Best Practices for Trialing the Intronis Cloud Backup + Recovery Solution

Intronis Cloud Backup + Recovery is a file based backup application that allows users to back up their critical data to the ultra-secure Intronis Cloud. User information is always available and is stored in an encrypted format only accessible by those who possess their security key.

This white paper reviews some of the best practices Intronis recommends while installing, configuring and trialing the Intronis product. Intronis provides partners with a free 14-day trial to store as much or as little data as they would like. This gives partners a feel for the software and its capabilities.

The Intronis solution is comprised of a few pieces, of which the software agent is just one. Our excellent sales staff is more than happy to demonstrate some of the additional capabilities including the end-user web portal, centralized management portal and marketing materials. Please contact our sales staff at 1-800-569-0155 for additional information.

Table of Contents

• Downloading the Trial Software Agent
• Installing the Trial Software Agent
• Setting Up the Software Trial
• Configuring Trial Software Agent Preferences
• Configuring Backup Sets in the Trial Software Agent
• Exchange Backup Set Creation
• SQL Backup Set Creation
• System State Backup Set Creation
• Running Restores
• Deleting Information
• Intronis Software Agent Trial Process Overview
• Special Considerations

DOWNLOADING THE TRIAL SOFTWARE AGENT

To download the trial software agent, simply visit the link below. https://my.intronis.com/installers/3.0/0/eSureIT-TrialSetup.exe

INSTALLING THE TRIAL SOFTWARE AGENT

Once the software is downloaded, Intronis recommends installing the agent on the computer you would like to trial the solution on. We recommend choosing a non-production system that most closely resembles your customer base. Most frequently, this system will include files, Microsoft Exchange and SQL data.

To begin, we will start by installing the software by running the executable.

Please note: Prior to beginning the software installation Intronis recommends disabling any anti-virus, anti-malware, software firewall or any real-time scanning applications. At the conclusion of the installation Intronis recommends adding exclusions to any of these types of applications for our installation folder, temp folder and Local Vault locations.

Once the setup wizard begins we will click the "next" button to continue the installation.

Now we will need to review our licensing agreement. Choose to "Accept" by click the radio button to the left. Click the "Next" button to continue the installation.

Now we will confirm the installation path. It's important if you are installing the Intronis product on a 64-bit operating system to ensure this location is the "Program Files (x86)" folder for compatibility. Once the installation location is confirmed click the "Next" button.

We will confirm our installation path one more time, then click "Next" to start copying files.

Our last step is to "Finish" the installation and begin the setup.

SETTING UP THE SOFTWARE TRIAL

After completing the software installation we can configure our Username, Password and Encryption key information.

The setup wizard will appear once the software has been installed. We will want to create a new user, password and enter our contact information. Once all information has been confirmed by a green check, click the "Join Now" button. This will begin the process of provisioning your account on the Intronis system.

Please Note: If you are trialing on a customer's computer system we recommend setting the customers company name as the username. At the conclusion of your trial Intronis will have the ability to migrate your customer's username and data to your new partner account. Similarly, you should take care when setting up your username as this may not be used again or changed to a partner account username.

As a special note if you will be trialing the software on more than one customer, we recommend each customer or company install should be setup with its own username. If you would like to install the solution on more than one computer under a username, please contact our support team or see the below Knowledge Base article.

How to create a new subaccount in the management portal.
https://my.intronis.com/support/?kbid=KBBASE860SINORTNI

Now that your account has been provisioned on the Intronis system, we can choose the type of encryption key we would like to use. Intronis recommends selecting the "Use a Managed Key" option, as this allows partners to recover a software installation without knowing the encryption key. This option still provides all of the safety the "Create Your Own Key" option, just without the need to remember the encryption key.

After generating a new encryption key, we are able to run the software through a quick test to ensure we are able to properly communicate with the Intronis servers. Click the "Test" button to begin the process.

If you receive a status other than a green check, we recommend further investigating the issue or contacting our technical support team. At the conclusion of the test, click the "Next" button.

The last step of the setup wizard is to set a few default settings. For now, we can skip the configuration of these preferences, as we will further adjust these at a later point.

Congratulations! You have installed the software!

