File/Block level backup for AWS Amazon EC2 instances?

Block level backups would just be the snapshots. Mostly you don't want to do full backups of cloud instances, it's ideologically incorrect. File level backups are different. Find the things that need to be backed up, like configuration files and database data and back that up. You can use something like Unitrends or StorageCraft. Or you can manage this yourself. Script MySQL to back itself up locally, transfer the backups off with RSYNC or similar tools.

We have a few EC2 instances running on AWS and using snapshots going to a different region as a DR solution, but we don't have a backup solution. I'd like to setup a backup in AWS to backup other EC2 instances. I need the ability to restore MS-SQL and Files to these EC2 instances.
What are others using?
This topic first appeared in the Spiceworks Community

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Windows could not start block level backup engine service

Hello,
              Im
trying to perform system state backup for one of the server its unable to run. Last week we have performed the system state backup without any issue.
Operating System:2008
OS Version: R2 Small Business Server 2011 x64 Edition Build 7600
RAM-32 GB
Following event ID is reported in the logs;
Log Name:      Application
Source:        Microsoft-Windows-Backup
Date:          7/2/2013 2:25:35 PM
Event ID:      754
Task Category: None
Level:         Information
Keywords:
User:          SYSTEM
Computer:     ABC
The Block Level Backup Engine service has stopped.
When we try to restart the Block Level Backup Engine service we get error as “Windows could not start the Block Level Backup Engine Service on Local Computer.
Error 0x800700b7: Cannot create a file when that file already exists.”
I have already restarted Virtual disk and Volume shadow copy service, but no luck.
Any help in resolving this issue will be much appreciated.
Thank you.
Keshava

All,
Here is the solution which worked for me ;
Services.msc >properties page of Block Level Backup Service Engine
Changed to Log On tab
Instead of Log On as Local System Account changed to Log On as
[email protected] (select the account with admin creds), entered the password of admin and closed the properties page.
Now restart the Block Level Backup Service Engine and re-run the job, backup completes without any issue.
Thank you
Keshava

How to run a Lync Server 2013 in amazon ec2 Instance ?

Hi Friends,
I would like to install a Lync server 2013 in amazon ec2 instance. Let me know can i install Active Directory server, Lync Server 2013 and Media server in a single amazon instance ?. If it possible how can i do it ?. And is any other features need to install
to get the fully functional Lync server. Please help me am newbie in Lync environment

You can get Lync working in EC2 and I have lab'd his many times. Having said that the process isn't that straight forward (especially if you plan to do voice) a lot of planning and testing, specifically of the network would need to be undertaken.
You can add multiple interfaces to an EC2 instance (see here http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/using-eni.html)
If you're hard set on using EC2 you can get it to work, but I personally would look at Office 365 E4 or a small on-premise deployment depending on your requirements.
If this helped you please click "Vote As Helpful" if it answered your question please click "Mark As Answer"
Georg Thomas | Lync MVP
Blog www.lynced.com.au | Twitter
@georgathomas
Lync Edge Port Check (Beta)
This forum post is my own opinion and does not necessarily reflect the opinion or view of Microsoft, its employees, or other MVPs.

Norton AV suddenly blocked iPad backup for Heuristic Virus Bloodhound 115

Today Norton AV blocked the backup stage of syncing my iPad.   This has not happened before.   Norton settings havent changed.   Id have to check but there likely have bene one or two Apps updated on the ipad from the apple store.
The presumption tho has to be that its something on the iPad, rather than Norton suddenly seeing ghosts.   How do i idnetify the culprit and remove it?
All I have to go on is the roaming...\mobilesync\backup...\snapshot\.... file name
The Apple call centre was no help beyond suggesti8ng that I turn Norton off!!!!   (I hope it was just a bad day for the gentleman in question, I really hope they arent trained to say that!).
I get very nervous when things suddnely happen for no apparent reason!

