Backup and Recovery

Windows Server Backup Functions

Windows Server Backup (WSB) is a feature native to Windows Server that has the purpose to creating and recovering backups for servers. WSB provides several configuration on backups such as its location, schedules and the items that will be backed up.

Particularly, you can customize what kind of data that will be stored for the backup. The backup items cover from drive volumes to system state. Then you can specify the destination type of the backup. By recommendation, backup should be stored in a separate hard drive that sole purpose is for storing backups. This gives more security to the drive as it is not interrupted by other data or activities. Other options provide storing it in a volume or in a shared network folder. The backup schedule could also be customized ranging between once a day to more than once a day with time selections.

Once all the backups are done, the server can now do a recovery by selecting which backup point to restore.

The pros of WSB are that it is a built-in function that Windows Server had provided. It is also a simple feature which can be used through quite simple actions. One of the cons on WSB is that it does not provide any encryption on the backups. Another disadvantages of WSB is the absence of a monitoring and detailed reporting system to help administrator check the condition of the backups.

Windows Server Backup Protection

By default, WSB does not provide encryption to the backup. Thus, combining it with BitLocker would be the best options by default. As said above, it is recommended to save backups in a separate hard drive which can be equipped with BitLocker to restrict access of unauthorized users.