Performing an attended system backup

The attended backup allows you to complete a full system backup of Message Networking data at any time. It is recommended that you perform an attended backup before you make significant changes to the system, such as performing system updates.

This topic contains the following information:

• About the Attended Backup
• Performing an Attended Backup

About the attended backup

You can manually back up any combination of the following data types at any time:

• System data: System data is automatically backed up nightly through the unattended backup. See About the unattended backup for a list of the items included in system data. In addition to the unattended backup, you should perform an attended backup whenever you make extensive changes to subscribers or when you add new remote machines.
• Voice names: The voice names data type contains voiced subscriber names. After additional subscriber names have been recorded, you should conduct an attended backup of this system.

Notes:

• For the S3210 server, an average of 10,000 subscribers with voiced names can be stored per CD during an attended backup. Three CDs are provided with each Message Networking system. You might need to provide additional 10x speed CD-RWs for backup purposes depending on the number of subscribers on your system, up to 26 CDs for the maximum number of subscribers supported on the S3210 server. It takes approximately 20 minutes per CD to perform the backup.
• For the S3400-H server, an average of 70,000 subscribers with voiced names can be stored per DVD during an attended backup. One DVD is provided with each Message Networking system. You might need to provide additional DVDs for backup purposes depending on the number of subscribers on your system, up to 4 DVDs for the maximum number of subscribers supported on the S3400-H server. It takes approximately 60 minutes per DVD to perform the backup.
• The attended backup does not cause a degradation in service. However, for best results, perform an attended backup at a time when the Message Networking system experiences low usage.
  

Performing an attended backup

Note: It is highly recommended that you stop the messaging software (voice system) before performing an attended backup. See Stopping the Messaging Software (Voice System) for more information.

To perform an attended backup:

1. Stop the messaging software (voice system). Stopping the system is highly recommended but not required.

   Note: You can perform an attended backup with or without stopping the messaging software. However, the backup will complete in substantially less time if you stop the messaging software. For example, on an S3400-H, backing up 4.7 GB of data (the capacity of one DVD-RAM backup medium) will take approximately 1 hour if the messaging software is stopped and will take approximately 2 hours to complete if the messaging software is not stopped.

2. From the Administration menu, select Utilities > Backup and Restore > Backup.

   The system displays the Backup page. For information about the fields on this page, click Help.

   Note: If you did not stop the messaging software in Step 1, the system displays a warning message stating that it is highly recommended to stop the Voice system (messaging software) before continuing with the backup. Click Continue Backup to continue without stopping the messaging software, or click Stop Voice System to exit the Backup page and stop the messaging software.

3. For each data type that you want to back up, select Yes from the drop-down list for that data type. Yes is the default setting for all data types. If you want to make a full-system backup, select Yes for all data types.

   For each data type that you do not want to back up, select No from the drop-down list for that data type.

4. Label and insert a backup medium into the CD/DVD drive.
5. Click Save.

   Note: If you are not performing the attended backup from the console, the system displays a warning message that states that leaving the Backup page will abort the backup. Click OK to acknowledge the warning message.

   The system displays the SSH User Authentication dialog box.

6. Enter your password in the Password field.
7. Click Login.

   Note: If you did not stop the messaging software, the system displays another warning message stating that it is highly recommended to shutdown Messaging (messaging software) before continuing with the backup. Press Enter to continue with the backup.

   Note: If you are performing the attended backup from the console, the system displays a warning message that states that leaving the Backup page will abort the backup. Click OK to acknowledge the warning message.

The system prompts you to insert a backup medium.

8. Press Enter.

   Note: If the backup medium has been previously used to back up data, the system displays a warning message that states that there is existing data on the backup medium. Press Enter to continue with the backup.

   The system checks the write protection of the medium. If the medium is write protected, eject the medium and remove the write protection. See the documentation that comes with the backup medium for more information.

   The system then formats the backup medium, if necessary. After the formatting is complete, the system then starts the backup and displays backup information and displays each file name that is backed up.

   The system displays an estimate of the amount of backup media needed to complete a full-system backup.

9. Verify that you have the appropriate amount of backup media to complete the backup and then press Enter.
10. If additional media is needed, do the following:
    1. Remove the full medium from the drive and label it with the current date, data type, and medium number, for example, "Dec. 10, 2003—System data and Names—DVD #1".
    2. Label a new backup medium with current date and type of backup data.
    3. Insert the new backup medium into the drive.
    4. Press Enter.
    5. Repeat Steps a through d if additional backup media is needed.
11. Verify that when the backup is finished, the system displays the following message:

    FULL/PARTIAL-MANUAL BACKUP completed successfully | type of data backed up - day date time

12. Remove the medium from the drive and label it with the current date, data type, and medium number. See Step 11a for more information about labeling backup media.

    Note: If more than one media was used to complete the attended backup, make sure each medium is labeled with a number according to the order in which it was used. For example, if you used two media to perform a full attended backup, the first medium used should be labeled "CD #1" and the second medium labeled "CD #2." This is important because when restoring data from the backup media, the system will prompt you to "insert DVD or CD-ROM number 1."

13. Insert a different medium in to the backup drive in anticipation for the next unattended backup.
14. Start the messaging software (optional).

    Note: Only start the messaging software if you stopped the messaging software prior to performing the backup.

15. Click Return to Main to return to the Administration menu.

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