This lab demonstrates your ability to implement and manage data backup and recovery processes in Windows Server environments. Explored how backup strategies support the Availability pillar of the CIA Triad and ensure Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery in the face of disruptive events. Study six backup types, and how organizations balance cost, performance, and risk tolerance (RPO)

Cybrary is a well established and free IT training platform with several intuitive labs to explore

A paid subscription with more advanced labs is available as well outside the scope of this platform

Head to https://www.cybrary.it to create a free account for learning available on their platform

Data backup and recovery refers to the process of creating copies of computer data to save if needed

These need cases include the restoration of original data after it has been lost, damaged or stolen

This process is critical to supporting the Availability pillar for CIA Triad of Information Security

The Avilability pillar means that data should always be accessible to those permitted to access it

Likewise, data backup and recovery is also key to Business Continuity, or the ability to keep open

Business Continuity is the ability of an organization to continue functioning after disruptive events

One of the most important functions of Business Continuity is Disaster Recovery, which deals with the

restoration of critical IT systems and infrastructue following a distaster while minimizing data loss

When developing a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) or Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) formal documentation

Detailed data backup and recovery processes and procedures are the first and most important details

These include what data must be backed up, how many copies, how many locations and which backup types

Full Backups are the easiest to understand: all the files and folders on a given system are backed up

However, full backups are time and resource intensive, in terms of disk space and network bandwidth

For this reason, full backups are commonly combined with both differential and incremental backups

A differential backup backs up all files that are new or that have changed since the last full backup

Incremental backups are the most granular. The first Incremental backup backs up all files that are

new or have changed since the previous full backup, then all subsequent incremental backups only back

up what is new or has changed since the last performed incremental backup. It backs up in increments

In the example above, admins take a full backup on Friday, then differentials Monday through Thursday

If there is an isse with Thursday's, Friday's backup plus the differential from Wednesday can be used

If data is restored in this way, any data created after Wednesday's backup is lost in this scenario

Only the last completed full backup plus a single differential backup is needed to restore the files

In this example above, admins again create a full backup Friday, then incremental backups Mon-Thurs

If data is lost on Thursday, the full backup from Friday plus the incrementals from Monday-Wednesday

are then used to restore the data. Any data created after Wednesday's back is also lost in this case

The risk tolerance for data loss is a key part of the organization's Recocvery Point Objective (RPO)

The RPO dictates how much data loss is acceptable, in some systems losing a day may be inconsequential

However, suppose the risk of losing a full day's data is too great. In that case, try hourly backups

For example, implement weekly full backups, daily differential backups, and hourly incremental backups

Ultimately, the organization must balance the cost and time of backing up systems and the data at risk

Some backup providers, especially cloud providers, offer continuous and synthetic full backup services

Continuous backups push new data to storage on an ongoing basis once a single full backup is completed

Synthetic full backups are created by combining past backups and only grabbing the most recent changes

In other words, data in stoirage is duplicated into a new full backup so only recent files are needed

In this way, you can combine the benefitted detail of a full back, while at the cost of an incremental

Bare metal backups are a type of full backup which can restore a complete server to a virtual machine

The primary use for this today is when the application running on the server cannot be re-installed

Bare metal backups are also used to upgrade end-user dekstops and laptops to more powerful hardware

Administrators use bare metal backups to migrate from physical hardware to virtual or cloud images

In the next lesson, you will practice backing up and restoring data using Windows Server Backup tool

You will begin by creating a scheduled backup job, followed by a one-time using the wbadmin commands

Finally, you will finish by deleting and restoring the folder you've backed up using the wbadmin GUI

Windows Server is Microsoft's enterprise-grade server operating system for hosting many applications

Companies wishing to host their web servers, databases, or file shares on windows will utilize this

Insert USB Flash Drive, run rufus.exe, select target drive, select Windows Server 2025 ISO, hit start:

Use the rufus popup menu to customize the Windows Server 2025 installation and disable data collection:

Remove USB Flash Drive and Insert into unused PC. Start PC and press hotboot key on startup:

Navigate through the installer and select the Windows Server Standard Evaluation Desktop Experience:

We now have our Server provisioned which will simulate our database for the following lab sections

In this first part of the lab, you will practice backing up data using the Windows Server Backup tool

To get started with this activity, we will first need to install the Windows Server's Backup feature

