Category: Documentation

Manage Vaults on Protected Items – Add/Remove/Update

Protected Item schedules can be configured to back up to one or multiple storage vaults. It is also possible to change the vault used by the Protected Item schedule at any time.

  • The vault used during scheduled backups can be managed from the Schedule settings of the Protected Item.
  • By defining more than one schedule for a Protected Item, you can use that Protected Item to backup to multiple locations
  • You do not need to create a separate Protected Item to backup to different vaults. For example, if you want to back up to a both a local vault and a could vault on a daily schedule, you can configure two schedules on one Protected Item. Each schedule you create can use a different vault, those schedules can run simultaneously or at different times.

The Protected Item schedule can be managed in the desktop application or online using the control panel. The video examples below show how to manage the vaults on a Protected Item schedule using either the application or the control panel.

Managing vaults using the application

Managing vaults from the control panel

Copy a Protected Item Configuration to New Device

From the eazyBackup Control Panel, you can copy and paste Protected Item configurations between your devices. To copy a Protected Item, follow these steps:

  • Log in to the control panel - https://panel.eazybackup.ca/
  • Select the Protected Items icon
  • On the Protected Items page, click the 'Copy' button next to the item you want to move
  • Click the 'Paste' button that appears at the top of this page
  • Select the new device from the list

Copying and pasting a Protected Item does not copy backup data, this function is only moving the configuration including file selection, retention settings and schedules.

Random Job Delay – Protected Item Schedule

This feature will delay the start of each job by a random number of minutes between 0 and the configured number.

If your Protected Item is scheduled to start at 9:00, and you set a 30 minute Random Delay, this would mean that the jobs would randomly start somewhere between 9:00 and 9.30. The start time is chosen on a per-job basis, so different delays between 0 and the maximum configured number will apply to each job.

If you have several backups starting at the same time, this means that instead of all jobs starting within seconds of each other, the load will be distributed approximately evenly over the configured number of minutes, which will reduce the peak CPU / Network.

If you have a site with 100 backups starting at 9:00 and use a 30 minute random job delay, this would result in the 100 jobs being relativly evenly spread over the 30 minutes between 9:00 and 9:30. Typcially the 100 jobs would start all at once.

A random job delay on all jobs starting at 9:00, for e.g. will help spread the load out over time; you could additionally change the start times of some of these jobs to help as well.

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Restore from Deleted Protected Item

To restore files from a protected item that has been deleted, open the restore menu in the eazyBackup app , select the storage vault, check "show unknown items"

Step 1. Select the restore menu.

Step 2. Select a storage vault or continue with the default if you only have one.

Step 3. Tick the "Show unknown items" box.
- Deleted Protected Items will appear as "Unknown" items
- Click the caret to expand the Protected Item to view all available dates you can restore from.

 

 

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Default File / Folder Exclusions From Backup

By default eazyBackup will apply a number of rules to exclude specific files and folders from your backup. These files and folders are excluded to help ensure that backups will complete successfully, without error.

The exclusion rules that follow are global and can not be removed or altered for an individual account. In cases where you need to backup one of the excluded locations, we recommend customers create a local backup solution to copy files from one of the excluded locations to a different location that can be included in your cloud backup.

There are currently no exclusions on macOS.

The following files folders (and subfolders) locations are excluded on Windows Operating Systems.

C:\Users\*\AppData\Local\Comms\
C:\$Recycle.Bin\
C:\Infected-Files\
C:\System Volume Information\
C:\Users\*\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\
C:\Users\*\AppData\Local\Packages\
C:\hiberfil.sys
C:\pagefile\sys
C:\swapfile.sys
*\$RECYCLE.BIN
C:\Windows
C:\Program Files (x86)\LenovoBrowserGuard\
C:\ProgramData\Dell\
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Diagnosis\
C:\Users\*\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\
C:\Users\*\AppData\Local\Packages\
*/.Spotlight-V100/

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eazyBackup Hotfix Install

Hotfixes are normally released with a replacement backup-tool file.

