Howto - What is a good Win10 client backup strategy, ideally without additional software required; quota on TN Core enable

[flashdrive]

Hello,

the goal is:

to have a fully restoreable copy of drive c: of each Win 10 client PC stored on TN Core.

Ideally the featureset of Apple's Time Machine: incremental backup of the complete system, restoreable on a per file basis or complete re-install from backup.

Is this achieveable with the onboard Win 10 tools?

If not: what would be the way to go with FOSS / freeware?

How would a complete re-install from backup work?

I am aware of:

1) Windows system restore ("Wiederherstellungspunkt" in German) - manual todo, only local copy on drive c: - not good enough
2) Windows 10 > "file history" ("Sicherung > Dateiversionsverlauf" in German)

Caveat:

Sichern Ihres Windows-PCs - Microsoft-Support

Erfahren Sie, wie Sie Apps, Einstellungen, Dateien, Fotos und Microsoft Edge-Favoriten und -Einstellungen auf Ihrem Windows-PC sichern.

support.microsoft.com

> Only for the user data. One can add additional folders, but this sounds not too convincing to me

Im Dateiverlauf werden nur Kopien von Dateien gesichert, die sich in den Dokumenten-, Musik-, Bild-, Video-und Desktop Ordnern sowie den OneDrive-Dateien befinden, die auf Ihrem PC offline verfügbar sind. Falls sich zu sichernde Dateien oder Ordner an anderen Speicherorten befinden, können Sie sie einem dieser Ordner hinzufügen.

3) Windows 7 old backup solution onboard - I am not too familiar with how that would work out.


2nd concern is the storage quota on TN and access rights.

The first idea was to configure a TN dataset for each Win 10 client PC with a quota set.

edit: the feature behind this is that the backup solution will automatically start to delete older backups, if that storage space is going to run out.

However for which TN / Win 10 user account? There are other TN data shares which will be mounted in Win 10.

Thank you in advance

 

[jgreco]

No, Windows does not contain anything along the lines of Apple's Time Machine.

A common tool, paid but with a free tier for home users, is Veeam Agent for Windows. This will let you back up a PC to a SMB share, and you can set up a custom username/password on a per-PC basis if you want.

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

No, Windows does not contain anything along the lines of Apple's Time Machine.

What about the builtin Windows Backup? It's been some years since I last configured that but it seemed to do its job.

 

[jgreco]

Windows Backup is pretty ugly, and while it can do file level backup activities, it isn't really what I'd consider a fully featured backup solution. Veeam can recover files or reinstall your entire system without that much fuss, and it does so in a fairly innocuous and nondramatic manner, which is why I like to suggest it, even though there are much more flexible freeware things out there.

 

[Redcoat]

From personal experience. including a very recent complete workstation system restore, I can fully support @jgreco 's comments above. I moved to Veaam Agent several years ago after a very rough experience with Windows Backup.

 

[flashdrive]

Thank you all, I will have a look into Veaam.

I also got the impression that the Win 10 onboard "solutions" might not be able to achieve what I am looking for.

(sidenote: this and Android non-backup even today are not what I am expecting compared to the solutions provided by the competition)

German c't magazine is using an in house solution: c't-WIMage

German https://www.heise.de/ct/artikel/c-t-WIMage-3863074.html

also some other possible solutions:

Backup erstellen mit Windows 10

Sie möchten Ihre Daten in einem Backup sichern? Wir zeigen Ihnen, welche Möglichkeiten Sie bei Windows 10 haben.

www.heise.de

forget it, mentioned SW is outdated

Die beste Backup-Software: Tools für Einsteiger und Profis | heise Download

Datensicherung ist essenziell, um beim Ausfall einer Festplatte oder SSD nicht alle Daten zu verlieren. Wir geben Tipps zur richtigen Backup-Strategie – und zeigen passende Backup-Tools, die Bilder, Dokumente und komplette Systeme sichern sowie verlorene Daten aus Backups wiederherstellen.

www.heise.de

How about:

2nd concern is the storage quota on TN and access rights.

Do you have any hints regarding this?

 

[flashdrive]

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www.veeam.com

What Backup type do you need?

Before you implement your backup plan, it's important to determine which level of backup you want to achieve image-level, volume-level or file-level.

Veeam Backup & Replication for image-level backup.

• Image-level backup is a backup type either for a computer or a VM, that creates a copy for the OS and all other apps and files on that Virtual Machine.