Thanks, Thomas.
I agree, a false posiive is the most likely explanation.   I just try to keep security issues above the "most liely" level of confidence!
FWIW Norton scan of my "laptop" (Del XPS 1730 requires laps of steel lol) has come up clean.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, my main concern is why this happened yesterday and not, say, last month (the last time I did a sync).   (No, I do not have auto update turned on in Norton, or anywhere else for that matter).   Its also curious that, supposedly, the number of reported occurrneces according to Norton is less than 5.
I can not think of anything on either of my machines machine that would be so unique.   Not sure I have the stamina to tackle Symantec customer service (I have a marginal preference for root canal), otherwise it would be interesting to get some follow up on the report that was logged to Symantec by the scanner.
Yes, I do have some spreadsheets shared between the devices (Excel in Windows and QuickOffice in iOS).
Good to hear this particular virus (?) cant harm the iPad; and the laptop looksc clean anyway.

Can I Manage virtual machines using SCCM? What about Amazon ec2 instances?

Hi All,
As part of my lab environment, I would like to discover and manage virtual machines within ESXi platform and a few on Hyper-V. As part of this,
1] Do we need SC-VMM to create/discover/manage virtual machines or can this be done by using just SCCM 2012 module?
2] Does SCCM provide any connectors to public cloud services (ex: Amazon EC2 or Google Cloud services)? Can this be done using SCCM?
Any help on this would be appreciated. thanks

Thanks Jason.
A few follow up questions just to make sure I understand you correctly:
a] Statement: I understand SCCM can manage OS within any VM (I just realized my set up has discovered 2 VM's running Win 2008 OS via AD discovery method). My confusion began after going thru SC-VMM docs. I assumed, once you have SC-VMM set up, it will discover/manage
either ESXi servers or Citrix or other vendor hypervisors and then discover VM's within the hypervisors. But as you said, SCCM can manage OS within any VM.
b] Q: my sccm set up is part of domain 'A' and its discovering systems/users as part of domain 'A'. Is there a way to discover systems as part of domain 'B'? When I look into 'discovery methods' -> Active directory system discovery -> Add a new container
-> path -> select a new container -> it selects only domain 'A'
As a result I'm not able to add a secondary domain for system discovery. IS this how its supposed to be? Discovery runs only within one domain? (or) am I missing something here?
c] When you said 'Yes, I do think (I'm not familiar with all things VMM though) that there is a connector to EC2', did you mean a connector from SCCM or a connector from VMM component?
thanks again for all the help.

Block level backup engine Samsung SSD 840 EVO partition labeled "data"

Replaced the hard drive in my Dell 1545 laptop with a Samsung SSD 840 EVO.
Everything beautiful.
Am running Windows 8.1 - again everything beautiful.
Thought I would run "System Image Backup" (off the File History page).
failed - Microsoft error code 0x80780119
because Samsung Migration tool created a first partition labeled "data"
(don't know whose data this might be suspect it has nothing to do with the OS but is required for the SSD, perhaps for MBR boot purposed.)
This "data" partition is very small and 99% full: no room for the VSS backup requires.
Bypassed that problem with:
PS C:\> wbAdmin start backup -backupTarget:H: -include:C:\
which runs perfectly, except for the warning,
" Note: the list of volumes included for backup does not include all the volumes that contain operating system components. This backup cannot be used to perform a system recovery. However. you can recover other items if the destination media type Supports
it."

Hi,
Glad to hear that you've found a workground to backup the data and thanks for sharing the experience here. Regarding to the Samsung "data" partition, yes, as you mentioned, it is related with Samsung Migration software, so I think members working
on Samsung will be familiar with this partition.
http://www.samsung.com/in/support/category/storage/solidstatedrive/
NOTE
This response contains a reference to a third party World Wide Web site.
Microsoft is providing this information as a convenience to you. Microsoft does not control
these sites and has not tested any software or information found on these sites.
Yolanda Zhu
TechNet Community Support

How to open TM backup for other laptop on LaCie connected by USB to TC?