You can install the Windows Server Backup feature using the Server Manager GUI or through PowerShell

From the search bar, type PowerShell, then click the option to run a PowerShell as an administrator:

Run the following command from the PowerShell Terminal to install the Windows Server Backup feature:

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Install-WindowsFeature Windows-Server-Backup

Run the following commands from the PowerShell Terminal to create a sales folder and some files:

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> New-Item -Path "C:\Sales" -ItemType Directory

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> echo "1 Million" >> C:\Sales\Budget.txt

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> echo "1 Billion" >> C:\Sales\Revenue.txt

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> echo "ABC Company LLC" >> C:\Sales\Customers.txt

Run the following command from the PowerShell Terminal to create a new D: volume titled Backups:

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-Disk | Where-Object PartitionStyle -eq 'Raw' | Initialize-Disk -PartitionStyle GPT

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> New-Partition -DiskNumber 1 -UseMaximumSize -AssignDriveLetter

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Format-Volume -DriveLetter D -FileSystem NTFS -NewFileSystemLabel "Backups"

Run the following command from the PowerShell Terminal to open the Windows Server's wbadmin console:

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> wbadmin.msc

In the wbadmin window, in the left pane, click Local Backup, then wait for the center pane to refresh:

In the wbadmin window, in the Actions pane, select Backup schedule to open the Backup Schedule Wizard

Click Next, then on the Select Backup Configuration Page, select the Custom radio button like below:

On the Select Items for Backups page, click on Add Items to open up the Select Items dialog window

In the Select Items dialog window, expand Local Disk (C:) and click the checkbox for the Sales folder

Click ok, then on the Select Backup Configuration page, you should see the C:\Sales is now selected

Click Next to continue, then from the Specify Backup Time page, change the Time of Day to 12:00AM:

On the Specify Destination Type page, select the Back up to a volume radio button and then click next:

On the Select a Destination Volume page, click Add to open the Add Volumes box, select Backups (D:):

On the Select a Destination Volume page, you should now see the Backups (D:) volume is highlighted

Click Next and then click Finish. On the Summary page, click Close to close the Backup Schedule tool

In the wbadmin console, you should see that there is now a scheduled backup in the Status section:

In the Actions pane, click on Backup Schedule... to reopen the Backup Schedule Wizard application

You can use this wizard to change your scheduled backup or stop your backup from running as scheduled

For the purposes of this lab, you will cancel your scheduled backup and run a one-time backup instead

From the Modify Scheduled Backup Settings page, select the Stop backup radio button and click next:

Click Next, then click Finish, click Yes when prompted, then on the Summary page click Close to apply

In the wbadmin console, you should no longer see a scheduled backup in the Status section afterwards

You can also run back ups from the command line. In the next steps you will perform a one-time backup

Run the following command from the PowerShell Terminal to perform a backup of the sales folder:

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> wbadmin start backup -backupTarget:D: -include:C:\Sales

When prompted, type Y and press Enter to continue. Then wait a few minutes for the backup to complete

In the next steps, you will delete the Sales folder, then restore the folder using that new backup

From the taskbar, open the File Explorer, the navigate to the C:\ drive and delete the Sales folder

Now head back to the wbadmin console and click Recover... this will reopen the Recovery Wizard window

On the Getting Started page, click the A backup stored in another location radio button, then next:

From the Specify Location Type page, click Next to accept the default options and continue recovery

From the Select Backup Location page, click Next to accept the default options and continue recovery

From the Select Server page, select the WIN Server, then click Next to continue with the recovery:

From the Select Backup Date page, click Next to accept the default options and continue the recovery

From the Select Recovery Type page, click Next to accept the dedault options and continue recovery

From the Select Items to Recover page, navigate to the C:\Sales folder and select it, then hit Next:

From the Specify Recover Options page, under Recovery Destination, type C:\ and hit Next to continue

From the Confirmation page, note the location where the files will be recovered, then click Recover:

Run the following commands from the PowerShell Terminal to verify the success of the data recovery:

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> cat C:\Budget.txt

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> cat C:\Customers.txt

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> cat C:\Revenue.txt

We can see that after the recovery, the files and their contents are still intact in the C:\ drive

Congratulations, you now have the skills necessary to backup and recover data using Windows Server

Data Backup and Recovery Basics