Hi

Is it possible to run a back up job during the day even though files could be in use over the network?

assume it will just take a snap shot of what it is at that momnet in time?

im thinking of running two back up jobs, one during the day for my exchange and certain parts of a database server and then a nighlty one that backs up everything else shared drives etc..

Thanks

Joel

Hi

Is it possible to run a back up job during the day even though files could be in use over the network?

assume it will just take a snap shot of what it is at that momnet in time?

im thinking of running two back up jobs' date=' one during the day for my exchange and certain parts of a database server and then a nighlty one that backs up everything else shared drives etc..

Thanks

Joel[/quote']

It depends on your backup software. Some can do "hot" backups of databases, and there are "open file managers" which will back up open files.

Otherwise it'll fail.

What backup product do you use?

Phil

We use backup exec and it quite happily backs up open files.

They may not be 100% accurate but if it's a chioce between that and nothing......

For our SQL databases I just schedule a backup job from within sql to back up to a separate file server at lunchtime.

We have Veritas Backup Exec 10.0 i have done test runs and they have completed suscessfully, i assume the test run woudl have failed it there was sometihng it didnt like?

Joel

We have Veritas Backup Exec 10.0

Ditto!

i assume the test run woudl have failed it there was sometihng it didnt like?

Definitely, it'd flag it up on the log had it failed for any reason. Have you tried restoring anything from the backups? My guess is that it'll restore fine if it hasn't flagged up any errors when backing up.

safe i think i will implament day time backups,

cheers

J

Windows XP and 2K3 server have volume shadowing, which means IIRC that you can get a consistent view of the file although it might not be quite current (ie since last open). The MS KB should have more.

If it's a database, a snapshot taken with any backup software, even one that claims to back up open files, is next to useless anyway. Use the database utilities to back up database files, then save the backups to tape with your normal backup s/w.

Backup Exec used to have "agents" for some of the databases, like SQL Server, but they've never been that great.

If its a sql database you want to back up... i do one main backup at night to the secondary server, and then regular transaction log backups during the day.. all this is controlled from within sql manager.

pretty much all backup software will backup open files.. tho i always seem to have problems with arcserve.. it usually skips 2 system files (the dhcp log and something else)

once you start getting into volume shadow copy and snapshot filesystems, then you need special partitions setup etc etc.. only really worth it if you only have a small time window to backup.