How to create an Admin Task and assign it to several computers ?
This tutorial will create a task that saves the My Documents folder, drive D:\ and Microsoft Outlook email from all computers in a specific workgroup, daily at 3 AM, to a LAN location.
To create a new Admin Task go to TASKS / ADMIN TASKS and select the New Task button.
A wizard-like process will guide you step-by-step.
Step1 - General Tab
Select a name for your task, archive folder/filename and an optional description and notification email.
Select the computers on which you want this Task to be applied to. You can create several rules. Click the Add Computers and select the specific workgroup or computers to apply the Task to.
Step 2 - Source tab
On this page you need to select the items that you want to include in your backup. There are 4 options to choose from:
- Files and folders - you can specify specifically what files, folders or drives to save from each computer.
- File types to search for - select file types to search for on all computers and save. For example all music files.
- Registry - backup specific registry keys from each compter
- Program settings - predefined specific program settings or data files. For example Outlook emails or Firefox profiles.
We'll select the My Documents folder, drive D:\ and Microsoft Outlook email.
Select the Files/Folders checkbox, and type D:\ then click Add. Then type %MYDOCUMENTS% and click Add. Note that we used a variable for the My Documents folder because can be different on each computer depending on what operating system they have, and the user account name.
Select the Program settings checkbox scroll down and locate the Email section, select Microsoft Outlook.
Step 3 - Destination
Select the location where you want to place your backup. You have 3 options - backup to a local or external hard drive, LAN location, or FTP server.
We'll select a LAN folder, type the path and make sure we'll include %COMPUTERNAME% in the path so that the server will create subfolders for each computer. The LAN path should look like this: \\servername\serverfolder1\serverfolder2\%COMPUTERNAME%
You can use also the %WORKGROUP% variable. Enter a username and password if your LAN folder requires it.
The Local Store Path is optional, and is usefull if the LAN location is in fact on the same machine where the Titan Backup Business Server was installed. You can edit the local store paths in Options/General Settings, and you can browse these locations from Tools / Browse Local Storage Paths.
Step 4 - Options
On this page you can set compression & encryptions and backup type options.
No compression -offers the advantage of a faster backup process, but the disadvantage of more disk space requirements.
Use Zip compression - use this if you want Titan Backup to generate a zip backup file so that you spare disk space. Titan Backup doesn't use proprietary archive formats like other backup programs do. It uses the standard Zip file format. This makes it very easy to restore data manually form the backup archive even if Titan Backup is not installed.
Replace Backup - with this option selected, when the application encounters an existing backup for the same task on destination the new backup will replace the old one.
Incremental Backup - only the changed files will be saved
Differential backup - delete the files from the backup and that don't exist anymore in the source of your backup.
Stack Backup - creates different stacked copies with date tags. With this option you can choose to keep only the latest copies by marking the "keep only the last X versions".
In our tutorial, for a fast backup we'll not use compression or encryption, and select an incremental backup.
Step 5 - Scheduler
This step is optional. If you don't set anything you'll have to start the task manually every time.
In the Scheduler tab you can schedule the task to run:
- on Windows Startup
- on Windows Shutdown
- on a certain Day of the week at startup, shutdown or at certain time.
- on every X'th day at startup, shutdown or at certain time.
- on every X'th hour
In our tutorial we'll set the task to run daily at 3:00 AM.
Select Run Every 1 days, select On Time, and type 03:00. Don't type AM or PM. Use 15:00 if you want 3 PM.
If you don't want the program to run on Saturdays and Sundays, click on Set Working Days, and uncheck the days you don't want it to run.
Step 6 - Events
On the Events page you can choose an event or notifications:
- Run an external application before the task starts
- Run an external application after the task ends
- Notify on errors - show window, play sound or/and send email
- Notify on warnings - show window, play sound or/and send email
- Notify on summary - show window, play sound or/and send email
- CRC verify the files after they are copied ( slow )
- Shutdown computer or logoff Windows
Click Finish to save your task.
You can view yor task in the Tasks / Admin Tasks section.
The task will start automatically at the defined hour, but you can always go to Admin Tasks and start it manually whenever you want.