My husband's laptop may be dead, and we need to access the TM backup for it from my laptop. I have tried following the instructions to "Browse Other Time Machine Disks" over the wireless network but something isn't working right since I don't even consistently see the sparse bundle for my own laptop, and the LaCie drive connected to the TC doesn't seem to be recognized at all.
This is what we're working with:
my laptop: MacBook Pro/10.5.8
his laptop [possibly defunct]: iBook G4/10.5.?
500G TC - my TM sparse bundle (plus other files);
160G LaCie drive; 4 partitions, 1 about 85G, with his TM sparse bundle (plus other files).
Backups were runninng wirelessly after initial creation over Ethernet.
I've tried connecting the LaCie to my laptop directly via USB and Browsing for Other TM Disks, and still nothing. I checked permissions on the partitions, and they seem okay. Can I force it to mount his backup file somehow? All four partitions on the LaCie show up as Sharepoint folders under the Shared TC when I'm using the wireless network, but the LaCie isn't readable by Disk Utility unless I'm directly connected.
Any help appreciated, as he needs files from the backup for his consulting work, of course. Thanks!

Betsy F wrote:
I've tried connecting the LaCie to my laptop directly via USB and Browsing for Other TM Disks, and still nothing. I checked permissions on the partitions, and they seem okay. Can I force it to mount his backup file somehow?
Hi, and welcome to the forums.
You should be able to mount the sparse bundle (either wirelessly or with the drive directly attached) by double-clicking it via the Finder. Then it should show up on your desktop and/or Finder sidebar, and in the Browse window.

LCCS on Amazon EC2

Is there a way to get LCCS to work on an Amazon EC2 instance? I'd like to have peer-to-peer video chat, using EC2 as the handshaking service--or is there a different preferred method of deployment?

Ya I think you're a little confused on what LCCS is my friend - LCCS is an all-in-one solution. It takes care of the whole conferencing problem with minimal code, making Adobe do all the heavy lifting. FMS isn't used at all - I don't think it's even possible to use a combination of LCCS and FMS because that would be pointless - FMS already has handshake galore built-in. The only reason you'd want to use FMS is because deploying your own FMS cluster in the long run might be cheaper than LCCS (but depending on what you're planning on doing, you'll probably have to write a lot more code to use FMS.) LCCS is a god-send to this world because it costs nothing to deploy, is ridiculously simple, and is still insanely competitive.
If I understand your problem (and I face a similar one) is that you want to have video chat but do not want to pay bandwidth fees? Unfortunately there's no such thing as a free lunch and you're still going to have to pay some bandwidth fees, just not much - LCCS will take care of the handshake (which you'll pay for) if you force peer-only but then the video is free. This isn't necessarily smart, however, because:
1. Peer-only doesn't always work because of network conditions.
2. You can't broadcast a peer-to-peer video session to lots of people (not sure when your use-case is.)
3. You can't record the video sessions if you do this (pretty sure this is true, need to double check.)
Anyways, good luck - LCCS is the bomb. If you're trying to minimize your fees, I would just try to force all connections to be peer-only and then pay for the guys where it doesn't work. User experience is everything - users don't want to see they can't use your service because of some technical difficulty.

Larger backups for cumulative incremental level 1 backups

I am noticing some strange behaviour for backup of data files in the RMAN cumulative incremental level 1 backup for certain days. I would explain that with an elaboration- the cumulative backup sizes are around 2GB, 19GB, 19GB, 1GB for the dates of 10th Dec, 5th Dec, 3rd Dec and 28th Nov respectively.
Can there be so much difference between the values of backup size for the RMAN cumulative incremental level 1 backup as they are fluctuating from 19GB->1GB?
I hope, my question is clear.
Please revert with the reply to my query.
Regards

