Recovery Manager for AD Forest Edition 10.2.1 - User Guide

Using Computer Collections

A Computer Collection is a group of shortcuts to the computers (domain controllers and/or AD LDS (ADAM) hosts) to be backed up with Recovery Manager for Active Directory. You can have multiple Computer Collections, each representing a group of computers you want to back up. You can populate a Computer Collection with shortcuts to specific computers available on your network and containers (for example, Active Directory domains, sites, and organizational units) that include the computers you want to back up.

Each Computer Collection has its individual properties you can use to configure such settings as backup location, backup creation schedule, performance, and backup operation logging. For more information about Computer Collection properties, see Properties for an existing Computer Collection.

Computer Collections help you organize any number of computers into groups with the appropriate settings for backup creation and scheduling. A well-organized set of Computer Collections ensures that up-to-date copy of the backup information is maintained for remote computers. Therefore, it is recommended to group managed computers into Computer Collections and set appropriate properties for every Computer Collection.

This section covers the following tasks:

• Creating Computer Collections

• Renaming Computer Collections

• Modifying Computer Collection properties

• Deleting Computer Collections

• Specifying an access account for Backup Agent and backup file storages

• Adding domain controllers to a Computer Collection

• Adding containers to a Computer Collection

• Adding AD LDS (ADAM) hosts and instances to a Computer Collection

• Removing items from a Computer Collection

Creating Computer Collections

To create a Computer Collection

1. In the Recovery Manager Console tree, select the Computer Collections node.

2. From the main menu, select Action | Create Collection.

The properties of a newly created Computer Collection are preset with default values. You can change the property values for a Computer Collection, as well as the default property values. For more information, see Modifying Computer Collection properties.

The Backup Wizard creates a new Computer Collection if you select the option Later (configure backup scheduling) on the When to Back Up page of the wizard. The new Computer Collection includes all objects you selected on the What to Back Up page.

Renaming Computer Collections

Recovery Manager for Active Directory assigns a default name to a newly created Computer Collection. You can rename a Computer Collection to assign it a more descriptive name.

To rename a Computer Collection

1. Right-click the Computer Collection and then click Rename.

2. Type a new name for the Computer Collection and then press ENTER.

When renaming a Computer Collection for which a backup creation task is scheduled, you may be prompted to supply the user name and password of the account under which you want to run the scheduled backup creation operation. This is because Task Scheduler may need to re-create the backup creation task when a Computer Collection is renamed. When creating a scheduled task, Task Scheduler requires that you supply the user name and password of the user account under which the task will run. For more information, see Setting user account for scheduled tasks.

Modifying Computer Collection properties

To modify properties for a Computer Collection

• In the console tree, right-click the Computer Collection, and then click Properties.

The Properties dialog box opens, allowing you to specify what to back up, where to store backups, and what kind of logging to use. In addition, the Properties dialog box allows you to manage the backup creation schedule for the Collection and specify the user account under which the scheduled backup creation operation will run.

All settings specified in the Properties dialog box for a Computer Collection only relate to that Computer Collection. Different Computer Collections may have different properties.

For more information about Computer Collection properties, see Properties for an existing Computer Collection.