Category: Guides

Learn about eazyBackup through our documentation and start running backups!

Disk Image Backup Restore Guide

Disk Image backup protects a complete disk or individual partitions and allows you to restore the backup to bare metal in the event of a disk failure.

Boot your Workstation / Server with the eazyBackup USB recovery media and restore disks or partitions without requiring temporary spool space.

The Disk Image can be restored to dissimilar hardware if needed.

Disk Image Backups can be performed to multiple destinations, such as a local storage device in addition to cloud storage. Having a local, onsite backup will reduce the time needed restore large backups and offers additional redundancy.

Disk Image Backup

The demo video shows how a typical Windows PC can be backed up using the Disk Image Protected Item type.

Disk Image Restore

The demo video below shows the restore process using the USB bootable recovery media. The system is booted from the USB media and the system disk is restored directly from cloud storage.

Restore options

The Restore wizard inside eazyBackup allows restoring of backed-up disks and partitions directly to physical disks and partitions, without requiring temporary spool space. Alternatively, it can be restored as virtual disk files.

eazyBackup stores the Disk Image files in VMDK format, from which single files can be extracted.

Restore to physical device(s)

In order to restore to physical hardware, the target disk or partition should be unmounted (not in use). eazyBackup may be able to do this automatically from within the currently booted OS if no programs are using the target drive (e.g. for a non-boot drive).

  • If the goal is to restore to the boot drive, first, reboot the PC into a recovery environment.
  • When restoring a smaller partition into a larger one, eazyBackup will automatically extend the restored filesystem to the fill the target partition. eazyBackup does not support restoring a large backed-up partition into a smaller physical partition. The partition must be shrunk using the OS’s partition manager prior to performing the backup.

Restore from Windows boot environment

  1. Select a backed-up disk or partition to restore, from the left-hand column
  2. Select a target disk or partition to write to, from the right-hand column
  3. Click the Add to restore queue button
  4. Repeat steps 1-3 as necessary for other disks and partitions
  5. Click the Restore button to begin the restore job

  • The Edit function can be used to re-partition the local drives using Windows Disk Management. After doing so, the Refresh function may be used to refresh the view of the local disks and partitions able to be selected for restore.

Restore from Linux boot environment

Steps to restore an entire disk, without spooling:

  1. Restore just the disk.vmdk file (without the data extents), and open it in a text editor in order to read the partition sizes.
  2. Recreate partitions to the exact target size
  3. Single partitions can be restored without any local spool disk, using the "Program Output" restore option, and selecting only a single partition file for restore: dd of=/dev/sdx1 bs=8M

Restore Disk Image as virtual disk files

There is one plain text VMDK descriptor file containing metadata about the whole drive, plus separate raw image files for each partition’s extent on the disk. The plain text file is labelled disk.vmdk by default.

Partitions of the disk that were not selected for backup are represented as zero extents in the VMDK descriptor file. The effect of this is that the restored disk image will appear to have the full disk size, even if only a small amount of partitions inside it were selected. However, the zero extents will be compressed inside the Storage Vault.

The VMDK disk images may be restored, then, optionally, do one of the following:

  • Extract single files from them, or
  • Recover to a local virtual machine, or
  • Recover to a cloud server

Restore files and folders from Disk Image

This feature allows a customer to browse the filesystem in a Disk Image backup and restore files and/or folders without downloading the whole VMDK disk image in advance. Currently this feature is supported for the NTFS.

VMware virtual disk​

Starting from version 23.9.5, there's a new feature for disk image backup. Now, you can restore your disk image backup as a virtual disk that works with VMware. This means you can use it in VMware without needing to change anything.

Create USB Recovery Media

The eazyBackup app supports the creation of USB Recovery Media from the wizard on the Settings screen.

This allows a user to boot from the USB device, type-in the username and password for the backup account, and make a full restoration from backup onto the drive(s) of the connected PC. In this fashion, bare-metal restorations can be achieved.

The following options are available:

  • WinRE
  • Windows To Go

WinRE

Selecting this option allows the creation of a minimal USB Recovery Media based on the Windows Recovery Environment.

