Roxio Retrospect Scripts

Retrospect ckup Script Series: Create A BaRetrospect Version 7.6.123

Retrospect Guide Nathan Peek 2010 Create A Backup Script Version 1 R3

Tab tents le of Con

1 Prerequisites .......................................................................................................................... 3

2 Prep .......................................................................................................................................... 4

3 Create A Script ......................................................................................................................... 7

4 NOTES .................................................................................................................................... 15

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1 Prerequisites Before you begin creating a script for performing a backup on remote systems, there are a few tasks you should accomplish. 1. Have a, thoroughly planned backup strategy 2. Have, installed and configured the Retrospect Client on all remote systems 3. Discovered and added clients to Client Database 4. Double check available HDD/NAS/SAN space allocation 5. Double check client/server connectivity

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2 Prep Something I like to do before creating a script is define volumes. For me, I’ve found during the script creation process, though convenient, defining your volumes can be a hassle. If you have a planned strategy and you know exactly what it is you want to backup it is simple to jump in and define your volumes beforehand. Though unnecessary, Retrospect will allow you to define volumes later in the script creation process; you may find defining volumes may even run faster when accomplished as a preparatory task. DEFINING

• Open Retrospect drop down the Configure menu.

• Select Volumes

• Select the “Plus‐Down” for Backup Clients

• Highlight the directory where you want to drill down into and click the “Subvolume…” button

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• In the “Subvolume Selection” window you can continue to drill down by double clicking each subvolume (directory parent folder)

• Here I will select /etc and /bin by holding Ctrl and selecting both volumes

• Select Define

• The subvolumes should then be populated underneath the parent directory of the client

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• Continue to do this with each client that is part of your strategy

• After you have defined all of your volumes simply exit out of the Volumes Database window

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3 Create A Script • Select the plus‐down “Automate” in the left menu panel

• Select Manage Scripts

• Select New…

• Here you will be faced with numerous options. The purpose of this guide is to create a Backup Script

• Highlight Backup and select OK

• Give the new script a name. o If backing up a single client my standard is to name the script as

Volume(s)_ClientName

• Select OK then Next >

• You’ll be asked what you want to backup. There are 4 options to choose from. I will select “Let me choose (Advanced). I do this for flexibility purposes. I have specific folder/files/volumes I backup in my environment and never allow Restrospect to arbitrarily select my data for me. Now select Next >

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• This is where your prep will glean the most benefit. Plus‐down your client and Ctrl select the volumes you want to backup, select Next >

o Here you can also Add additional clients or add other volumes that are network attached such as a share or perhaps a NAS volume, for our guide I are adding volumes directly from remote client(s) directories

• When asked “What types of files do you want to backup?” select the appropriate box based on the data inside the volumes you are backing up. In our example the /bin and /etc directory don’t necessarily contain any images, music, or movies, etc. therefore I can de‐select each box aside from “All other files”. Select Next >

o In our example it doesn’t matter whether or not I de‐select any of these boxes. Retrospect will not continue searching the directories for these file types if they do not exist.

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• Navigate to the location you will put all of your backup files. For consistency, I typically name the folders the same name of the backup script. Select Next >

• You can create a backup schedule now or you can do so later. I’ll do so now. Select the “Create a schedule for this backup” radial button and select Next >

o Select the day and time of day you want your backup to run. Select Next >

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• When asked “How many Backup Sets would you like to use?” you must consider a few questions before selecting whether you want one or more sets of your data

o How much data do you have? o How much space do you have for your data? o How much data do you expect to have in the future o Do you have the ability to expand space? o How reliable is your software and hardware? o How many copies of your data do you already have? o Are you configured with RAID on your backup system? o Do you plan to archive and store data?

• In my environment I have little data compared to a full‐on enterprise. I have a RAID 5 configuration that spans 6 500GB drives with a total of about 3.5 TB to play with. What I backup, though crucial, is also backed up on a shared space and sometimes locally. I archive my data monthly and clean any duplication that may have occurred. Also, the potential for our data to grow significantly exists and therefore I choose the “One Backup Set” option. You could choose either; whatever works best for your situation.

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• Name your backup set(s). Click Next >

• When asked, “Would you like to compress your data?” is really up to: o How much time you have o How patient you are o How much space you have o I don’t compress any of our data. I have plenty of space in my environment and

my hardware is scalable. If you have a limited amount of space you could compress your data to save space. Remember, this will take a significant amount of time to do so and in reverse you’ll have to decompress when restoring data.

• Retrospect has two main methods of encryption. First is a hardline encryption that will encrypt the data as it is backed up on the wire. The second is encryption of the data itself. I ALWAYS, as a standard, AES‐256 encryption. It is the most secure and, based on DISA STIG and other USAF recommendations, is generally accepted as the only way to go.

o When placing a password for this encryption it is recommended to put a 14 character – alpha numeric – numbers – caps – loIr case – special characters

o In the “Would you like Retrospect to remember this password?” drop down I leave the “Remember password for scripted access” option (default) selected. I found when utilizing a backup schedule for a nightly or Iekend backup allowing Retrospect to fill in the password on its own keeps from permissions issues on backup files later on.

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• When asked “What do you want to do when you backup drive becomes full?” window, this can be complicated

o First, as a backup administrator you should never allow your space to become so full the software has to recycle or remove data as a solution

o HoIver, if you plan is to leave the backups run and never manually clean your data you can select “Keep only the last XX backups”

o You can also utilize Retrospect’s policy and which will keep the source data for every day in the last Iek, each Iek in the last month, and so on

o In my environment I must keep EVERYTHING. Because Retrospect only backs up what has changed since the previous backup my data does not grow exponentially unlike a Proactive Backup (see Proactive Backup Genius Guide). Also, I archive my data each month, monitor backup trends, analyze disk usage, and have scalable hardware capable of supporting multiple terabytes of data.

o I select “Ask for a new disk” as part of my backup strategy. Click Next >

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• To complete the script you have the option to backup all the scripted data immediately. I would base whether or not you “Backup Now” on:

o Time of day o Network usage o Amount of data

• Generally, for small amounts of specific data I would go ahead and backup immediately to get the ball rolling. If you choose to backup according to schedule and NOT backup immediately then check back after the backup has ran to troubleshoot any errors if any occur.

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• When you select Finish, if you decided to Backup immediately the Activity Monitor will initiate in the executing tab.

o When the script completes you can select the History tab in the Activity Monitor to see if you script completed successfully.

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4 NOTES In my experience the retrospect client commonly idles on linux machines. If this happens and you are not able to access your linux machine from your client database simply PuTTy to your box and run the retroclient script in /usr/local/dantz/client. Or you may need to go to the machine and local open a terminal and run the script as root For more detailed information about your script you can select the Reports plus down on the left hand menu and select the Operations Log.

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Roxio Retrospect Scripts