975148 wrote:
Thanks for your reply. Level 0 backup happened twice between 5th Dec and 10th Dec. I guess, a block which has changed multiple times would be backed up once with all the changes done in a backup on a particular day. The same changes should get reflected in the subsequent level 0 backup.
Regards
Yes, obviously any backup (of any kind, of any product) is only capable of backing up the state of things as they exist at the time of the backup.
The recoverability of "intermediate" states (say a given block was modified 5 times between backups, the next backup only gets the 5th state of the block) is done by applying redo - archived or online, as is needed.
So to make an example to replicate what you report
Day 1 - backup level 0
- block # 1 modified
Day 2 - backup level 1 - backs up Block #1 - backup size 8k
- block # 1 modified
- block # 2 modified
- block # 1 modified
- block # 3 modified
- block # 1 modified
- block # 4 modified
Day 3 - backup level 1 - backs up Blocks 1,2,3,4 - backup size 32k
- block # 5 modified
- block # 2 modified
- block # 7 modified
- block # 3 modified
- block # 6 modified
- block # 4 modified
Day 4 - backup level 1 - backs up Blocks 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 - backup size 56k
- block # 5 modified
Day 4 - backup level 1 - backs up Blocks 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 - backup size 56k
Day 6 - backup level 0 - all blocks - size ???
- block # 3 modified
Day 7 - backup level 1 - backs up block 3 - backup size 8 k

Block level tracing to a file

Hi all,
I would like to output the block level trace in a form to to a file(by default its console)...WHERE DO I SPECIFY THE PATH TO THE FILE? I have checked waveset.properties and SystemConfiguration files but found that we can only specify the trace of an entire workflow..
"Block trace to a file" is what i want..
Yash

From the FAQ on Sharespace
SUBJECT:
How to dynamically enable trace for a single workflow.
QUESTION:
If you've ever enabled workflow trace in the Waveset.properties file, you know that
it can generate a lot of output. Is it possible to just enable tracing for a single
workflow?
ANSWER:
There are three ways to turn on workflow trace:
- Waveset.properties file
- in the WFProcess definition
- with a workflow variable
To enable trace unconditionally for a particular process, you will need to edit the
XML of the TaskDefinition object.
Locate the <WFProcess> element and add this attribute:
trace='console'
to trace to the console or:
trace='workflowTrace.txt'
to trace to a file. You can have more control over when tracing happens by using a workflow variable. The engine will look for a top-level workflow variable named "trace" whose value may be set as shown above.
For example:
<Variable name='trace'>
<cond>
<eq>
<ref>accountId</ref>
<s>adminA</s>
</eq>
<s>workflowTrace.txt</s>
</cond>
</Variable>
This turns trace on only if the workflow is operating on a user named "adminA".
You could also set this in a form field if you want to control trace interactively.

Would system level backups be acceptable for storing old db backups?

Lets say that you use RMAN to make and then store backup images on a centralized on-line storage media. Access to recent backup data can be acquired via the online storage but eventually data must be removed or archived to another media or storage.
Would it be an acceptable practice to use system level backups (backups of the whole on-line storage server) and then use that as the source to retrieve archived database data?
If not, can you list some reasons why this would not be acceptable?
Thanks

Thanks for the quick response. The scenario that I was describing entails having the full RMAN backup images including archive logs on on-line storage media. This centralized storage media may be storing many instances and for each instance there may be several backup images.
I thought that since each database may have it own archiving requirements that lumping all of the changed files from the whole online storage server and making a copy of that might introduce issues when it came time to trying to restore data for a specific database.
I guess the main issue (if it is even an issue) would be system-level vs database-level archiving to tape.
If RMAN is used to store backup images online and then those need to be moved to tape is this usually done at the database level or system level?
While I know Oracle internals pretty well I don't have much experience in best practices for backing up database to tape and needing to get to that data in the future.
Thanks again.

Looking for deployment instructions PeopleSoft AMI instances on Amazon EC2

I am looking for deployment instructions on how to launch PeopleSoft AMI instances on Amazon EC2 platforms. There are many AMIs posted by both Oracle and Amazon together to deploy demo environment, and no where I found the installation/deployment instructions. Template instructions for the following AMIs is pointing to Oracle VM page, not Amazon's AWS instructions.
https://aws.amazon.com/amis?ami_provider_id=4&selection=ami_provider_id
Please help!

