Backing up Windows system state

The client supports the Microsoft volume shadow copy service (VSS) on the supported Windows clients.

System state is represented by several VSS writers of type "bootable system state" and "system service". Of these, the System Writer is the largest part of the system state in terms of number of files and size of data. By default, the System Writer backup is incremental. You can use the systemstatebackupmethod option to perform full backups of the System Writer. For more information, about this option, see Systemstatebackupmethod. The client always backs up all other writers in full.

The list of bootable system state and system services components are dynamic and can change depending on service pack and operating system features installed. The client allows for the dynamic discovery and back up of these components.

You must be a member of the Administrators or Backup Operators group to back up system state information.

To back up a system state object using the command line:

1. On the command line, use the backup systemstate command to back up all system state or system services components as a single object.
2. Use the query systemstate command to display information about a backup of the system state on the Tivoli® Storage Manager server.

To back up a system state object using the GUI:

1. Click Backup from the GUI main window. The Backup window appears.
2. Expand the directory tree by clicking the plus sign (+). To display files in a folder, click the folder icon.
3. Locate the system state node in the directory tree. You can expand the system state node to display the components.
4. Click the selection box next to the system state node to back up the entire system state object. You can back up the system state node only as a single entity because of dependencies among the system state components. By default, all components are selected; you cannot back up individual system state components.
5. Click Backup. The Backup Task List window displays the backup processing status. When processing completes, the Backup Report window displays processing details.

System and boot files are backed up as a group only if one of the members of the group (one of the files) changes. If the files have not changed since the last backup, the system and boot files are not redundantly backed up.

By default, system state backups are bound to the default management class. To bind them to a different management class, use the include.systemstate option; specify all as the pattern, and specify the name of the new management class.

You can use the domain option to exclude the entire system state from domain incremental backup processing.

The system dllcache directory is now included in the boot partition backup of Windows systems. When the dllcache files are not available when you restore a Windows computer, system recovery might require availability of the operating system installation media. By backing up the dllcache directory, you can avoid the need for installation media during system restores.

exclude.dir c:\windows\system32\dllcache

On Windows clients, backup systemstate also backs up ASR data.