CONFIGURING TRIAL SOFTWARE AGENT PREFERENCES

We recommend configuring your basic preferences and settings prior to creating any backup sets. This will help ensure you trial maximum functionality and receive the full trial experience. Some of these features include our Local Vault functionality, bandwidth throttling and file exclusion rules.

To access the preferences, simply click on the "Preferences" tab at the top of the screen. This will bring us to the main preferences screen.

We recommend a few adjustments in the Preferences screen. The first recommended adjustment is the "Temp Folder" location. This location is used to temporarily process files while the backup process is occurring. Once a backup set completes, information for this folder is removed. Intronis recommends at least 5 Gigabytes of free temporary storage space during the backup process. By default, this location will be "%WINDIR%\backupagent." If there is not enough free storage, we recommend adjusting this to a location which does. If no drives are available with enough free storage space, you may also connect a portable USB hard drive and specify that location.

The next setting we will adjust is the "Local Vault" location. The "Local Vault" provides users with a duplicate copy of data backed up to the Intronis cloud. This allows partners to restore data even quicker than over the internet. This feature allows you to specify a location where this data will be maintained. You may specify either a local resource or remote resource accessible via a UNC share (please note: remote resources such as NAS devices may cause backups to run slightly slower than when specifying local resources). The feature has two options associated with it: "Backup directly to the local vault first…" and "Sync local vault with the remote vault." We recommend enabling both options for low bandwidth customers (under 128kbps) and only enabling the "Sync local vault with the remote vault" for higher bandwidth customers. This will ensure the "Local Vault" location will always maintain an up-to-date copy of the user's data.

Next, we review some of the "File System Settings." These settings allow you to prune your backups to ensure you are not backing up data you would not like. "Wildcard Excludes" is the first option we will review within this section. This allows partners to use pattern matching in order to allow partners to filter out specific extensions. This feature is great for excluding unwanted file types such as MP3, AVI, ACC, and other such file types. Just enter "*.MP3" in the text box provided and then click the plus sign to the right to add to the exclusion list. Once you have added all of the exclusions you would like, click the "Apply" button.

The last preference we recommend modifying, titled "Bandwidth Throttling," can be found in "Network Settings." This setting allows you to limit the amount of internet usage during a particular period of time, normally during business hours. We recommend enabling bandwidth throttling an hour prior to the first person arrives in the office and an hour after the last person leaves the office. We also recommend throttling to about 10 – 20% of the customers total available upload. For example, if the customer has a T1 connection with 1500Kbps you would enter 150 Kb/s. After configuring, click "Apply."

Once all preferences have been applied, we recommend restarting the backup agent service. This ensures all settings are properly configured and any new updates are applied. To restart the backup agent service, close the software Monitor, then open the Windows Services Console and choose to restart the "BackupAgent" service. The Windows Services Console can be opened by running the command "services.msc" from the "Run" dialog Window.

CONFIGURING BACKUP SETS IN THE TRIAL SOFTWARE AGENT

Backup sets may be configured in two different locations. The first is through the software agent installed, or the Monitor, the second is the web management portal. Today we are going to focus on creating our backup sets through the software monitor. For more information about creating backup sets through our management portal please see our detailed tour on Intronis.com (http://www.intronis.com/product/detailed-tour.php).

To create our first backup set, we will navigate back over to the "Backup Sets" section by clicking on the appropriate tab to display a list of available backup sets. The first type of backup set we will create is the most basic called "Choose Files and Folders By Location".

To begin creating this backup set, we will select the appropriate backup set type. This will begin the backup set creation wizard.

The first step of the backup set creation wizard is to select the data we would like to have backed up. Intronis recommends selecting the critical system information and not entire volume letters. To add data, click the check boxes to the left of the folder or files you would like to include in the backup set. Once you have completed your data selection, click the "Next" button to continue.

Please note: The Intronis Software Trial does not limit the amount of data you may trial, however Intronis recommends creating data sets less than 50GB in size. Intronis partners are provided the ability to "Seed" their initial backup sets to a portable USB hard drive in an encrypted format, then send to Intronis to ease the burden on their internet connection. This is the preferred methodology for transferring initial backups of customers with more than 50GB of data. This functionality is not currently available while trialing the Intronis Solution.

