Windows Server Backup

Help Protect Your Data

Provides basic backup and recovery solutions for computers running Windows Server 2008 R2.

Overview

The Windows Server Backup feature provides a basic backup and recovery solution for computers running the Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system. Windows Server Backup replaces the previous Windows Backup (Ntbackup.exe) feature that was available with earlier versions of the Windows operating system. Windows Server Backup consists of a Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in, command-line tools, and Windows PowerShell cmdlets that provide you the ability to perform scheduled full and incremental back ups to disk and perform quick recoveries.

You can use Windows Server Backup to backup a full server (all volumes), selected volumes, the system state, specific files, folders and even Hyper-V virtual machines. You can recover volumes, folders, files, certain applications, and the system state. And, in case of disasters like hard disk failures, you can perform a bare metal recovery by loading the Windows recovery environment and triggering the restore.

Windows Server Backup is intended for use by everyone who needs a basic backup solution—from small business to large enterprises—but is even suited for smaller organizations or individuals who are not IT professionals.

Benefits

With Windows Server Backup you get the following benefits:

More flexibility in what you can back up
Windows Server Backup enables you to backup selected files instead of full volumes. You can also exclude files based on file type and path.

Automatic management of full and incremental backups
You no longer need to manage full and incremental backups. Instead, Windows Server Backup will, by default, create an incremental backup that behaves like a full backup. You can recover any item from a single backup, but the backup will only occupy space needed for an incremental backup. In addition, Windows Server Backup does not require user intervention to periodically delete older backups to free up disk space for newer backups—older backups are deleted automatically.

Expanded options for backup storage
You can now store backups created using a scheduled backup on a remote shared folder or volume. (If you store backups on a remote shared folder, only one version of your backup will be maintained.) You can also store backups on virtual hard disks.

Improved options for system state backups and recoveries
You can now use the Windows Server Backup snap-in user interface to create backups that you can use to perform system state recoveries. In addition, you can now use a single backup to back up both the system state and other data on your server. These system state backups are now faster and require less space for multiple versions because they use shadow copies for versioning, similar to volume based backups, and not individual folders for each version.

Expanded command-line and Windows PowerShell support
The Wbadmin command and documentation enable you to perform the same tasks at the command line that you can perform by using the snap-in. You can automate backup activities through scripting to provide you with more flexibility.