Windows To Go

Selecting this option allows the creation of a full Windows boot environment. this method

Other boot environment

A recovery environment may also be created in other ways. Both Windows or Linux can be used as a suitable recovery environment. Some possible methods include:

  • creating a Linux bootable USB drive, or
  • using a third-party tool like Rufus to create a Windows-To-Go drive, or
  • using recovery media from your PC OEM vendor (e.g. Lenovo / Dell / HP)

In these cases, the eazyBackup app will need to be launched manually, once booted into the recovery environment.

eazyBackup

How to Backup Windows Network Shares and UNC Paths

eazyBackup can back up Windows network shares (SMB), however, because eazyBackup runs as a background service user, there are some issues with authentication to be aware of.

When possible, the best option would be to to install eazyBackup directly on the device rather than backing up over the network.

Network Authentication Issues

On Windows, your logged-on user session may have its own mapped network drives. These mapped drives belong to your logged in user session and are not available to background service accounts.

Most UNC shares will require network authentication. If your backup logs show messages like WARNING Lstat: CreateFile \\?\UNC\...: Access is denied., this is likely because the eazyBackup service account is not logged into your network shares.

We will show you different methods of adding network authentication to avoid these issues.

  • To start, you will need to add a new protected item or modify an existing file and folder protected item.
networkbackup_step1
  • You can name the protected item, which will make it easier to identify later if you multiple jobs.
  • Select the file and folders backup type and then proceed to the next step
networkbackup_step2
  • Click the drop down arrow to reveal the extra options and select "Choose items"
networkbackup_step3
  • Click the options box and select Browse UNC Path. Even if you already have a network drive mapped like you see in the example below, the most reliable method for backing up your files will be to add the shares UNC path.
networkbackup_step4
  • Enter the path to network share in the format shown in the example below, than click OK. The most reliable method is to use the servers IP address rather than the network name.
networkbackup_step5
  • At this point you should be able to browse the network location and make your file & folder selections. Check the boxes next to the files or folders you want included in the backup and then click OK.
networkbackup_step6
  • Click the drop down arrow to show the extra options, this time select the Log in to network share option.
networkbackup_step7
networkbackup_step8
  • Enter the path to your network share as shown below, for example 
    \\192.168.31.21\Public
  • When adding the username, in some cases you may need to specify the network name of the server before the username in this format 
    myservername\Administrator
networkbackup_step9
  • You should now have one or more included locations for the backup and your network credentials as shown below.
  • You can remove the checkbox from the "Take filesystem snapshot" option. This feature cannot be used on network shares. If you are also backing up from the local machine, you can leave that option enabled.
networkbackup_step10
  • Keep the default selection on the Commands page and continue to the next step.
networkbackup_step11
  • The Retention page allows you to customize the policy for this protected item.
  • If you need to keep snapshots for longer than the default of 30 days, click the pen button to modify.
networkbackup_step12
  • Create a schedule to run this backup automatically. Click the + button to create a new schedule for this job.
networkbackup_step13
  • Run the backup job immediately when you click finish or let the backup run according to the schedule you made.
networkbackup_step14

eazyBackup

Two-Factor Authentication for Backup Accounts

With eazybackup it is possible to enable two-factor authentication using a time based one time passcode for use with the both the backup software and the web control panel.

To configure this option, you will need to login to the backup account from the control panel https://panel.eazybackup.ca/

In the panel, open the account settings, click on My Account

eazybackup-panel-my-account-settings

Enable the option for two-factor Authentication (TOTP)

enable two factor authentication

Scan the image with your two-factor authentication app, then enter the six-digit code from the app. Save the settings to enable the feature.

TOTP barcode

Now, when logging into the web control panel and the backup software,  your two-factor code will be required.

eazybackup-application-2fa

Additional Account Security

As an additional security measure we recommend disabling the option to "Unlock automatically at start-up" and engaging the application lock each time you close eazyBackup. If the lock has not been enabled, the software can be opened without the requirement to enter the account password or your TOTP.

Confirm that your backup account password is memorized or stored safely before locking the application.

  • Open the eazyBackup application, select “Account” at the bottom left side menu,
  • Select “change account settings” button,
  • On the Account tab, click the “Lock…” button to the right of the Username field.
  • If you confirm the confirmation to lock the application, the program immediately locks and closes. Your password (and TOTP if configured) is required to open the application again.
  • Each time you login to the application you must lock it again following the steps above.
eazybackup-application-lock

eazyBackup

Securing your backup against Ransomware

To better protect your backups against unauthorized access and types of Malware such as Ransomware, we recommend locking the application when not in use.

