Indigo Prime - Data Management, Backup and Recovery

Setting Up Indigo Backup for Corporate Systems

The following article describes our recommended method of setting up Indigo Backup for corporate environments. This system architecture allows easy integration of the Indigo Grid monitoring software. However, this setup does not have to be used with Indigo Grid, and is a good idea to implement even if you do not believe that you shall ever need to use Indigo Grid because if the need to use centralised administration should arise, this architecture will automatically integrate Indigo Grid control software without changes.

What hardware and software you will need

1 network server onto which you can backup user's systems.
1 high capacity drive on the network server - a good guide for space requirements is 4GB per user. This allows for future expansion.
1 network - either wireless or wired
1 server share allowing read access to the high capacity drive on the network server for all your users
Indigo Backup
Indigo Grid (optional)

How you should set up the backup server

Before doing anything you need to decide who is going to administer your backup. This is important as a backup must be maintained if it is to be effective. For example users may need to be added or removed from the backup server. Once you have decided on an administrator you should make sure that they have the administrative permission of 'Full Control' on all folders within the backup share.

Tip

We recommend that you do not choose just one individual to be a backup administrator. Instead it is best to choose at least 2 people so that one can act as a fall back. This is important as otherwise you will have a potential single point failure. For example, what would happen if your backup administrator was sick for 6 months? Would you be able to train a replacement fast enough? What business overhead would there be?

The server you intend to backup up to should now be set up and connected to the network. The high capacity drive on this server to which you intend to allow your user's to backup up should now be formatted, and then a network share should be created on the drive to provide access for your users through the network. You should provide read access for all your users to this top level share. This is the 'Backup Share'.

Tip

We recommend that you use group permissions or specific user permissions to implement this access. Although you can of course use the built-in group 'everyone' to allow read access to the share this is not recommended for security reasons.

You should now create folders for each of your users to backup into within this share. We recommend that you use the users system username as a naming strategy for these folders. For example, John Smith logs on to his computer in the morning with the username 'JSMITH', you would therefore call the folder on the server into which he backs up 'JSMITH'.

You should now make sure that each user has 'Change' permissions on his backup folder and that you chosen backup administrator(s) have full control over this folder. You should now make sure that only JSmith and administrators can access this folder by removing all other users from the permissions list. For example, the folder JSMITH should have 'Change' permissions for user 'JSmith', and 'Full Control' permissions for backup administrators.

Proceed to create folders and set all the permissions on them for each of your users.

Next, create a folder called 'Indigo_Admin' and set the permissions on this folder to allow all users 'Change' permissions, and administrators 'Full Control'. This folder will hold the administrative database for Indigo Backup that will allow it to interface with Indigo Grid. Don't worry this database is created automatically!

Finally, within the Indigo_Admin folder create another folder called 'LIC' and set the permissions on this folder to allow all users 'Read' permissions, and administrators 'Full Control'. If you decide to use Indigo Grid this folder will allow you to use Remote Licensing so that you do not need to set-up each user individually with a license. Instead, you simply order license files from us, using Indigo Grid, and then place them within this folder. These Remote Licenses are then read automatically by each user's Indigo Backup software and they are automatically licensed.

Your Network Share should now look something like the example screenshot below:

Check List

Below is a checklist of the functions described above. You can print this and use it as a guide.

Define who is going to administer your backup.
Server set up and connected to the network
Format High Capacity Drive on server.
Create Network Share on High Capacity Drive.
Set Share Permissions so that all your Users can Read/Execute and Administrators have Full Control.
Create User Backup Folders within Share (recommended: Username as Folder Name)
Set Folder Permissions so that the User of the Folder can Change/Delete files within it and Administrators have Full Control
Create a Folder Called 'Indigo_Admin' in your Network Share
Set Indigo_Admin Folder Permissions so that all Users can Change/Delete files within it and Administrators have Full Control
Create a Folder Called 'LIC' in the 'Indigo_Admin' folder on your Network Share.
Set LIC Folder Permissions so that all Users can Read/Execute files within it and Administrators have Full Control

Rolling Out Indigo Backup to Your Users

Indigo Backup v.4 and v.5 (Trinity) both have the option of default setup settings and network locking. In Indigo Backup v.4 these settings must be set up locally, but with Indigo Backup v.5 (Trinity) all these options can be administered remotely from the server. For this reason we recommend Indigo Trinity for corporate systems.

Using Default Setup Options through the DEFAULT.INI file

Default setup settings are those settings that automatically set and used when you first setup a user. Indigo Backup contains it's own default 'Default Setup Settings' so if you don't specify what options you want the most regularly used are automatically installed for you.