Next we will adjust the time we would like our backup set to run. The software will automatically select the optimal time to begin the backup process; you may override this time and choose a more preferable time. To adjust the schedule you may check or uncheck the boxes next to the days you would like to run the backups. To the right of that you may adjust the time you would like the backup process to begin. If you would like the backup set to terminate at a specific time, you may change the "Allow to Finish" option to "Cancel At" then select the time to the right at which you would like the job canceled.

Please Note: If a "Cancel At" time is set on a backup set, if a backup is manually canceled, or if a backup set fails, the next time a backup runs it will look for changes from the top of the backup set; however, it will only upload the changes determined and not the entire backup set. This means the backup set will essentially pick up where it left off.

The last step of the backup set creation wizard is to name our backup set. Once a name has been entered, click the "Apply" button then "Finish" button to commit the backup set. After the backup set has been committed, you will be brought to the "Backup Sets" screen and asked if you would like to run the backup set now.

Since we will be creating a few more types of backup sets we will click the "No" button and allow the backup set to run at the scheduled time.

EXCHANGE BACKUP SET CREATION

Now let's move on to create an Exchange Information Store backup set. To create our new backup set, we will select the "Create a new backup set" from the actions menu on the left hand side. This will return us back to backup set selection screen.

To create our Exchange backup set, we will select the "Backup Full Exchange Information Stores". This option will allow us to backup a full copy of the information store, which consists of databases and logs. This is the preferred backup set type when configuring Exchange backups for disaster recovery. This will allow you to restore the entire Information Store in the event of a disaster.

Please Note: The option to "Backup Full Exchange Information Stores" will only be available when installing on a machine with Microsoft Exchange installed. Intronis also provides you with the ability to backup individual mailboxes and messages. However, this setup is outside the scope of this document. For more information about how to setup this backup set, please see the Knowledge Base articles listed below.

How to Configure Mailbox Level Backups for Exchange 2003
https://my.intronis.com/support/?kbid=KBBASE660SINORTNI

How to Configure Mailbox Level Backups for Exchange 2007
https://my.intronis.com/support/?kbid=KBBASE661SINORTNI

How to Configure Exchange Mailbox Level Backups for Exchange 2010
https://my.intronis.com/support/?kbid=KBBASE924SINORTNI

Also, please feel free to contact our technical support department for any additional assistance in setting up these backup sets.

The first step of the backup set creation wizard as with the files and folders backup set is to select the storage group you would like to backup. Once your storage group is selected, click the "Next" button to continue to the next step.

Please Note: Each storage group will require its own backup set.

Next, we will confirm the time our backup set will start. As with the files and folder backup set, the software will automatically select the optimal time. This time can be overridden and set to whenever you would like. You may also select which days you would like to run the backup sets and if these will be Full or Incremental backups. Intronis requires you select at least one day to be a Full backup. Once the backup set time has been confirmed, click the "Next" button to continue.

Please Note: The Intronis solution performs true Full (or Normal) and Incremental backups according to Microsoft's best practices. For more information about Exchange backup methods, please see the below Knowledge Base article.

Overview of Exchange Server Backup Methods
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa996125(EXCHG.65).aspx

The last step of the backup set creation wizard is to name our backup set. Once a name has been entered, click the "Apply" button and then the "Finish" button to commit the backup set. After the backup set has been committed, you will be brought to the "Backup Sets" screen and asked if you would like to run the backup set now.

As with the Files and Folders backup set, we will be creating another backup set. Click the "No" button and allow the backup set to run at its next scheduled time.

SQL BACKUP SET CREATION

Now let's move on to create a SQL Server backup set. To create our new backup set, we will select the "Create a new backup set" from the actions menu on the left hand side. This will return us back to backup set selection screen.

To create our Microsoft SQL backup set, we will select the "SQL Server." This option will allow us to backup a full copy of your SQL databases and logs.

The first step of the SQL backup set creation wizard is to discover your SQL server instance by clicking on the "Discover" button. This will discover any visible SQL server instances running on your network. Once your instances have been discovered, select the instance you would like to backup from the drop down list. If your SQL instance requires SQL Authentication, enter the credentials in the space provided. Otherwise, the Intronis solution will authenticate with the "Local System" account using Windows authentication. From there, we can discover the available databases by clicking on the "Refresh List" button. This will display a list of available databases based on the permissions provided underneath. Once your databases have been detected, they will be automatically selected to be backed up.You may unselect any you would not like to have backed up and then click the "Next" button to continue.

