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Backing up Clients that are shut down... RRS feed

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    So we have WHS 2011 running with 3 XP PCs.  They generally get turned off around 5:00 PM until the next morning when they get booted backup.  Obviously the PCs can't back up when they are off so how does WHS 2011 handle this?  Can it simply run the back up as soon as the PC comes online or does it just skip that one and wait for the next, which will never happen in our case.

    What alternatives are there?  I can have people Hibernate or Sleep the PCs when they leave, but I've read that they then won't go back to sleep/hibernate when the backups is done.  We just don't want to waste the power for having these PCs on all the time when our office is only open 3 days per week.

    Are there any work around or options I can do?  Can WHS 2011 issue a shutdown command when it's done backing up each client?  Does the Back to Sleep/Hibernate option work?  Can I set something so that the PC auto hibernates after a certain amount of inactivity, and will the actual backup not count as inactivity so it at least runs?

    Just trying to figure out the best way to handle this.

    Thanks.

    Saturday, July 14, 2012 9:48 PM

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    You have a number of options:

    • Hibernate or Sleep the clients and let them back up in the night - they should go back to their original state after backup provided they are set  to do so in Control Panel, Power Management - I have never seen a problem in this respect.
    • Change the Client Computer backup schedule in the Dashboard to run when the computers are on. After the first backup which may take a while, these backups then run quickly and should not affect productivity.
    • Run Client Backup manually using the Dashboard.

    Phil P.S. If you find my comment helpful or if it answers your question, please mark it as such.

    • Marked as answer by Sean Zhu - Wednesday, July 18, 2012 8:50 AM
    Sunday, July 15, 2012 7:40 AM
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    Have look at Lightsout. It as very affordable add-in for WHS that will allow you to schedule a specific backup time for each client. It is able to wake your clients, even when shutdown, and return them to the shut down state after completing the backup.

    As a extra benefit, you can configure it in such a way that your server goes to sleep when no clients are accessing it, and wake up when a client starts up, or when scheduled to do so.

    • Proposed as answer by Sven Moens Monday, July 16, 2012 8:29 AM
    • Marked as answer by Sean Zhu - Wednesday, July 18, 2012 8:50 AM
    Monday, July 16, 2012 8:29 AM

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    You have a number of options:

    • Hibernate or Sleep the clients and let them back up in the night - they should go back to their original state after backup provided they are set  to do so in Control Panel, Power Management - I have never seen a problem in this respect.
    • Change the Client Computer backup schedule in the Dashboard to run when the computers are on. After the first backup which may take a while, these backups then run quickly and should not affect productivity.
    • Run Client Backup manually using the Dashboard.

    Phil P.S. If you find my comment helpful or if it answers your question, please mark it as such.

    • Marked as answer by Sean Zhu - Wednesday, July 18, 2012 8:50 AM
    Sunday, July 15, 2012 7:40 AM
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    Yeah, I was leaning toward option 2.  I made sure the first backup got done while I was setting everything up so the rest should be OK.  Also then we're not wasting time backing up a PC every day that hasn't been used for a few days.  I think I'll go with that and see how it goes.

    Thanks.

    Also, on a side note...  If we're backing up the server manually via 3rd party software, and don't care about the actual Server OS, the only folder I need to back up is the D:/ServerFiles (or whatever it's called) folder, right?  It has all the shared folders plus the Client Backups and those are the two things I actually care about.

    Sunday, July 15, 2012 1:30 PM
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    Oh, and one other thing.  If I set the backup window from say 10AM - 5PM, if a PC is off at 10AM but then boots up at 2PM, will it see that it's still in the window and kick off a backup, or does it have to be on at 10AM when the process starts to do the backups?
    Sunday, July 15, 2012 1:45 PM
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    Have look at Lightsout. It as very affordable add-in for WHS that will allow you to schedule a specific backup time for each client. It is able to wake your clients, even when shutdown, and return them to the shut down state after completing the backup.

    As a extra benefit, you can configure it in such a way that your server goes to sleep when no clients are accessing it, and wake up when a client starts up, or when scheduled to do so.

    • Proposed as answer by Sven Moens Monday, July 16, 2012 8:29 AM
    • Marked as answer by Sean Zhu - Wednesday, July 18, 2012 8:50 AM
    Monday, July 16, 2012 8:29 AM
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    Well, I ended up just setting the backup to run after everyone is done for the day.  I then set up a Scheduled Task to shut the PC down an hour or two later.  That way the PC isn't up for a few days without use and isn't wasting time backing up on days when it hasn't been used either.

    Thanks.

    Wednesday, July 18, 2012 11:52 AM