Windows Server - Backup

How can you perform a backup?

You can use Windows Server Backup

Windows Server Backup can perform two kinds of backups: scheduled backups (Backup Schedule), and manual backups (Backup Once).

By default, the Windows Server Backup feature is not installed. It can be installed either from Server Manager Add Roles and Features, or with Windows PowerShell:  Add-WindowsFeature Windows-Server-Backup -IncludeAllSubfeature

You can use WBAdmin.exe

WBAdmin (WBAdmin.exe) is a command-line utility built into Windows Server 2012 . The command is used to perform backups and restores of operating systems, drive volumes, files, folders, and applications from a command-line interface. The video will show you how to perform a quick backup with this tool.

Full Backups vs System State Backups

A Full Server backup can include all available items such as Bare metal recovery, System state, System Reserved, and disk drives.

A System State backup captures the AD DS database and the SYSVOL, as well as all registry settings on the computer. In other words, a System State backup is a backup of the AD DS.

In order to be able to recover the AD DS directory you must schedule backups on a regular basis.