Please Note: You will need to create a backup set for each SQL server instance you would like to backup, regardless if they are local or remote.

Next, we will confirm the time our backup set will start. As with the files and folder backup set, the software will automatically select the optimal time. This time can be overridden and set to whenever you would like. You may also select which days you would like to run the backup sets and if these will be Full or Differential backups. Intronis requires you select at least one day to be a Full backup. Once the backup set time has been confirmed, click the "Next" button to continue.

Please Note: The Intronis solution performs true Full (or Normal) and Differential backups according to Microsoft's best practices. For more information about SQL backup methods, please see the below Knowledge Base article.

SQL Server Backup and Restore
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc966495.aspx

The last step of the backup set creation wizard is to name our backup set. Once a name has been entered, click the "Apply" button then "Finish" button to commit the backup set. After the backup set has been committed, you will be brought to the "Backup Sets" screen and asked if you would like to run the backup set now.

As with the Files and Folders backup set, we will be creating another backup set. Click the "No" button and allow the backup set to run at its next scheduled time.

SYSTEM STATE BACKUP SET CREATION

Now let's move on to a System State backup set. This backup set will allow you to restore your Active Directory back in the event a failure occurs. To create your new backup set, we will select the "Create a new backup set" from the actions menu on the left hand side. This will return us back to backup set selection screen.

To create our System State backup set, we will select the "Backup the System State" option. This option will allow us to backup your system state.

The Intronis product leverages windows backup to generate a traditional System State backup file. There is no need to configure any options here. Click "Next" to continue.

Next, we will confirm the time our backup set will start. As with the files and folder backup set, the software will automatically select the optimal time. This time can be overridden and set to whenever you would like. You may also select additional days you would like to run the backup. Once the backup set time has been confirmed, click the "Next" button to continue.

The last step of the backup set creation wizard is to name our backup set. Once a name has been entered, click the "Apply" button and then the "Finish" button to commit the backup set. After the backup set has been committed, you will be brought to the "Backup Sets" screen and asked if you would like to run the backup set now.

As with the other backup sets, click the "No" button and allow the backup set to run at its next scheduled time.

Please Note: When attempting to create a system state on server 2008, ensure Windows Server Backup be installed. For more information see our KB article about System State Backups
(https://my.intronis.com/support/?kbid=KBBASE909SINORTNI).

RUNNING RESTORES

During the trial process, Intronis recommends running a few test restores to help make you more familiar with the software interface. When restoring files, you may restore files to the original or alternative location.

To start the restoration process, click on the "Restore" tab to display your listing of files. You may drill down through you folder listings to determine the folder, file or version of file you would like to restore. After selecting your data, click the "Restore" button to continue.

The next step to the restore wizard is to decide to where you will be restoring your files. You may select either the original location or an alternative location. If you will be running file comparisons we recommend selecting an "Alternative Path" and specifying a restoration location, otherwise you may select the "Original Path", then click the "Restore" button. This will bring you to the "Current Activity" screen where you may view your restores progress.

DELETING INFORMATION

During the trial you may delete any information you have backed up. However, it isn't necessary during the trial, as your information will automatically be purged and wiped at the conclusion of the trial according to Department of Defense best practices.

To delete data, select the items from the list you would like to delete and then click the "Delete" button.

After entering your password if necessary, click the "Yes" button to continue. After clicking "Yes," you will be brought to the current activity screen were you may watch the delete complete. Deletes can take just a few seconds to several hours depending the size and count of data files.

INTRONIS SOFTWARE AGENT TRIAL PROCESS OVERVIEW

When trialing the software, Intronis recommends installing, backing up and running test restores to make you more familiar with the software interface. If at any time during the software trial you have any questions, please feel free to contact your sales representative or our technical support department. Our technical support department can be reached by calling 1-800-569-0155 option 2 for support, LiveChat from our website or emailing support@intronis.com.

SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS

When trialing the Intronis solution we recommend disabling or uninstalling any other backup programs. In some cases conflicts can occur when attempting to backup duplicate information at the same time.