VINES EBR User's Guide
Enterprise Backup and Restore (EBR) for Banyan VINES networks is a Windows-based backup and recover product. This software is optional for VINES 6.0 and later releases. It includes facilities to manage backup media on a VINES server, and to back up and recover files residing on that server, or on workstations across the network.
Most computer users have experienced accidental data loss because of disk failures or files overwritten by mistake. With EBR, your valuable data can be protected immediately, or as part of a regularly scheduled, network-wide backup. In addition, EBR's recover facility lets you find and retrieve lost files quickly and easily.
EBR provides a centralized backup service for all the systems on a network, eliminating the need to back up your files to floppy diskettes. In addition, you can compress or password-protect your files before EBR backs them up.
EBR's fast file recovery means you do not have to re-create lost files. Using the EBR interface, you can view your disk volumes, directories, and files by date. You can then check off the files you would like EBR to recover. EBR shows multiple versions of a directory or file that were backed up over time and lets you select the ones you want to recover.
This document explains how to use the EBR workstation client software, which is the part of EBR that allows files on your VINES workstation's hard disk to be backed up by EBR. EBR can also back up and recover files and directories on VINES servers. These features are usually only accessible to system administrators, and are described in the VINES EBR Administrator's Guide.
This guide is intended for all users who run EBR from their workstations for backup or recovery of files on their system. Readers are not expected to be experts in VINES, DOS, or Windows.
The Enterprise Backup and Restore (EBR) service is a service running on a VINES server on your network. This server is equipped with a backup device (a tape drive, for instance), so it can back up multiple systems on a network, including your workstation, your mail service, network file services, and so on. As an EBR user, you can control backup and recovery of files and directories on your workstation using programs and methods described in this document. An EBR system administrator controls the backup and recovery of server data (mail services, file services, and so on). These activities are described in the VINES EBR Administrator's Guide.
Once the administrator sets up an EBR service on a server and adds your workstation's name to the EBR service's client list, your workstation's files can be backed up to that server. Your workstation becomes an EBR client. When you use EBR to back up your files, you are saving them to a backup volume (magnetic tape, for instance), mounted on a backup device attached to the EBR server.
The EBR service uses an index to keep track of the files you back up, so that you can browse and recover the entire contents of your hard disk, or just a single file.
As an EBR client, your workstation can run the EBRSCHED Scheduled Backup utility to be automatically backed up according to a schedule established by an administrator. Or, you can initiate an immediate backup by using the EBR Backup command.
If you do not have the time to back up your day's work, EBR does it for you. You must remember, however, to leave your system powered on, and the Scheduled Backup program running on your system.
The system administrator adds EBR clients to an EBR server and schedules them for network-wide backups.
As an EBR user, you can back up an important document or spreadsheet as soon as you finish working on it. You can also control which disk volumes, files, and directories you want to be backed up as part of the daily scheduled backup.
Your administrator may have configured the EBR service to allow access to some or all of the features described in the rest of this document. For example, at some sites, you can use EBR only for marking files and directories to be saved, and for recovering data from backups. At such sites, actual backups of workstation data will be handled by the Scheduled Backup program on a schedule determined by your administrator. If a feature described here does not appear to operate correctly, see your administrator and ask about the local configuration of the EBR service.
By convention, VINES servers have names, whereas client workstations do not. The EBR service needs to recognize and locate client workstations during backup and recovery. Therefore, it requires a name for each workstation.
Check with your system administrator, who probably has already chosen a name for your workstation. If the system administrator asks you to choose a name, be aware that client workstation names are limited to 16 characters. It is essential that you and your administrator agree on your workstation's name and the name of the EBR service that will back it up, because the administrator must configure the service to back up your workstation.
See Chapter 2 for a description of how to set your workstation name.
When you see the message "choose Yyy from the Xxx menu" in this document, you have the following alternatives, depending on your preference:
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Move the mouse so its arrow points to the Xxx choice on the menu bar. Click (or hold down) the primary mouse button, usually on the left. The Xxx pull-down menu appears. Move the mouse arrow so it points to the Yyy menu item. Click (or release) the mouse button to make your choice.
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On the keyboard, press the [Alt] key, then the underlined letter of the Xxx menu choice. The Xxx menu appears. Press the underlined letter of the Yyy menu item to make your choice. Or you may navigate the menus using arrow keys and [Enter] your choice.
When you see the message "type [Alt][p][b]" in this document, press the [Alt] key, then the "P" key, then the "B" key, in succession. This usage is different from Windows conventions, where the sequence is ALT, P, B.
You can hold down [Alt] while typing other letters if you want, but this is not necessary. You do not need to capitalize [p] and [b] by holding down the [Shift] key first.
When you see the message "type [Alt]+[Enter]" in this document, the plus symbol (+) indicates that you must hold down [Alt] while pressing [Enter]. This usage is similar to Windows conventions, where the sequence is Alt+Enter on-line, or ALT+ENTER.