Content:
Summary
This article describes how to create Backup Plans for Active Directory forest in Cayosoft Guardian.
Backup Plans in Cayosoft Guardian are essential for safeguarding your Active Directory forest against forest-wide and domain-wide failures. A Backup Plan includes a scheduled job, a selection of domain controllers to back up, and designated Backup Locations where the backups will be stored. Configuring these Backup Plans ensures that your Active Directory environment is consistently protected and recoverable in case of critical incidents.
Prerequisites
Add Managed Domains
To create backup plans, at least one domain must be added to Cayosoft Guardian.
To fully protect your forests against forest-wide failures, all domains in your Active Directory forests must be added to Cayosoft Guardian. For more information on how to add a domain to Cayosoft Guardian, review the following article: Configuration: Add a Domain
Add Backup Locations
To create a backup plan, at least one Backup Location must be configured. A Backup Location is a network file share where the backup files can be created and managed.
For more information on how to add a backup location to Cayosoft Guardian, review the following article: Forest Recovery: Add backup locations.
Create a backup plan
- Open the Cayosoft Guardian web portal.
- Expand the Forest Recovery node.
- Select the Backup Plans node.
- Click Add to add a new backup plan and configure the following:
- Domains: Provide the name of the domain that you want to back up or browse for available domains by clicking the "three dots" button.
- Backup locations: Provide a path to a network resource where your backups will be stored or browse for available locations by clicking the "three dots" button. Learn more about Backup locations in the following article: Forest Recovery: Add backup locations.
- Backup password: Provide a password for a new backup plan. This password will be used to encrypt backups with BitLocker. To simplify the recovery process, it is recommended to use the same password in all backup plans. For security reasons, after leaving this form, you will not be able to access the password's value. Copy the password and save it in a secure location, as it will be needed to access your backups in a disaster recovery scenario.
- Confirm backup password.
- Make sure the Enable BitLocker feature on my DC(s) checkbox is selected.
- Click Add to add a new backup plan.
Then, you will be prompted to configure a new backup plan.
- Schedule: Define the specific times and frequencies at which backups will be performed. This ensures that your Active Directory domain controllers are backed up regularly and consistently, minimizing the risk of data loss and ensuring that you always have recent backups available for recovery. You can customize the schedule to fit your organization's needs, whether it’s daily, weekly, or at specific times during the day, ensuring optimal protection and minimal disruption to your operations.
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Domain Controllers: Manage the specific domain controllers that will be included in the backup plan.
- Refresh: Update the information about domain controllers.
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Properties: Adjust various properties for each domain controller, such as:
- Default Backup Location: Specify where the backups for each domain controller will be stored.
- Service Host: Define the service host responsible for managing the backup operations.
- BitLocker Feature: Enable or disable BitLocker encryption for backups to enhance security.
- Backup History: Review the backup history to monitor the success and status of previous backups.
- ADD Domain Controllers: Select and add the domain controllers that you want to include in the backup plan, ensuring they are protected.
- Backup single AD DC: Choose to back up only the selected domain controllers, focusing on the critical systems that need protection.
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Settings: Configure essential parameters for where and how backups are created and stored.
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Backup location on domain controllers: Define the path where backups will be created on each domain controller. For example, you can use a path like
%ProgramData%\Cayo Software\Guardian\Backups
to store the backups locally on the domain controller. -
Service to replicate backups: Choose the service that will handle the replication of backups:
- Backup Agent on the DC Option: Backups are initially created on the domain controller and then uploaded to the cloud. This option is suitable when you want to keep a local copy on the domain controller before moving the backups to cloud storage.
- Guardian Service Option: Backups are initially created on a staging network storage and then uploaded to the cloud. This option is useful when you prefer to use a centralized storage location for staging backups before transferring them to the cloud.
- Workflow actions: Select required backup workflow steps. Learn more in How to manage the advanced settings of a backup plan?
- BitLocker feature: Enable or disable the BitLocker feature for this backup plan.
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Backup location on domain controllers: Define the path where backups will be created on each domain controller. For example, you can use a path like
- Backup Locations: Select a network resource to store your backups. Learn more in Forest Recovery: Add backup locations.
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Backup History: Access a detailed history of all backups performed under the selected backup plan. This includes timestamps, statuses, and any relevant details for each backup instance.
- Refresh: Refresh backup history.
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Properties: Examine the properties of individual backup history records. This includes specific information about each backup event, such as the domain controller involved, duration, and any errors or warnings encountered.
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Export: Export the backup history records for further analysis or reporting purposes. This allows you to maintain an external log or share the backup history with other stakeholders.
- Delete: Clear backup history.
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Filter Records: Utilize filtering options to narrow down the backup history records:
- All jobs execution history: View the entire history of backup jobs, including both successful and unsuccessful attempts.
- Job executions completed successfully: Focus on the backup jobs that completed successfully, helping you quickly verify that backups are functioning as expected.
- Create Custom Queries: Develop and save custom queries to review and filter backup history according to specific criteria. This feature provides flexibility in how you analyze backup activities, enabling you to tailor the review process to your specific needs.
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Notifications: Provides comprehensive tools and functionalities to manage your notifications efficiently. This tab includes the following built-in notifications:
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Job Execution Started
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Job Execution Completed with Warnings
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Job Execution Failed
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Job Execution Completed
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Features
- Refresh: Keep your notification data up to date by refreshing the information displayed.
- Properties: Select a notification to review its details and edit its properties as needed.
- Add: Create and configure new notifications to suit your requirements.
- Export: Export your notifications in various formats, including HTML, CSV, and JSON for easy sharing and backup.
- Delete: Remove selected notifications that are no longer needed to maintain an organized environment.
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Filtering and searching
- Filter by Recent Queries: Quickly filter notifications based on recent activities and queries.
- Create Custom Queries: Tailor your search criteria by creating custom queries to find specific notifications.
- Search by Job Execution Result Condition: Locate notifications based on the result of job executions, such as success, warning, failure, or cancellation.
- Search by Execution State: Filter notifications according to their execution state.
- Search by Execution Mode: Identify notifications based on the mode in which the job was executed.
- Advanced Search: Utilize advanced search options to narrow down your results and find exactly what you need.
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After its creation, the Backup Plan is pre-configured to back up all domain controllers in the selected domains.
To reduce the space required for backup files in the Backup Locations, you might consider removing some domain controllers from the Backup Plan. However, ensure that at least two domain controllers in each domain are backed up regularly.
Learn more about managing a backup plan in the following article: Configure a backup plan.
Run the backup plan
After creation, the Backup Plan is pre-configured to run according to a defined schedule. However, a backup plan can also be initiated manually if needed.
To run a backup plan ahead of its scheduled time:
- Open the Backup plan.
- Click the Run button.
Once the Run button is pressed, an execution history record will appear. This record allows you to monitor the execution steps, view the current status, and track the duration of each step. Each step generates detailed messages during the execution process, which can be accessed by clicking on the respective execution step.
Reviewing Execution History
The execution history record includes an Errors and Warnings tab. This tab provides a summary of any important issues that occurred during the job run, allowing you to review and address them promptly.
To review older execution history records related to a specific Backup Plan, perform the following steps:
- In the Cayosoft Guardian web portal, expand the Forest Recovery node.
- Open Backup Plans.
- Select a backup plan and click Properties.
- On the backup plan properties page, switch to the Backup History tab.
- Find an execution history record, select it, and click Properties.
- View execution details on the Execution and Errors and Warnings tabs.
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