Windows System Backup & Restore

Ahsay brings you specialized client backup software, namely AhsayOBM, to provide a comprehensive backup solution for your MS Windows System backup. The MS Windows System Backup module of AhsayOBM provides you with a set of tools to protect your mission critical systems / personal computers on Windows operating system platforms.

This includes an image-based / bare-metal backup feature, that leverages Microsoft’s native Wbadmin command-line tool (Wbadmin) for Windows Server 2008 and newer releases. It also has a recovery feature, to ensure that your servers and computers are protected even if they are lost or destroyed entirely. The image can be recovered onto a new device if necessary.

System state backup and restore operations include all system state data, and you cannot choose to backup or restore individual components due to dependencies among the system state components.

System state data is comprised of the following files:

• Boot files, including the system files, and all files protected by Windows File Protection (WFP)
• Active Directory (on a domain controller only)
• SYSVOL (on a domain controller only)
• Certificate Services (on certification authority only)
• Cluster database (on a cluster node only)
• Component Services Class registration database
• Performance counter configuration information
• Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) meta directory (on an IIS server only)
• Registry

The size of a set of system state backup data is dependent on the role installed on the server.

Please refer to the following article for more details:

(For Windows 2008 and newer releases:) Backing Up and Restoring System State

We recommend that you first read through the Overview section. This will help you become familiar with the different functions, settings and features that can be configured in AhsayOBM. It will also be helpful to know the different features that can be customized in the backup set before creating one.

This guide will focus on:

• How to create an MS Windows System and System State backup set.
• How to run a backup job.
• How to recover a MS Windows System and System State backup set including system image restore, recovering server, files and folders, application data, volumes, Operating System or full system, and system state data.

Run On Client/Server Backup

The following high-level system architecture diagram illustrates the major elements involved in the backup process of an MS Windows System backup with AhsayOBM and AhsayCBS.