# GFI Software/GFI Backup

http://www.gfi.com
GFI's business backup software GFI Backup™ 2010 – Business Edition, presents administrators with an innovative approach to meet network data backup and restore requirements without incurring the cost, time and accessibility issues normally associated with traditional backup solutions.

## Aim

The aim of this book is to provide access to important information that can help users make the best use of GFI Backup. Wikibookians are therefore encouraged to update this content and/or send feedback, ideas and comments on how this documentation can be further improved via the wiki discussion board, GFI Forums, or by sending an email to documentation@gfi.com.
All feedback is welcome! Please contribute your topics with the above principles in mind.

## Introduction

GFI Backup is a simple yet powerful backup and restore utility that enables you to back up and restore data stored on local and networked computers. GFI Backup offers the following main features:
* Network wide backup and restore capabilities - Backup and restore data on servers, computers, and laptops all over your network.
* Backup to a wide variety of media - Including local and external storage devices, removable media such as CD/DVD/Blu-ray discs and Tape drives, and other locations such as NAS or FTP.
* Extensive scheduling controls - Configure backups to run at specific intervals such as daily, weekly and every x days, hours, minutes.
* Secure backup - Archive data to ZIP password (less secure but faster) or 256-bit AES encryption (more secure but slower) encrypted archives, ensuring that data cannot be maliciously compromised.
* Complete set of backup types - Full-backup, incremental and differential backups as well as stack backups enable the setting up of different backups that cater for all business needs.
* Granular control on user actions - User permission settings dictate the level of access to backup and restore features that are available to the users on their computers. These are fully customizable to cater for all requirements, from the most basic user to the most advanced.
* Full visibility on systems operation - The availability of reports on all system functions, an activity dashboard, as well as screens showing backup, restore, and agent functions provide all the necessary information related to all your backup activity.
* Ease of use - A user-centric design that emphasizes ease of use enables users to configure and use GFI Backup in the easiest way possible.

## How does GFI Backup work?

GFI Backup is composed of two interdependent components:
* GFI Backup Administration Console
* GFI Backup Agents

### GFI Backup Administration Console

Install the GFI Backup Administration Console in a location with network access to all the computers that require a backup solution. On deploying all the required agents on your networked computers, use the GFI Backup Administration Console to:
* Configure and manage backup and restore tasks across multiple computers on your network
* Manage GFI Backup Agents deployed on your network
* Restore data on networked computers from a central location
* Centralize the storage of backups to a central network location or media
* Monitor the operation of tasks (backups and restores) across the whole network
* Generate reports on the operation of backups and restores

### GFI Backup Agents

The GFI Backup Agents are the components that backup and restore data on the client machines, including the computer where GFI Backup Administration Console is installed. Through the setting up of user permissions by systems administrators, users can also configure their own backups, restores and sync operations on their workstations and computers.

## GFI Backup documentation
### GFI Backup 2010 - Business Edition Getting Started Guide

This user manual is a comprehensive guide aimed at assisting you in installing and configuring GFI Backup for first time use.
Chapter 1: Introduces this manual and provides the basic information on how to use it.
Chapter 2: Provides information on how to install the GFI Backup Administration Console.
Chapter 3: Gives detailed information on how to test your GFI Backup installation.
Chapter 4: Provides you with all the necessary information on how to deal with troubleshooting any problems encountered while using GFI Backup. Also provides extensive support information.
Chapter 5: Defines technical terms used within GFI Backup
Chapter 6: Provides you with extensive information on the method used by GFI Backup to gain access to the data to back up from networked computers.