We're certainly aware of and interested in our customers' desire to use Amazon's infrastructure for a quick and inexpensive deployment of PeopleSoft for demo or pilot purposes. Please continue to use this forum to provide any feedback regarding Oracle applications, particularly PeopleSoft, deployed on Amazon EC2. We have appreciated the feedback we've seen regarding PeopleSoft OVM Templates. This forum has demonstrated the interest and enthusiasm customers and users have for PeopleSoft and virtualization.
As you are aware, Oracle has a number of broad statements regarding support for our products on the Amazon infrastructure. We are still reviewing the business and technical complexities associated with Oracle-built and delivered AMI's available directly from Amazon compared with our customers using our OVM images for deployment on Amazon's infrastructure. There is no official ETA for FSCM 9.1 and HCM 9.1 AMI's from Oracle.

My Time Capsule has stopped backing up. I have an Apple Time Capsule which backs up by wireless. For the last 3 days it has not backed up. I get this message: "The backup was not performed because an error occurred while copying files to the backup disk.

My Time Capsule has stopped backing up.
I have an Apple Time Capsule which backs up by wireless. For the last 3 days it has not backed up. I get this message:
"The backup was not performed because an error occurred while copying files to the backup disk."
I have gone into Mac Help and followed this down to stage 4:
under shared it lists my time capsule and my husband's iMac - both use the time machine but we have switched his off temporarily. Clicking on my Time capsule I get "Connected" and "Sharepoint" - I didn't have to enter connect or password
I don't understand stage 5: how and where do I select the disk or volume that contains Time Machine backups ? How do I know which it is? My disk utility lists 160.04 TOSHIBA MK... with sub-heading Macintosh HD. It also lists (with a "CD" icon) HL-DT-ST DVDRW GS22N
Under stage 6, how and where do I Locate your backup ? I try dragging my Time capsule from Finder to the Disk Utility side panel but it won't go. What is my computer's name?
Please someone help! I'm completely stumped.
Thanks,
Maggie
Mac Help says:
If you back up to a Time Capsule or network disk:
Open the Time Machine pane of System Preferences, and slide the switch to Off.
Open Time Machine preferences
Open Disk Utility, which is in the Utilities folder in the Applications folder.
Open Disk Utility
Make sure the Time Capsule or network disk is turned on and available.
Open a Finder window, select your Time Capsule or network disk in the Shared section of the sidebar, and click Connect. If necessary, enter your user name and password.
On the Time Capsule or network disk, select the disk or volume that contains Time Machine backups. Depending on how your Time Capsule is set up, there may be one or more disks or volumes.
Locate your backup, and drag it to the Disk Utility sidebar.You can identify your backup by looking for your computer’s name in the backup’s filename.

Hello,
Thanks to the great Pondini...
http://pondini.org/TM/C3.html

Using old file system backup for Cloning

I have taken an off-line backup of Oracle 11i (11.5.10.2) 15 days ago. Before taking backup of file system , I verified that all the latest Rapid Clone Patches are applied. No changes or patch work in APPL_TOP or DB has been done since that backup. Now I need to do cloning of this instance, how I can use this backup for Cloning.
Rapid Clone scripts create and generate some files/directories so I am not sure whether my Old backup of file system will work or not. What is the best way to use old backup for cloning , also what are the file and directories in addition to the old backup of file system which I need to copy to Target System.
Thanks for reviewing and suggestions.
Samar

Samar,
If you have run preclone before backing it up, your backup should be valid for cloning.
2.1 in the cloning doc has to be in the backup.
These doc's should clear out yours doubts on cloning.
Cloning Oracle Applications Release 11i with Rapid Clone
https://metalink.oracle.com/metalink/plsql/ml2_documents.showDocument?p_database_id=NOT&p_id=230672.1
FAQ: Cloning Oracle Applications Release 11i
https://metalink.oracle.com/metalink/plsql/ml2_documents.showDocument?p_database_id=NOT&p_id=216664.1

Is there any system level support for RAW files from an Olympus XZ-10 camera. I use Lion and iPhoto version 9.4.2

Is there any system level support for RAW files from an Olympus XZ-10 camera. I use Lion and iPhoto version 9.4.2

If there is I can not find it - Google provides a list of possible methods form Adobe and others
LN

File/Block level backup for AWS Amazon EC2 instances?

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