Understanding How Backups Resume & Graceful Shutdown of Client & Server

[ProfoundIT]

I have read bits and pieces of the administration manual. While I understand the basic of UrBackup, I want to understand – based on others experience – the most optimal methods to do the following …

Preface: I recently wanted to bring my local backup server offline due to a thunderstorm in the area. During this exercise, I simply stopped the UrBackup server process and shutdown the physical server using the normal shutdown process.

I did NOT halt the (already in progress) one full-image backup. In retrospect, I feel that this would have been a prudent measure. In the end, i don’t think it will hurt anything, as the process will simply begin again (as it did) from scratch. What I was expecting though was the backup to be marked as “Resuming” not “Full image backup”.

I had seen this before, but I believe in that previous instance, I had stopped the process by selecting “stop” in the GUI interface and waiting until the “Activities” panel cleared.

I want to understand what I should expect or what the mechanics of UrBackup are SUPPOSED to do when … (I am using a Windows Server FYI).

1). The server process is stopped while backups are in progress
a. Is there a BETTER or more OPTIMAL method to bring down the server?

2). Should I ALWAYS clear all active backups before performing any kind of shutdown of the server process?

3). Is there a specific expectation I should have for resuming image backups or are file backups the ONLY mechanism where resumes are possible?

4. If I need to bring a server offline and a client refuses to accept a command (for whatever reason), is it safe to
   a. Shutdown the server process anyways
   b. Shutdown the client process anyways
   c. Do something else before shutting down the server

5. Does the repository (or data drive, i.e. the device that is configured as the storage backup location) HAVE to be online when the server process starts? If it is NOT, does it get “orphaned” by the UrBackup server or does it just wait in earnest expectation for its arrival, at which time everything runs as per normal or does something bad happen? LOL

I apologize in advance for the plethora of questions. I want to be a competent operator.

[MrBates]

@ProfoundIT

the process will simply begin again (as it did) from scratch. What I was expecting though was the backup to be marked as “Resuming” not “Full image backup”.

While it does say “Full image backup”, blocks that already exist on the server are not transferred again, if “image backup transfer mode” is set to “Hashed”, and if you have the CBT version of the client, only changed blocks would be read from disk.

@ProfoundIT

Should I ALWAYS clear all active backups before performing any kind of shutdown of the server process?

No, you can just shutdown the server normally.

@ProfoundIT

Does the repository (or data drive, i.e. the device that is configured as the storage backup location) HAVE to be online when the server process starts? If it is NOT, does it get “orphaned” by the UrBackup server or does it just wait in earnest expectation for its arrival, at which time everything runs as per normal or does something bad happen? LOL

I personally always make sure the storage directory is available before starting the urbackup service, but I don’t think anything bad would happen if not. Worst case, simply restart the service when the mount is up. But do try it out and let us know.