Confirm that your backup account password is memorized or stored safely before locking the application.

  • Open the eazyBackup application, select "Settings" at the bottom left side menu,
  • Select the "Account" button
Backup_Interface_Application_Settings
  • On the Account tab, click the "Lock..." button to the right of the Username field.
  • If you confirm, the application will immediately lock and close. Your password is required to open the application again.
  • Each time you login to the application, you must lock it again following the steps above.
  • Locking the application will not interfere with scheduled backup jobs.
Backup_Interface_Lock

Enable 2FA

As an additional layer of security, it is possible to enable Two Factor Authentication for access to the application. Please see this article for steps to enable 2FA for your backup account.

eazyBackup

Creating Protected Items

 

Add New Protected Item

  • Start by adding a new Protected Item, you can enter a brief name describing what data is being backed up in the "Description" field.
  • Select which type of data is to be protected.


Select Items to Backup

Choose items you would like to include in the Protected Item. For file and folder backups, you can use either the quick selection menu or the custom file selection depending on your needs.

 

Commands (Protected Item) 

You can optionally configure Commands that run before or after the Protected Item is backed up.

The Commands feature on a Protected Item works the same way as for Commands on a Storage Vault or on a Schedule. For more information about the Commands feature, please see the Commands Article.

The default is no extra commands, only enable this option if you have a specific use case. Please contact support if you would like assistance creating before / after commands.


Schedules 

Protected Item Schedule

eazyBackup can run backup jobs automatically on a schedule. It is strongly recommended to automate your backups on a regular schedule.

Click the "+" button to add a new schedule and create a friendly name for the schedule.

General Schedule options 

Protected Item General Schedule Options

When a schedule is due to run, the backup job will run automatically to the selected Storage Vault.

You can also configure advanced backup runtime options:

  • Skip if already running. If this option is enabled, and another backup job is known by the eazyBackup Server to exist for the same Protected Item and Storage Vault in "Running" status, then this backup job will be skipped. Skipping a backup job creates a log entry for the job in "Skipped" status.
  • Cancel if still running after. You can set a time limit for the backup job. If the backup job exceeds this time limit, the backup job would be cancelled.
  • Limit Storage Vault Speed. This option allows you to limit the total speed that eazyBackup reads and writes to the Storage Vault. The speed limit applies to the total combined read/write bandwidth.
  • Limit backup to use only 1 disk thread. When reading multiple files from the local disk for backup, eazyBackup uses multithreading to improve performance. On some machines, this can impact PC performance. If you are experiencing low system performance while the backup job is running, you can try enabling this option to see if it resolves the issue.

Schedule times 

Protected Item Schedule Times

You can configure the times when this schedule will be executed. You can add multiple times to the same schedule.

Protected Item Schedule Time

The available time-based schedule frequencies are:

  • Hourly. The schedule would run every hour. You can choose the minutes past the hour.
  • Daily. The schedule would run every day. You can choose the time of day (hours/minutes). The hours are specified in 24-hour time, from 0 to 23.
  • Weekly. The schedule would run every week. You can choose the day of the week, and the time of day (hours/minutes). You can choose multiple days of the week.
  • Monthly. The schedule would run every month.
  • Once only. The schedule would run only when the specified date and time is reached.

If the device is online, eazyBackup will try to run the backup job. If the device is not online, or the backup job could not be started, a "Missed" job will show in the backup job log.

The available event-based schedule frequencies are:

  • Also run when PC starts. The schedule would be initiated immediately after the PC boots.
  • Also run when PC starts, if the last job was Missed. The schedule would be initiated immediately after the PC boots if the last backup job for this Protected Item and Storage Vault pair was in "Missed" status. This allows you to "catch up" missed backups for PCs that are only online at irregular intervals (e.g. laptops).

The time that the "PC starts" is defined as follows: the time that the eazyBackup background service started, if the system uptime is less than 10 minutes. (This definition is subject to change.)

Commands (Schedule) 

You can configure Commands that run before/after this Schedule runs.

