatically, so is that an option under the scheduling features? If it overrides the previous months backup
that's fine. I'd rather not have to manually do a backup each month (I'll forget).

Thanks.

[Bob Coleman]

Maybe I shouldn't be speaking for someone else, but I'm pretty sure TeraByte Support means he wouldn't overwrite his only backup.

[TeraByte Support(PP)]

Bob Coleman wrote:
> Maybe I shouldn't be speaking for someone else, but I'm pretty sure
> TeraByte Support means he wouldn't overwrite his only backup.

Correct. For example, if there's a drive failure during the backup then you'll end up with no backup. That being said, you can certainly schedule the backup to replace the existing backup if that's what you really want.

When you schedule a task IFW automatically adds the /uy and /um parameters to allow it to run unattended. Note that you can always modify the parameters as needed.

[Brian K]

fairlane32,

Backing up monthly is an infrequent backup. If you had a drive failure 28 days after the last backup do you feel comfortable in losing 28 days of data?

[fairlane32]

Brian K wrote:
> fairlane32,
>
> Backing up monthly is an infrequent backup. If you had a drive failure 28
> days after the last backup do you feel comfortable in losing 28 days of
> data?

Brian,
Yes. I don't have an issue with a monthly backup of a whole image of a server to an external drive because I will be using a cloud file/image backup solution daily for files and an image backup weekly. (Belt and suspenders)