Performing an unattended system backup

About the unattended backup

The unattended backup automatically saves critical Message Networking data onto a backup medium every morning at 3:05 AM. The unattended backup takes approximately 35 minutes to complete. A backup medium must be inserted into the backup drive for the backup to complete. If no medium is in the drive, the unattended backup will not occur.

The data saved on the backup medium contains most of the information necessary to bring the system back to an operational state after a service-affecting event. However, the unattended backup alone might not completely restore the system to its previous state, it might only restore the system to an operational state.

An unattended backup saves:

Detailed system data on shared memory, speech file system pointers, and so on

Alarm management information

A list of enabled features

A list of installed software

Digital networking connectivity and communication information

Switch integration parameters, if applicable

Serial port assignments

Hard disk configuration

Verifying the unattended backup

It is recommended that you verify that a successful unattended backup occurred each day. After verifying that the unattended backup was successful, remove the medium and label it with the current date and with the data types that were backed up, for example, Dec. 10, 2003—System data. Store the medium in a secure location. A second medium must then be inserted into the drive. If an unattended backup did not successfully occur, the system generates the MT BACKUP 1 warning alarm.

To verify that a successful unattended backup occurred:

Start at the Administration menu, and select Logs > Backup and Restore Logs > View Backup Log.

The system displays the View Backup Logs page, which contains a drop-down list of the three most recent attended or unattended backup logs.

Select the backup log that you want to view from the drop-down list and click View.

The system displays the View Backup Logs page (with data), which contains a list of all the files that were backed up and information about any errors that occurred during the backup.

Scroll to the end of the log, and verify that an entry displays with the current date and the following text:

"FULL/PARTIAL-AUTO BACKUP completed successfully - day date time"

If the backup was not successful, the log contains an explanation of why the backup failed.

If the log contains the phase PARTIAL-AUTO BACKUP, a backup did occur but not all of the data types were backed up. See Partial unattended backup for more information.

Label the backup medium and to store it in a secure location.

Insert a second backup medium into the drive in preparation for the next unattended backup.

Click Return to Main to return to the Administration menu.

Partial unattended backup

If the unattended backup cannot store all of the data types on one backup medium, the system backs up the System data and as much of the remaining data as possible. This is called a partial unattended backup. If the system performs a partial unattended backup, the backup log contains the following log message: PARTIAL-AUTO BACKUP completed successfully. In addition, the system generates the MT BKRST029 event log entry.

Tip: Consider performing full attended backups using multiple backup media on a regular basis to ensure that you will have complete backup of data if you need to perform a restore. See Backing up system files (attended) for more information on how to perform an attended backup.