(Administrator, Group, and Partner logins)
The User Remote Management Console is accessed from the Accounts menu, on the Manage Users screen. This allows you to remotely change some settings for users. Changes are automatically downloaded and applied during the next backup session.
If your software also includes the Remote Helpdesk PlugIn, you can use it to remotely access your end users' computers for real-time remote control of the monitor, keyboard, and mouse.
Click the Remote Management icon.
The first screen in the End User Remote Management console allows you to configure Endpoint Locks. You can lock out certain features of the Endpoint software, preventing end users from using them. For example, if you don't want Endpoints to be able to change backup schedules or change file selections, select Lock Scheduler Window and Lock Ability to Change/Add File Selection.
Endpoint Locks are useful when you want to distribute a pre set-up version of the Endpoint software with few options. This allows you to better control your costs and reduce support issues associated with users who might misconfigure the software.
The second tab in the User Remote Management console is for Backup/Report Options.
Auto Update: Here you can enable the Endpoint's Automatic Update feature, and also set the URL for the update files. Checkmark "Enable Autoupdate" to enable automatic updates, and in the "UpdateInfo" or "Update URL" field, put the URL to your updates file.
Report Mode: Enable Synchronization - Creates a report showing the differences between the Endpoint's catalog (what the Endpoint thinks is stored on the Server) and the Server's database (what is actually stored on the Server)
Update Mode: Enable Sync (Purge) - Depending on the results of the Report Mode operation, this option can be used to purge files from the RBS Server which do not show up in the Endpoint's catalog, and are no longer needed.
Enable Sync (Recover) - Depending on the results of the Report Mode operation, this option adds files to the Endpoint's catalog which exist in the RBS Server but not in the Endpoint's catalog.
Request Support Pack/Diagnostics Report - This is a "once only" action. It instructs the RBS Endpoint software to create a Service Pack and Diagnostic Report, and send it to the RBS Server. The Service Pack is sent in standard .ZIP format to the Endpoint's Data Root directory on the RBS Server.
Change Log Level Settings - This options changes the log level of the Endpoint software.
Change Transfer Verification - This changes the Transfer Verification method.
Bandwidth (Bits/sec) - This controls the bandwidth allocated for each Endpoint. The default is 512Kbps.
The third tab in the User Remote Management console is for changing the Backup Schedule settings.
This is where you define the dates and times for the Backup Sets to run. RBackup can run multiple Backup Sets. Select the Backup Set you want to edit.
This screen contains a box called Backup Type, which is where you select the type of backup this Backup Set will run.
Incremental - Entire files will be backed up which have been modified since the last backup. Then, after they are backed up, the files will be marked on the disk as having been backed up. This is the default and most widely-used way to back up data files.
Differential - Entire files will be backed up which have been modified since the last backup, the same as Incremental. However, after the files are backed up, they will not be marked as having been backed up. The reason for this option is in case you also want to do tape backups as well as remote backups. Your tape backup software relies on the marks placed on the files to determine which files need to be backed up. So, you don't want to remove them with your Remote Backup.
Full - Entire files will be backed up regardless of whether they have been changed since their last backup. This is the least-used option because it results in the largest Backup Sets and longest on-line times.
BitBackup - Only the parts of files that have changed will be backed up. This option creates sub-file or "patch" backups. This creates the smallest backups that take the least amount of time, and is the recommended default setting. For more information on how BitBackup works, see How BitBackup Works.
Backup Schedule
Daily - Selecting this option will launch a backup every day, seven days a week.
Weekly - This schedule lets you select which days of the week to do a backup.
Monthly - On this schedule you can select the first, second, third, fourth or fifth of any day of the week. Here are some examples: You can pick the first and third Wednesdays of each month. You can select the second Tuesday and Thursdays. There are a lot of possible schedules you can use here.
Once Only - This schedule will launch a single backup session, one time only, on a specified date you can pick from a pull-down menu containing a calendar.
On Demand - Pick this selection if you want this backup set to be launched on demand only - not through the scheduler. You can then launch this backup set through the Run: Run Now menu choice in the Endpoint software. You can also run it through Windows Scheduled Tasks.
Start Time - For each of these schedules you can select a Start Time and an Attempt Window. It is important to remember that the Start Time is on a 24-hour schedule, and that anything after midnight is the next day. This means that if you want to back up Friday's work, and you want the backup session to take place after midnight, you should select a time early in the morning of Saturday, not Friday.
The Attempt Window is the number of hours Remote Backup will attempt to perform the backup. Selecting a start time of, for example, 1:00am will not necessarily cause the backup session to start at 1:00am, although it might. Remote Backup might not be able to perform a backup for a variety of reasons - the Server is too busy, files are locked, the computer isn't turned on.