The Commands feature on a Schedule works the same way as for Commands on a Protected Item or on a Storage Vault. For more information about the Commands feature, please see the Commands Article.

 

Retention (Protected Item) 

On the Retention tab, 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 will apply.

 

eazyBackup

Delete backup snapshots to reduce storage vault size

You can remove backup snapshots from within a Storage Vault as follows:

  1. Open the eazyBackup desktop application
  2. Click the "Restore" button in the left-hand menu bar
  3. Select the Storage Vault containing the backed-up data and click "Next"
  4. In the restore wizard click the 'Delete' button
  5. From the list of available snapshots, can select one or more to remove, and then click 'Delete'
  6. Once the removal of the snapshot is complete, you need to run a retention pass on the vault if you want to immediatly clean up the deleted snapshots from the storage vault.

If you need to immediatly reduce the size of your storage vault, you must perform step six to manually to invoke the retention pass. Data is not removed from a storage vault until a retention pass has been completed.

eazyBackup

How to Restore Files and Folders

Restoring any type of Protected Item can be done from either the desktop application or the online Control Panel.

  • The online Control Panel can only be used to restore data to the computer where the desktop application is installed, and the device must be online.

Restoring Files and Folders using the Desktop Application and the Control Panel

Follow these steps to restore files/folders:

  1. Click the "Restore" button in the left-hand menu bar
  2. Select the Storage Vault containing the backed-up data and click "Next"Backup Restore Menu
  3. Select the Protected Item that you want to restore and click "Next"Restore - select protected item
    • (Optional) Click the Caret to Unfold the Protected Item, this will allow you to pick from a history of available backups.
  4. Select which files to restore and click "Next"
    Restore - select files

    • (Optional) By default, all files are restored. You can use the "Choose files" radio option to select individual files or folders to restore.
  5. Select the destination path to restore to and click "Next"Restore- choose path

The restore job will start within the main window interface.

eazyBackup

Backup to a Local Device (External or Internal Hard Drive)

This article outlines the steps to create a protected item which will backup to a local storage device. The local storage device can be an internal disk, external USB or network location.

Open the eazyBackup application, select the “Accounts” menu and click “Add Storage Vault”.

Create a a new "Custom" storage vault.

On the "General" tab, we can give our storage vault a name, enter something that makes it easy to identify later.

Name the custom external storage vault

From the "Storage" tab, click the drop down box and choose "Local Path". Next, click the browse button and locate the local storage device where you want to store backup data. When you have added the path to your local storage device click "Save".

External storage vault local path

Now you should have a new item listed under "Storage Vaults".

External Drive storage vault

Now we can create a new Protected Item which will backup data to our local storage device. From the "Backup" tab, select "Add Protected Item".

Add new protected item

Here we can give our "Protected Item" a name, enter something that makes it easy to identify later. Click "Next".

New protected item backup to local device

Now we need to add some files and folders to this backup job. Click the "+" button to browse your hard drive, place a check mark in the box next to the folders you want included. When you are done, click "Next".

New protected Item file selection

Protected item files and folders to backup

If you want this Protected Item to backup your files on a regular schedule, click the "+" button to create a new schedule.

Add new protected item schedule

Here we can give the schedule a friendly name. In the "Storage Vault" selection menu, choose the new Storage Vault you just created from the list.

Schedule backup to external drive

On the "Time" tab click the "+" button to add a time to run this Protected Item. Click "Save" when finished.

Schedule time for backup jobs

 

Your "Schedules" page should now look something like the example below. As you can see we have an hourly backup which will store data on our local Storage Vault, which we named "External Drive". You can also configure this Protected Item so that it will backup to multiple locations, for example, your eazyBackup Storage Vault.

Backup schedule to local device

 

If you want to add another destination for this Protected Item click the "+" button.

Add multiple schedules

Again, we can give the schedule a relevant name. In the "Storage Vault" selection menu, choose "eazyBackup". On the "Time" tab click the "+" button to add a time to run this protected item. Click "Save" when finished.

Now we have two hourly backup schedules, one which will store data on our local Storage Vault and a second schedule which will store data in your eazyBackup Storage Vault. Click "Next" when you are ready.