However, you might want to specify that your users should backup on a certain schedule or you might want to automatically specify where they back up to. You can do this by installing a DEFAULT.INI file on the users system. You can then choose whether you want this to be a locked default (ie. your users cannot change the default options that you have specified) or a unlocked default (ie. users systems are set up according to the defaults that you specified but they are able to specify their own settings should they wish to do so). All a DEFAULT.INI file consists of is a copy of the {your username}_GBK3.INI file found in the Indigo Backup program directory from which Indigo Backup reads it's settings. The DEFAULT.INI file contains two extra lines specifying whether it should be locked or unlocked; the [Erase] header line and then wither Erase=0, or Erase=1 to specify locked or unlocked. Indigo Grid v.2 will construct a DEFAULT.INI file for you, but other versions of Indigo Grid do not have this functionality. However, this is not an issue as you can create the default setup file very easily using any version of Indigo Backup. To do this just load Indigo onto your system and set up it's options to those you desire. Save these settings and then close the software. Finally go to the Indigo Backup program and open the file named {your username}_GBK3.INI with notepad. Finally, should you wish to lock the file add the appropriate lines ([Erase] etc.) and save the file to a safe location using the name DEFAULT.INI. That's it! For examples, you should download the specific software and view it's help.

With Indigo Backup v.5 (Trinity) you can distribute this DEFAULT.INI file from the server and there is the option to use both this general default setup setting for most users, but also to specify specific settings for individual users (simply create a Default Setup Settings file but save it with their username, see Indigo Trinity Help file). However, Indigo Backup requires that these DEFAULT.INI files are rolled out in the installation and place on each users' system within the Indigo Backup program directory. This can be achieved either with a corporate installation program or very simply using Winzip or WinRaR SFX files, these are self executing zip archives which are incredibly easy to create - see the example in these online Tutorials.

Network Locking using the NIC.INI file

Network locking is a feature of all versions of Indigo Backup from v.4 to v.5. Network locking allows you to specify on which networks Indigo Backup should be active and attempt to backup user files. It achieves this by identifying the local subnet mask and comparing it to a list of 'allowed' subnets and statuses within the NIC.INI file.

Why is Network Locking important? See the example below.

Example 1.

Well imagine you have 2 users. User A is a desktop user and User B is a laptop user. User B occasionally works from home using a dial up connection. While he is working from home he still has access to the backup server so that he can view his backed up files, but now instead of the connection to the backup server being by a fast network connection (like it is at work), now from home it is a very slow 56K dial up connection. You would not want User B to backup over this slow connection from home. However, User A is a desktop user so he never has to backup over a slow dial up as he is always in one place.

Example 2.

Imagine the same two users (A & B). You thought user A was ok because he didn't work from home over a dial up, but what if your company restructures? Imagine that you team works from head office where the connections are new and fast and the server is a few doors away. Now imagine that due to a restructuring your team is moved to old 60s block in the country whilst your new offices are built. The network in your new location is slow and old, until the company can get the new one built. On friday all 60 of your computers are packed up and moved to the new site. By Sunday they are set up and ready to go. On Monday at 8.30am the 60 computers are switched back on and within a few hours are backing up. By lunchtime your network is at a crawl because they are now trying to backup to head office on an old network with a restricted pipe using their old settings for a fast network without a pipe.

Indigo Backup provide a simple solution to the problems highlighted in the above examples - Network Locking. You simply specify the allowable subnet mask which Indigo backup can work upon within the NIC.INI file. To do this you first need to find out the subnets that you want to mark as allowable. You can find your home subnet easily, just click Start then Run and enter 'CMD' - this should get you to the DOS command prompt on your windows computer. Once you have the DOS command prompt in front of you type 'ipconfig' into it and press return - you home subnet mask will be listed if you are on a network. Indigo Grid v.2 will create a NIC.INI file for you but to create the NIC.INI file manually just open Notepad and enter each subnet mask, one per line, with no trailing spaces, then save this file as NIC.INI. Many other settings are possible in NIC.INI files, for example interface status allowable; for examples, you should download the specific software and view it's help.

With Indigo Backup v.5 (Trinity) you can distribute this NIC.INI file from the server and there is the option to use both this general NIC setting for most users, but also to specify specific allowable NIC settings for individual users (simply create a NIC.INI file but save it with their username, see Indigo Trinity Help file). However, Indigo Backup requires that these NIC.INI files are rolled out in the installation and place on each users' system within the Indigo Backup program directory. This can be achieved either with a corporate installation program or very simply using Winzip or WinRaR SFX files, these are self executing zip archives which are incredibly easy to create - see the example in these online Tutorials.

What else should I know?

We've just given you a few examples using simple functions. There are many more functions that you may wish to consider so you should really download the software and view it's help file. You should also read the actual software's help files because they are far more specific than we have been in this tutorial.