Introducing Arcserve Backup Agents and Options › Using Agents › Agent for Open Files › Using the Agent › Preliminary Considerations for Using the Agent

Preliminary Considerations for Using the Agent

Install the Windows Engine on your server, to start using Arcserve Backup to back up open files. In most cases, you can use the agent quite effectively without any further configuration but to avoid possible problems, verify the following preliminary considerations:

• Ensure that the Windows Engine is running on the same server as the files you will be backing up. This is usually, but not always, the server on which you run Arcserve Backup. If you want the agent to operate on files located on more than one server, you must purchase and install a separate copy of the Windows Engine for each server.
• If Arcserve Backup runs on another server and executes a backup of any remote computers running the Windows Engine by using a network share, ensure that the remote server clients are enabled in the <aof> configuration of the remote computer running the Windows Engine.
• If your backup program runs on another server, and uses a client agent to perform a backup of remote computers running the Windows Engine, you must ensure that the client agent is enabled in the <aof> configuration of the target server.
• Configure the file groups. If you have an application that maintains a set of related files, such as a database manager or an email system, there is a possibility that you will need to set up one or more file groups.
• Configure VSS settings. On Windows Vista and newer operating systems, whether or not the global option Use VSS is enabled, all backups will use only VSS to back up open files. By default the Agent for Open Files will update the registry key on the agent machine to always use VSS to back up files.
• Use the Console for configuration. The Console does not need to be running for the agent to work on your server, but you do need it for configuration and status monitoring.

More information:

Clients Tab

Group Synchronization

The Agent and VSS

Configure the Agent

Advanced Configuration