Applying backup-tool.exe hotfixes on Windows

  1. Exit the eazyBackup app from the system tray
  2. Stop eazyBackup's background services
    • Use services.msc or Task Manager to stop the "eazyBackup (delegate service)" and "eazyBackup (elevator service)" services
  3. Replace files inside C:\Program Files\eazyBackup\backup-tool.exe with updated version
  4. Restart all stopped background services
  5. Open the eazyBackup app

Applying backup-tool hotfixes on macOS

  1. Exit the eazyBackup app from the system taskbar
  2. Stop eazyBackup's background services
    • sudo launchctl unload /Library/LaunchDaemons/backup.delegate.plist
    • sudo launchctl unload /Library/LaunchDaemons/backup.elevator.plist
  3. Replace files inside /Applications/eazyBackup.app/Contents/MacOS/backup-tool with updated version
  4. Restart all stopped background services
    • sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/backup.elevator.plist
    • sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/backup.delegate.plist
  5. Restart the eazyBackup app

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Before and After Commands

You can register additional commands to run before- or after any backup job. For maximum flexibility, commands can be registered

  • for a Protected Item (e.g. to dump a database), or
  • for a Storage Vault (e.g. to perform custom network authentication), or
  • for a Schedule (e.g. to shut down the computer afterward).

During a backup job, the commands are run in this order:

  1. Schedule Before
  2. Protected Item Before
  3. Storage Vault Before
  4. Backup Job
  5. Storage Vault After
  6. Protected Item After
  7. Schedule After

Shell built-ins can be used as part of the command execution - the specified command is passed to either cmd.exe or /bin/sh as appropriate for your operating system.

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Retention

Retention is the concept of determining what data should be kept, for how long, as well as when and what data can be safely removed in order to storage space. Retention rules can be configured for individual Protected Items, or for Storage Vaults.

Protected Item Retention

In the Retention section of the Protected Item, you can configure a retention policy to apply when backing up this Protected Item to a specific Storage Vault. If no policy is configured for a specific Storage Vault, the default retention policy for the Storage Vault (30-days) will apply.

The retention section will display (default) to indicate that the Storage Vault default rules apply, Keep (X rules) to indicate that specific Protected Item retention rules have been applied.

Retention (Storage Vault)

Storage Vault retention rules are the default for all data stored, unless a Protected Item has its own set of retention rules. When a Storage Vault is first created, the default, no-change-by-policy retention rule is 'Keep all data forever'. This can be automatically altered by user-profile policy, or by later manual changes.

If a Protected Item is given its own set of retention rules, these Protected Item rules will normally take precedence over the Storage Vault retention rules.

If a Protected Item is removed, or has its retention rules removed, then the Storage Vault retention rules will take precedence once more, and the data associated with the Protected Item will be kept, or removed, in accordance with the Storage Vault retention rules.

Example usages of retention rules:

  • Change the default Storage Vault retention rule to 'Keep all data for 60 days', plus
  • add a Protected Item rule to keep all snapshots for 90-days, plus
  • add a Protected Item rule to keep a representative snapshot from each week, on a Monday at 6am, for 2 years.
  • A customer permanently revokes a single device. The device is revoked from the user-profile list of devices. Once the device is deleted, the Protected Items for the device are also deleted, as well as any retention rules. The snapshot data will now be governed by the Storage Vault retention rules. If no changes have been made, the default Storage Vault retention rules are 'Keep all data for 30-days', so the unwanted data from the Protected Item would be completely deleted by the 31st day.

Explanation

  • When you revoke a device, it will remove all its Protected Items, and all of their retention rules.
  • If the user-profile still has at least one live device that stores data in the Storage Vault, it will run the retention pass into the Vault, eventually deleting the old Protected Item data.

Example Solution

  • Set all Storage Vaults to have a changed-default retention rule of 'keep all data for 30 days', or some other period.
  • When a device is revoked, or a Protected Item is removed from the list of Items to protect, the next retention pass will fallback to the Storage Vault rules.
  • A Storage Vault retention period of 30 days will allow for mistakes to be discovered. A mistakenly-deleted Protected Item can be reinstated into the list of things to protect; or the snapshots of the Protected Item can be restored via another device registered to the same user-profile.
  • A Storage Vault retention period of 30 days will allow for genuinely-unwanted data to be automatically removed at the end of 30 days, thereby keeping storage sizes to a minimum.

Retention Pass

A "retention pass" is the act of cleaning up data from the Storage Vault that exceeds the configured retention policy.

During a retention pass, the desktop application looks at each backed-up job within the Storage Vault and determines whether it meets the retention policy. If the retention policy states that the backed-up job can be safely removed, the backed-up job is removed from the Storage Vault. Once all backed-up jobs are checked against the retention policy, any data chunks that are no longer referenced by a backed-up job can then be pruned to save disk space.