Veeam Agents for Windows, Linux, IBM AIX and Oracle Solaris for volume-level or file-level backup.

• Volume-level backup is a type of data backup for any workload and it will capture the whole data volume on that workload.
• File-level backup protects only data of individual directories and files on the computer.

 

[jvalas]

Backing up to an smb share will be fragile with the meaning of virus. Why not take a look at urbackup software. It is a client, server software and is supported by TN.

 

[jgreco]

Backing up to an smb share will be fragile with the meaning of virus. Why not take a look at urbackup software. It is a client, server software and is supported by TN.

Not really. You would want to create a separate dataset for backups, share that out on a limited basis, have a per-PC user for the Veeam login to the share, and then just run a series of snapshots on the filer to protect against any ransomware style corruption.

 

[flashdrive]

When I do look into the TN Core Plugins there are so many backup items mentioned in there...

• https://www.urbackup.org

 

[flashdrive]

@jgreco

as always - again many thank's for sharing your wisdom

I got Veeam Agent for Windows up and running.

It does exactly what I was looking for except of:

2nd concern is the storage quota on TN

> yes, there is the option in Veeam to set a timer / duration for how long a backup will be kept - but this is not 100% what I was hoping for.

In Apple Time Machine the oldest backup get's deleted when the storage space is running out.

In above mentioned approach after a certain time the backup gets deleted. So in the rare case of not running the client for a very long time and not having setup the auto-wake the client to do a periodic setup there is a chance the system will delete the final backup. But then this is the fault of the admin for not setting it up properly in the first place...

todos:

• restore the complete disk from backup as test
• https://www.truenas.com/docs/core/tasks/periodicsnapshottasks/
• enable dataset reserve option (make sure, that the required storage amount is reserved / provisioned)

 

[flashdrive]

The thread is marked as solved - long term experience is being gained...

Thank you all.

 

[flashdrive]

Hello,

the thread is unmarked now.

Issue 1:

I do not know if maybe my TN Samba sharing is the culprit here:

Veeam Windows Free / Win 10 version does not auto delete the old backups as per set up retention policy (5 days, no regular full backups).

2 clients do have this issue.

I am going to try the hint mentioned in the last comment by Egor Yakovlev.

However my expectation (even if it is the free version) is that the auto delete will work without adjusting the Win registry.


Veeam Agent for Windows does check both source volumes and target destination for free space available on each job run.
Having low space on any side should trigger Warning in the session(X is running low on space), however job will continue to process data, no matter of limit, until disk is full.

You can tune it with:

Source: HKLM\Software\Veeam\Veeam Endpoint Backup\DisableVolumeFreeSpaceCheckWarning (1 Disabled, 0 Enabled)
Target: HKLM\Software\Veeam\Veeam Endpoint Backup\BackupRepositoryFreeSpaceThresholdPercent (X percent)

Short-Term Retention Policy - Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows Guide

Restore points in the backup chain are not kept forever. They are removed according to the retention policy. The short-term retention policy helps maintain the life cycle of restore points and make sure that...

helpcenter.veeam.com

2. the policy of Veeam Forum...

https://my.veeam.com/#/open-case/step-1

is required to be filled in before a technical post in the forum is approved.

Since I am using the app in a private environment I cannot provide the required info.

 

[Constantin]

Fwiw, I am having the same issue with Time Machine. My quota is not being respected and rather than trim the oldest files, the OS X backup agent throws its hands up and quits. I’ll have to see what I misconfigured since this feature does work for other people.

 

[Redcoat]

Since I am using the app in a private environment I cannot provide the required info.

Put a dash (-) in for the organization and the correct number of backups - I have four. It went through just fine.

 

[flashdrive]

Fwiw, I am having the same issue with Time Machine. My quota is not being respected and rather than trim the oldest files, the OS X backup agent throws its hands up and quits. I’ll have to see what I misconfigured since this feature does work for other people.

@Constantin Did you find a solution?

I am trying the "user quota" feature, have a look here:

TN Core as backup target for Win 10 clients and Apple Time Machine - best practice?

1. I want to limit the useable disk space on a per client basis - so one dataset with a quota for each client. 2. Is TN Core stable / reliable to work as an Apple Time Machine target? What needs to be set up (SMB Share)? 3. Any experience with restoring the backups? (Win 10, macOS)?

www.truenas.com