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BackupAssist Desktop uses the same software install as BackupAssist Classic. When licensed or registered as a BackupAssist Desktop, some functionalities are disabled. Download the BackupAssist Classic installation and follow the same installation procedures. Requirements You are only able to license or register your BackupAssist Classic installation as BackupAssist Desktop if it is installed on a Windows workstation system (e.g. Windows 11). If you are running Windows Server OS, the option to license or register as Desktop would not be available to you. Differences between BackupAssist Desktop and BackupAssist Classic When running as BackupAssist Desktop, you are able to backup files and volumes, but not server application backups such the SQL point in time backup. While you are able to carry out Bare Metal Recovery and VM Instant Boot with BackupAssist Desktop backups, you otherwise limited to only file and folder restores - with no ability to run any server applications granular restore tools. If you already had existing backup jobs created with server features in them, backups would fail with an appropriate error. Evaluating BackupAssist Desktop Features If you are evaluating the BackupAssist Classic and your trial hasn’t expired, you have the option to view only the Desktop features to trial the system as if it was licensed as BackupAssist Desktop. To do this, go to Help > Switch Trial Experience, and select “Trial with only BackupAssist Desktop features enabled”. Did you find this helpful? Sorry about that Why wasn't this helpful? (check all that apply) Couldn't find what I

Snapshot Manager To enable the BackupAssist Snapshot Manager, ensure that when you first install BackupAssist that you select the Advanced Open Files Add-on as part of the install: During the BackupAssist Configuration Wizard, to enable the BackupAssist Snapshot Manager, simply choose Use the BackupAssist Snapshot Manager when selecting your open file snapshot manager: If you did not install the Advanced Open Files Addon during the install process then you will need to run the BackupAssist upgrader, which can be downloaded from the product website or obtained through your distributor. After running the BackupAssist upgrade Wizard, the third step of the upgrader will allow you to install the Advanced Open Files Add-on module: You can then access the Options tab in BackupAssist to select the BackupAssist Snapshot Manager for your open file backups. Once a backup runs, the backup report will also indicate the status of the Snapshot that was taken before the backup commenced. The following screenshot demonstrates a typical report with the Advanced Open File Add-on installed and the BackupAssist Snapshot Manager enabled: The BackupAssist Event Viewer will also indicate the processes involved in the Snapshot: back to top 2.4 Useful References Microsoft® VSS - Microsoft Technet: How Volume Shadow Copy Works Snapshot Technology - Search Storage Articles Chapter 3 will now cover how BackupAssist can use the Conventional File Copy Method to further ensure that you have a secure backup of all your open files, including backups of network share data files that do not have exclusive locks.

Your backup may be missing vital actions within various transactions. The BackupAssist Snapshot Manager advantage To overcome these limitations, users of BackupAssist can opt for the BackupAssist Advanced Open Files Add-on which involves the use of the BackupAssist Snapshot Manager. The BackupAssist Snapshot Manager is an advanced open file management solution which ensures that you have complete protection for all your mission critical data and actually supports legacy and other custom applications that are not compliant with the VSS framework. To overcome the VSS issue of performing a snapshot during an open or unfinished transaction, the BackupAssist Snapshot manager will monitor write operations occurring across all of your active applications. Once the Snapshot Manager has determined a point in time where significant time has elapsed since the last write operation, it will perform the snapshot. The time that the Snapshot Manager waits until it performs the snapshot is known as the Write Inactivity Period (WIP) and for mass storage systems a safe WIP is usually from 2 to 5 seconds. Basically when the WIP elapses, it is assumed that the application data is consistent (no write operations) and that it is safe to perform the snapshot. When to use the BackupAssist Snapshot Manager You should use the BackupAssist Snapshot Manager under the following two conditions: You are running Windows 2000 Server or earlier where Microsoft® VSS is not available You are running applications under any Windows environment that are not compliant with the VSS framework How to use the BackupAssist

Open Files and BackupAssist Contents: Chapter 1 - Introduction and Overview 1.1 Open File Support in BackupAssist Chapter 2 - Snapshot Technology 2.1 Introduction to Snapshot technology 2.2 Microsoft VSS - usage and disadvantages 2.3 The BackupAssist Snapshot Manager- advantages over VSS and its usage 2.4 Useful References Chapter 3 - Conventional File Copy 3.1 How Conventional File Copy Works 3.2 When Does Conventional File Copy Apply? 3.3 Utilizing Conventional File Copy 3.4 A practical example of how the Conventional File Copy Method works 3.5 Restoring Conventional Open File Backups Important Notice The information and instructions contained within this document are specific to BackupAssist v3.x.x. While some of this information will be valid for other versions of BackupAssist we do not support the application of any steps or suggestions on versions other than v3.x.x CHAPTER 1 - Introduction and Overview 1.1 Open File Support in BackupAssist In order to maintain a reliable and recoverable backup strategy it is essential that your backup solution provides support for backing up open files. Without having open file protection in your backup solution mission critical data files can be missed. Consequently, your backup data sets will be unreliable and incomplete, all because certain application files were in use or open during the time of the backup process. BackupAssist provides two different technologies for backing up open files in Windows environments: Snapshot Technology - Using the Microsoft® Volume Shadow Copy Service in Windows XP and 2003, BackupAssist is able to perform a backup of all

Back to top CHAPTER 3 - Conventional File Copy 3.1 How Conventional File Copy Works When using the Windows Backup Utility, NTBackup, (which BackupAssist uses to perform the backup operation) files that are in use or open during the backup process are skipped and as a consequence, not backed up. BackupAssist uses a multi-phase backup process to workaround the issue of skipped files during the backup. Phase One Your selected drives and directories are backed up. Open files are skipped by NTBackup. BackupAssist will detect these skipped files and then attempt to copy them to a temporary directory. Phase Two Phase Two of the BackupAssist backup process involves a backup of this temporary location where the open files were previously copied to. For open files that are locked with a shared lock or no lock at all are successfully backed up using this method. Examples of these open files include Outlook .pst files. Files that have exclusive locks, however, cannot be copied, and as a consequence cannot be backed up using this method. These open files are typically from database applications. For specific databases such as Microsoft Exchange or SQL Server that have exclusively locked files, you can use the respective BackupAssist modules (built-in Exchange module and the SQL Add-on) to backup these resources. All BackupAssist modules are also executed during Phase Two. This multi-phase process is unique to BackupAssist, and extends the capabilities of Windows Backup (NTBackup). Overcoming exclusively locked file issues For all other application data with exclusively