Automatic retention passes

A retention pass may run automatically after each backup job.

An automatic retention pass is not necessarily critical, and so if a backup job comes to an end without a retention pass being possible to run, the retention pass is not immediately "overdue".

The "overdue" rules for automatic retention passes are based on the time since the previous successful retention pass, and, the number of jobs exceeding the configured retention policy. The exact rules are still being determined and are subject to change in future versions.

As of version 21.9.3, the rules are as follows:

If the device is a "high power" device:

Last retention pass 0-2 jobs exceeding policy 3-9 jobs 10-49 jobs 50+ jobs
less than 24 hours ago None Attempt Attempt Require
between 24 hours ago and 14 days ago None Attempt Require Require
between 14 days ago and 21 days ago Attempt Attempt Require Require
over 21 days ago, or never ran Require Require Require Require

If the device is a "low power" device:

Last retention pass 0-2 jobs exceeding policy 3-9 jobs 10-49 jobs 50+ jobs
less than 24 hours ago None None None Attempt
between 24 hours ago and 14 days ago None None Attempt Require
between 14 days ago and 21 days ago None Attempt Attempt Require
over 21 days ago, or never ran Attempt Require Require Require

In the above tables,

  • "None" means that no automatic retention pass will be attempted at the end of the backup job
  • "Attempt" means that eazyBackup will attempt a retention pass, but not throw an error if it could not be performed
  • "Require" means that eazyBackup will attempt a retention pass, and will throw an error if it could not be performed

A device is considered a "high power" device if it meets 2/3 of the criteria:

  • over 7 days uptime
  • running Windows Server or Linux
  • having over 8 GB physical RAM

Manual retention passes

You can run a retention pass for a Storage Vault on demand, by right-clicking the Storage Vault within the backup application.

In this case because the action was explicitly taken, an error will be raised if the job fails to be performed for any reason.

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Setting up a new backup account (license) in my dashboard

  1. Log into Your Client Area to access your dashboard.
  1. From your dashboard, under the PLANS dropdown menu, choose the product license you require.

You'll see Workstation and Fileserver licensing for both the eazyBackup and Private Label (OBC) products.

* each license can also be chosen with the DiskImage add-on if you would like the ability to create an image backup as well as the standard file/folder backup.

  1. Once you’ve chosen your product, you'll move through a few quick questions setting up the license - choose a Username, Password and billing term (monthly, yearly).

each license comes with 1TB storage - it is at this stage where you'll be able to add on additional storage if you require more than 1TB.  The same applies to add-on devices - if you require more than 1 endpoint (device), you can add on another device if needed.

- Add-on storage and devices can also be applied at a later date if/when required.  * please contact your ezB account representative if you have any questions.

Click CONTINUE.

  1. The last step will ask for your Partner Validation (Promo) Code.  Each Partner/Reseller is issued a Validation code.

Enter your code and click "VALIDATE CODE".

Click CHECKOUT.

At the end of the transaction you'll be able to download the product software and carry on with your setup and deployment.


* Using your validation code will extend billing for 30days.  Your activation code can be used with every licence you set up, whether it be a backup account for a client or a prospective client who's just Trialing.
* Backup accounts/licensing can be cancelled anytime within 30days.  You can do this from within your dashboard area, or by contacting your ezB rep.

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Custom Email Reports

The default backup report is sent immediately when a backup job of any status completes.

It is possible to customize the email reports to suit your specific needs.

You can filter on a large number of criteria including but not limited to the job's type classification, status, start time, duration, Protected Item, and Storage Vault. For advanced queries, the search system supports boolean logic (AND/OR) and arbitrary-depth clause grouping.

Steps to Enable Custom Reports

Open the eazyBackup application, from the Settings tab click the "Account" button. Select the email address with the System default reports and click the Pen button to modify. Tick the box to enable custom reports and click the + to create a new filter.

Custom Email Reports

Only Send Reports When Jobs Fail

It is possible to filter reports so that you only receive an report email when the backup jobs fails. To accomplish this, you need to set the filter to "At least one of" and create a status filter for each condition where you want to receive an email. "Status" "equal" "Variable"

Warning Status - This means the backup completed but the backup could be incomplete, possibly some files were missed.

Error Status - This status means the backup failed and did not complete

Cancelled - The job was manually cancelled by the customer

Missed - The job did not run at the scheduled time

Skipped - Another backup job was already running, the next schedule job was skipped

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