Zentraler Informatikdienst

Tips and recommendations

For:  employees

The backup service is highly complex. Its quality depends on the users’ prudence.

What to avoid

  • The software does not support cross-platform backups/restores. Therefore, multi-boot computers require separate clients for every operating system and have to be registered separately. If possible, try to make sure that files of one operating system are excluded from the other operating system. Otherwise, a Windows partition would save Linux files and vice versa.
  • Saving data from a network drive: Please check with the responsible IT representative whether the network drive already runs a backup to avoid double backups. 
  • Saving data that are only temporarily significant: It does not make sense to save data such as the cache files of your internet browser or the /tmp directory on Unix systems.
  • Saving operating systems: To recover your data, you need a computer with an installed operating system and backup software. We do not recommend saving the entire operating system, as you first have to start over with your damaged computer before you can recover the data.
  • Saving removable disks, such as flash drives, DVDs or CDs: It makes sense to transfer these media to the archive. However, creating a backup does not make much sense.
  • With Windows: Avoid changing the labels of drives or disk partitions. Every renaming forces a complete backup of all data. The software proceeds as with the initial backup creation.
  • With Unix: Make sure that your file systems are not cross-mounted. This would lead to endless loops when you run a backup or archive data. Crossed symbolic links cause problems during the archiving procedure, as the software (unlike a backup) follows the symbolic links.
  • Do not use the archive as a backup. The archive does not save different versions and does not synchronise changes (unlike a backup): It always saves all data. This uses up a lot of space on the backup server and requires plenty of computational power.

Please note

  • During the initial backup creation, all selected data are transferred to the backup server. Therefore, make sure to carefully select the time for the backup (during the night, weekend, lunch break), as the transfer of large amounts of data can take some time. This is particularly relevant if your network connection to the backup server is poor.
  • Specifically select the data that have to be transferred to the backup or archive. As a result, you
    • save space on the backup server
    • save network capacity
    • save computational power and shorten the backup time.
  • Deregister any computers that no longer require a backup by sending an e-mail to backup.zid(at)univie.ac.at.
  • If you change the DNS name of the computer, please notify us by sending an e-mail to backup.zid(at)univie.ac.at. Otherwise, your system might be removed from the system.
  • Make sure that you always provide us with your current e-mail address. Otherwise, we are not able to contact you in case of administrative changes. Please send any relevant information to backup.zid(at)univie.ac.at.
  • Delete data you no longer need from the backup server or archive.

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