Creating jobs

After the Drive Snapshot component has been created, scripting is enabled on the server, external image creation tools are included, and the agent has been configured, a job is created to create the images.

Only the settings in job configuration, which are necessary for creating images, are included in this section.

 

To create a job for Drive Snapshot, proceed as follows:

  1. Start the AdminClient and open the Jobs module.

  2. Select your DriveSnapShot component in the Project tree.

  3. In the menu tab, select Create or drag-and-drop the components into the Jobs section.
  4. Check in the section Job configuration, if the upload type Disk Image is being displayed.
  5. Configure the following settings in Upload and compare:
    1. In Upload agent, select the upload agent you wish to use.
    2. In Compare policy, select Do not compare.
    3. In number of backups retained (rollover), enter the number of backups (= full disk images) that you want to keep. Once the maximum amount is reached, any backups produced afterwards will be deleted. Once this number is reached, the oldest full image together with all of its differential images will be deleted. Example: If the number of backups retained is set to 2, the oldest full image together with all of its differential disk images will be deleted once the third disk image is created.
  6. Make sure the desired settings are in place for the following sections: general, Notification, Upload and compare, Create a version automatically after job run. The Notification and Create a version automatically after job run sections are only displayed if the necessary settings have been implemented.
  7. Go to Disk image settings and select a Type. You have two options: Drive Snapshot and Drive Snapshot with PsExec. If on the target system an operating system has been installed that is supported by octoplant (for example, Windows 10), select Drive Snapshot. If on the target system an operating system has been installed that is not supported by octoplant (for example, Windows NT), select Drive Snapshot with PsExec.

    8. Settings for Drive Snapshot

    1. In Drive, enter the drive that you want to backup, D: to backup the drive D: or also HD1*+HD2*, in order to backup all partitions from hard drives 1 and 2.
    2. In Options, you can set the processes used to create the disk image to be automatically created using command line parameters. For example, if you select the option -R the recycle bin of the drive that you wish to back will be emptied before a disk image is created.
    3. Use Brandwidth (MB/s) to set the transfer rate.
      0: no limit.
    4. If there are any files or directories that you wish to exclude from the backup, enter these under Exclude files. Example: By entering \Windows\Memory.dmp, you delete the file Memory.dmp in the Windows directory.
    5. If you enable Test created images, octoplant will check to see if the disk image is error-free and complete. If an error occurs, a warning will appear.

    For more information about these settings, see the website of Drive Snapshot.

    Settings for Drive Snapshot with PsExec

    Disk image settings:

    1. In Drive, enter the drive that you want to backup, D: to backup the drive D: or also HD1*+HD2*, in order to backup all partitions from hard drives 1 and 2.
    2. In Options, you can set the processes used to create the disk image to be automatically created using command line parameters. For example, if you select the option -R the recycle bin of the drive that you wish to back will be emptied before a disk image is created.
    3. You define a transfer rate via bandwidth (MB/s). 0: no limit.
    4. If there are any files or directories that you wish to exclude from the backup, enter these under Exclude files. Example: By entering \Windows\Memory.dmp, you delete the file Memory.dmp in the Windows directory.
    5. When you activate the option Test created images, a data verification will be performed for the created image, in other words, it will be checked whether the image is error-free and complete. If an error occurs, a warning will appear.

    For more information about these settings, see the website of Drive Snapshot.

    PSExec Settings:

    1. In Application file name, enter the name of the PsExec application. For example: PsExec.exe.
      As the name of the PsExec application can be configured, different PsExec versions can be used at job level.
    2. In Device, enter the IP address or the name of the computer that you want to make backups of.
    3. In User, enter the user that you want to create the disk image with, and the targetsystem\administrator.
    4. In password, enter the password of the user.
    5. Using Options, configure the options for PsExec
      Example: PsExec versions from 2.1 work with encryption. We recommend using the -h -accepteula options. PsExec 1.63 and earlier versions do not support encryption, neither do the options -h -accepteula.

  8. In the Storage section, select one of the following Types:

    • Server archive

      • When you secure data via the server archive, images are created on the target system but the folder is however created in the server archive. By selecting Server archive no further settings need to be entered.

    • File storage

      • Select this option if you want to save and have the storage file on the same network. When selecting the type of data storage that you want to use, the following settings have to be entered:

      1. In Path enter the path where you want the image to be stored \\sysdata\DSSImages
      2. AUVESY-MDT recommends activating the option Add component path to the path above to map the path of the component in the octoplant project tree.
        The path \\Disk_Images\ will become \\Disk_Images\Backup\Plant 1\Hall 1\Area 1\PC 6\ when this option has been activated.
      3. As an alternative, we also recommend activating the option Add component ID to the path above. This will enable you to include the component’s path in the octoplant project tree.
        For example, when you activate this option, the component ID 0F2BCA2031984D699EDED7C6DAB34CE5 changes to
        \\Disk_Images\0F2BCA2031984D699EDED7C6DAB34CE5\.
      4. In User, enter the user name that you want to access the path.
      5. In Password enter the password of the designated user.
      6. If you wish, enable the option Create differential images. This option is used to determine whether you want to create differential images. When this option is enabled the option Differential images will be created until the last full image is older than (days) will also be immediately enabled. This setting enables you to determine when you want the next full image to be created.

    • FTP server

      • Select this option if you want to save and have the storage file on a FTP server. When selecting the type of FTP server that you want to use, the following settings have to be entered:

      1. In Port, enter the Port that you want to use when connecting to the FTP server.
      2. In Path enter the path where you want the image to be stored \\sysdata\DSSImages
      3. AUVESY recommends activating the option Add component path to the path above to map the path of the component in the octoplant project tree.
        The path \\Disk_Images\ will become \\Disk_Images\Backup\Plant 1\Hall 1\Area 1\PC 6\ when this option has been activated.
      4. As an alternative, we also recommend acitvating the option Add component ID to the path above. This will enable you to include the component’s path in the octoplant project tree.
        For example, when you active this option, the component ID 0F2BCA2031984D699EDED7C6DAB34CE5 changes to
        \\Disk_Images\0F2BCA2031984D699EDED7C6DAB34CE5\.
      5. In User, enter the user name that you want to access the path.
      6. In Password enter the password of the designated user.
  9. Select Save.

 

Changing the timeout on FTP servers

The timeout may be exceeded when creating the image via the FTP connection. To change the time for the FTP server timeout, proceed as follows:

  1. Start the AdminClient then go to the module INI files.
  2. In the dialog Edit ini files, select Upload\Classes.ini and then select Edit.

  3. Enter the following lines in the dialog and save the file with File > Save.

  • [DiskImage]
    FTP_TIMEOUT=<TIMEOUT IN SECONDS>

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    Related topics

    AdminClient -> INI files

    AdminClient -> Job configuration