Protected item with schedule to multiple destinations

Click "Finish" to save the new Protected Item. You also have the option to run a backup job now.

eazyBackup

Getting Started Guide

This article outlines the steps to create a scheduled file backup job with eazyBackup.

Log into the eazyBackup client

Open eazyBackup and login to the client user interface with your chosen account username and password.
You can find your backup account username and reset the account password within the
client area from Backup Accounts -> Manage Accounts.


Backing up (Files and Folders)
The first step in backing up your files is to create a "Protected Item".

Go to the "Backup" tab and click "+ Add Protected Item". Name this Protected Item and choose the "Files and Folders" for backup "Type".


Select the type of backup
Name the new Protected Item and choose "Files and Folders" for the Backup Type.


Select items to backup
Add the items you would like to include in your backup.

Schedules
eazyBackup can run backup jobs automatically on a schedule. It is recommended to automate your backups on a regular schedule.

Click the "+"  button to add a new schedule.

General Schedule Options

From the 'General' tab enter a name for the new schedule. You can have multiple schedules for a single protected item, for this reason it helps to give it a name.

When a schedule is due to run, the backup job will run automatically to the selected Storage Vault.

You can also configure advanced backup runtime options, such as the following:

  • Skip if already running. If this option is enabled, and another backup job is known by the Server to exist for the same Protected Item and Storage Vault in "Running" status, then this backup job will be skipped. Skipping a backup job creates a log entry for the job in "Skipped" status.
  • Cancel if still running after. If the backup job exceeds this time limit, the backup job would be cancelled.
  • Limit Storage Vault Speed. This option allows you to limit the total speed to the Storage Vault. The speed limit applies to the total combined read/write bandwidth.
  • Limit backup to use only 1 disk thread. eazyBackup uses multithreading to improve performance. On some machines, this can impact PC performance. If you are experiencing low system performance while the backup job is running, you can try to enable this option.


Schedule times

You can configure the times when this schedule will be executed. You can add multiple times to the same schedule.

The available time-based schedule frequencies are:

  • Hourly. The schedule would run every hour. You can choose the minutes past the hour.
  • Daily. The schedule would run every day. You can choose the time of day (hours/minutes). The hours are specified in 24-hour time, from 0 to 23.
  • Weekly. The schedule would run every week. You can choose the day of the week, and the time of day (hours/minutes).
  • Monthly. The schedule would run every month.
  • Once only. The schedule would run only when the specified date and time is reached.

The available event-based schedule frequencies are:

  • Also run when PC starts. The schedule would be initiated immediately after the PC boots.
  • Also run when PC starts, if the last job was Missed. The schedule would be initiated immediately after the PC boots if the last backup job for this Protected Item and Storage Vault pair was in Missed status. This allows you to "catch up" missed backups for PCs that are only online at irregular intervals (e.g., laptops).

Retention

"Retention" is the concept of classifying backed-up data, to determine what data should be kept, and what data can be safely removed.

You may choose to keep the last 30 days of backed-up data, or all data from the last 100 backup jobs; but any data older than this is unlikely to be useful and can be safely removed.

Start your first backup

Click "Finish" to complete the setup wizard. You can also choose to check the box to run your first backup immediately.

eazyBackup

Seed Load Walkthrough

This is a walkthrough of our Seed Load process. Using this method allows you to perform your initial backup to a local external hard drive and then courier the external drive to the server administrator.

Open the eazyBackup application and select the "Accounts" menu. Click on "Add Storage Vault"

Select 'Custom' to create a local storage vault.

Name the new vault something descriptive.

From the 'Storage' tab, select Local Path from the device storage drop down menu.
'Browse' and select the device you are going to use to store the backup data. Click Save to continue.

The local vault will be used to store the seed data. Create a new "Protected Item" for the seed load backup. Select the "Backup" menu and "Add Protected Item".

Give your Protected Item a friendly name, something to identify what you are backing up.

Proceed to select the files / folders you want to include in the backup.

Schedules can be configured at a later date after the seed load backup has been imported account. Our team will advise you when it is safe to begin scheduled backup jobs.

When you are ready to start this backup job, you will be prompted to select a Storage Vault. Select your local Storage Vault (which you created earlier) as the destination.

When you have completed your backup to the local device, contact eazyBackup for shipping instructions.

eazyBackup

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