In the event that Remote Backup can't perform a backup at the selected Start Time, it will attempt the backup session some time during the next period of time determined by the number of hours you select here.
BitBackup Threshold Settings
BitBackup is a special kind of backup that backs up only the changed parts of files instead of the full files. It is sometimes called "sub-file" backup or "patch" backup. BitBackup is especially useful for very large files when only small parts of the files change between backups. For a complete explanation, see How BitBackup Works.
For example, if only a five-character word changes in a 2 megabyte document, BitBackup will back up only five characters. This can save large amounts of storage space on the Server, and it can significantly speed up the time needed to do a backup.
BitBackup always backs up a full file the first time. Thereafter, it backs up only the changed parts of the file. Each of the BitBackup backups sent after a full backup can restore the file up to the point in time when that backup was done, called cumulative backups. So, as time goes on, BitBackup archives become larger as they contain more changes.
Periodically, BitBackup needs to reset - a process called Roll-Forward. To do this, Remote Backup sends the full file again, and then resets BitBackups, which reduces their file size back to the minimum. This process cycles according to the settings at the bottom of this screen.
Roll-Forward Threshold - This is the number of BitBackups that will be done before Remote Backup resends the full file again.
Threshold Size - The percentage of BitBackup size to full-file size. In the example on this screen, when the size of the most recent BitBackup archive exceeds 50% of the size of the full file, Remote Backup will perform a Roll-Forward, re-sending the full file.
Using the Threshold Size feature instead of the Roll-Forward Threshold setting takes more time during preparation of a backup, because Remote Backup needs make a BitBackup archive to compare its size to the full file.
Differential Mode - Select this checkbox to set a Backup Set defined as BitBackup to operate in Differential Mode. Differential Mode in BitBackup operates the same way as Differential Mode for entire files, except that with BitBackup only the parts of the files that have changed are transmitted to the RBS Server. Archive bits are not reset. This setting is useful if you need to coordinate your Remote Backups with local Tape backups.
Use Task Scheduler - Select this checkbox to use the Windows Task Scheduler to launch this backup set instead of using RBackup's built-in scheduler. Some applications have the potential to interfere with RBackup's built-in scheduler, especially when RBackup is running in Service Mode. It is generally considered more reliable for wide-scale distributions to use the Windows Task Scheduler.
The Options button let you change the Windows account under which this task runs, and control the computer's power management options
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Purge/Retention & Advanced Options
The settings on this tab control file retention policy, session quota, file selection method, and optional actions that can be taken at the end of backup sessions.
Keep latest version of all files online - Check this setting if you want to keep the most recent version of a file regardless the other settings on this screen. For example, assume you have set Purge Files older than to 30 days. If you only have a single copy of a file within that time frame, and you do not checkmark this option, that file will be erased when its age is over 30 days. If you checkmark this option, that file will be retained regardless of its age until a more recent one appears at your RBS Server.
Purge Files older than - Use this setting to set the retention period of the files in this Backup Set to a number of days. In this example, files will be retained for 30 days and then erased from the RBS Server.
Number of Backup Sets to Keep Online - When Purge Files Older Than is not selected, this option becomes available. You can select a number of backup sets to keep online, and have the Endpoint software delete old backup sets (all the files in a backup set) in a First-In-First-Out method. For example, if you have this set to 7, when the 8th Backup Set is stored, the oldest backup set will be deleted.
Purge if deleted/unmarked - Select this checkbox to automatically delete files from the Server at the end of their retention period if they are deleted from the Endpoint or if they are deselected (unmarked) by the Endpoint.
Session Quota - You can set a limit on the amount of data an individual Backup Set can send to the Server in a single session. You might want to do this to limit a first backup from an Endpoint who has a large amount of data, so that it sends the first backup over a series of backup sessions rather than all at once. You can also use this to help define different backup plans for sales and pricing purposes. Select the Session Quota in megabytes (a gigabyte is 1000 megabytes) OR enter zero for unlimited.
File Selection - This sets the way RBackup selects files for backup. If set to Archive Bit, RBackup will select files that have changed since the last backup, according to the archive setting for the file. This is a very fast way to select files. However, if another program resets the archive bit before the backup, the file might not be selected for backup.
Setting the File Selection method to Modified Date/Time has an advantage and a disadvantage: It can select files for backup regardless of the archive bit, so it's generally more reliable. Its disadvantage is that during a backup session the file selection process is slower than using the archive bit - sometimes quite a bit slower. This might not matter, however, if backups are done at night when nobody is using the computer.
FastPick is a fast file selection method that compares the date and time of all files with the date and time of the most recent backup for this backup set. If a file has been modified since the previous backup was performed, it is backed up.
LogOff/Shutdown - You can set the Endpoint computer to either log off the current user or shut down the computer at the end of the backup session.
The Configure button saves all your changes.