### GFI Backup 2010 - Business Edition Administration and Configuration Manual

This user manual is a comprehensive guide aimed at assisting you in configuring and using GFI Backup. It builds on the instructions in the GFI Backup ‘Getting Start Guide’ and describes the use and configuration that you should do to achieve the best possible results.
Chapter 1: Introduces this manual and provides the basic information on how to use it.
Chapter 2: Provides information on GFI Backup Agents, how to deploy them in various environments, and how to remotely manage their configuration.
Chapter 3: Gives detailed information on how to configure and manage backups.
Chapter 4: Provides detailed information on how to restore backups.
Chapter 5: Describes the status monitoring options that GFI Backup delivers and will help you understand what is going on in your backup systems
Chapter 6: Provides information related to backups and restore operations to and from tape drives.
Chapter 7: Describes the procedures that enable you to backup and restore a Microsoft SQL Server database.
Chapter 8: Deals with the reporting features of GFI Backup and shows you how to extract meaningful information from its operational information.
Chapter 9: Provides you with detailed information on how to set synchronization schedules using GFI Backup Agents.
Chapter 10: Describes the GFI Backup licensing tab and how to monitor your licensing status.
Chapter 11: Describes how you can customize GFI Backup to suit your particular needs and requirements.
Chapter 12: Describes the method through which GFI Backup can be uninstalled.
Chapter 13: Provides you with all the necessary information on how to deal with troubleshooting any problems encountered while using GFI Backup. Also provides extensive support information.
Chapter 14: Defines technical terms used within GFI Backup
Chapter 15: Describes the backup types supported by GFI Backup.
Chapter 16: Provides recommendations on how to best back up your data.
Chapter 17: Provides information about the tape drives supported by GFI Backup
Chapter 18: Provides information on how to set up proxy settings.
Chapter 19: Describes how to use the GFI Backup command line tools.
Chapter 20: Describes how GFI Backup checks for and downloads product updates.

### GFI Backup 2010 - Business Edition Agent User Guide

This user manual is a comprehensive guide aimed at assisting you in configuring and using GFI Backup. It builds on the instructions in the GFI Backup Getting Start Guide and Administration and User Guide.
Chapter 1: Introduces this manual and gives basic information on how to use it.
Chapter 2: Gives detailed information on how to configure and manage backups.
Chapter 3: Provides detailed information on how to restore backups.
Chapter 4: Describes how to configure, execute and restore backups to tape drive.
Chapter 5: Provides a detailed description of how to configure and execute Microsoft SQL Server Backups
Chapter 6: Describes how you can use GFI Backup to create tasks that synchronize data between two locations.
Chapter 7: Provides a detailed description of how to review previously created tasks.
Chapter 8: Describes how you can customize GFI Backup to suit particular system administrator needs and requirements.
Chapter 9: Provides you with all the necessary information on how to deal with troubleshooting any problems encountered while using GFI Backup. Also provides extensive support information.
Chapter 10: Defines technical terms used within GFI Backup
Chapter 11: Describes the functions accessible from the GFI Backup system tray icon.

## Troubleshooting

This section explains how you should go about resolving issues that you might encounter while using GFI Backup. The main sources of information available are:
* The manual - most issues can be solved by reading GFI Backup manual
       Download product manuals from www.gfi.com
* GFI Knowledge Base articles
       GFI maintains a Knowledge Base, which includes answers to the most common problems. If you have a problem, please consult the Knowledge Base first. The Knowledge Base always has the most up-to-date listing of technical support questions and patches. To access the Knowledge Base, visit http://kbase.gfi.com/.
* Web forum
       User to user technical support is available via the web forum. The forum can be found at http://forums.gfi.com/.
* Contacting GFI Technical Support
       If you still cannot solve issues with the software, contact the GFI Technical Support team by filling in an online support request form or by phone.
      * Online: Fill out the support request form on: http://support.gfi.com/supportrequestform.asp. Follow the instructions on this page closely to submit your support request.
      * Phone: To obtain the correct technical support phone number for your region please visit http://www.gfi.com/company/contact.htm.
       NOTE: Before you contact our Technical Support team, please have your Customer ID available. Your Customer ID is the online account number that is assigned to you when you first register your license keys in our Customer Area at https://customers.gfi.com/login.aspx.
       GFI support will answer your query within 24 hours or less, depending on your time zone.