1041 - How to enable Windows Image Backup in ESE

Overview

With Windows Image Backup (WIB) enabled, all the critical volumes on a Windows machine will be backed up (a volume being a single accessible storage area resident on one or more partitions of one or more physical disks). These volumes contain the operating system and other system-critical data for the operating system to function properly (also known as "system" volumes).

Note: Please refer to the System Requirements and Compatibility Matrix for the earliest supported version of Windows Server before using WIB.

How it works

The Agent leverages Windows Server Backup technology. WIB implements the command-line usage of WSB’s “wbadmin” command with the "systemstatebackup" or "–allCritical" parameters set in order to perform system-state-only or critical volume backups. When the backup occurs, all files necessary files are temporarily stored in consolidated format in a central "dump" destination i.e. a "WindowsImageBackup" folder on the same machine, before being transferred to the Storage Platform. Because of this, when the backup is transferred to the Storage Platform, no deduplication is performed.

Note: Windows Server Backup does not back up or recover registry user hives (HKEY_CURRENT_USER) as part of system state backup or system state recovery.

Prerequisites for using WIB

Enable Windows Server Backup (WSB)

To enable WSB:

1. Open the Server Manager on your Windows server.

2. Go to Manage > Add Roles and Features in the Server Manager Dashboard. 

3. In the wizard that appears, follow the prompts up to the Select features step. In the Features list, scroll down to Windows Server Backup and tick its box.

4. Click Next, then click Install to complete the process. A message will indicate that the installation has completed. You may close the wizard.

To enable Windows Image Backup:

1. In the ESE Agent, click the Options button on the toolbar at the top. In the dialog box that appears, click Windows Image Backup.

2. Under Backup Settings, choose whether to perform a System State only backup or a backup of all critical volumes.

3. Select a valid Dump destination drive letter. 

4. Click OK.