Read the full series:
|
Ch.1 – Architecture & Requirements |
Ch.9 – Volume recovery |
In the previous post we ran quickly through the requirements and architecture of Veeam Endpoint Backup Free. Now we are going to look on how to start with the product.
I’m not going to run over the installation, which is very easy to do, however, during the installation you need to make a few decisions.
After the installation, the wizard will ask you if you want to configure your backup with the default settings. In order to do so, you need to have a USB drive that is at least half of the selected source (entire PC) in size. For many users, the default settings will be perfect and they can proceed with doing so.
The default options are:
- Backup scope: entire computer
- Target Destination: USB device attached to the computer
- Schedule: 12:30 AM nightly
- Default exclusions: temporary files folder, Recycle Bin, Microsoft Windows pagefile, hibernate file and VSS snapshot files from the System Volume Information folder
You can easily accept the defaults and change them afterwards as we will see later on. You will also get a question whether you want to change the power settings (depending if it is not yet active in your current power plan). This will allow the computer to wake up from sleep to take the daily backup, and as you will see in other demo recordings put it back to sleep afterwards to save energy.
After that, or when you skipped it you can create the bootable recovery media. This is also one of these tasks that you can skip but I highly advice you to do it immediately during installation or short after. You will need the recovery media when you want to do a bare metal recovery or when you want to restore an active volume.
You can use different devices to create the bootable recovery media such as DVDs, USB flash drives, SD cards or simply save it as an ISO and burn it with another 3rd party tool that you prefer to use.
My advice is to build this recovery media as soon as possible on a USB flash drive or media of your choice and then store it away somewhere safely. Normally, during the lifetime of your endpoint it is not necessary to update it unless you change network or wireless cards and / or storage device.
Recovery media in depth
Let’s have a better look at a few options you have when you create the recovery media. The first window in the window will ask you to specify the media as already explained above. As long as that media is attached to your computer, it will be detected and even if you attach it afterwards, the wizard will detect this and auto-update the possibilities to choose from. One note here, whatever media you are using note that it will be erased completely and formatted as a boot media.
Very important on this screen is the Include hardware drivers from this computer checkbox. This will make sure that all the specific network, storage and USB drivers are included on the media so that specific hardware will be loaded when booting from the recovery media
The other checkbox (Include the following storage and network hardware drivers) allows you to add additional drivers to the media. This certainly is handy as a system administrator that has different computers to manage. Instead of creating lots of different recovery media, he or she now can create only a couple and add specific drivers to the media for the different hardware configurations that he or she manages. The folder that you select here must contain all files of the driver package (files in CAT, INF and SYS formats)
The next step will depend on whether you have chosen to save it as an ISO or to write it on some removable media. In the case of an ISO, you will need to define the path (including the possibility to type in a username and password when needed to reach a specific path).
After that review your chosen options and let the recovery media be built.
Conclusion
Getting started with Veeam Endpoint Backup is very simple to do. Accepting the defaults, which will be perfect for many users. Don’t forget to create the recovery media so you can boot your computer when necessary.
Read the next chapter:
- Ch.3 – Backup modes in depth