23

For more information on the Disk Administrator, please refer to Chapter 6.

---

TIP:

If you are creating a mirror of the system partition, then you should also create a fault-tolerant boot floppy, as described later in this chapter.

---

When you restart the computer, NT will begin to build the mirror, so you should see a flurry of disk activity. If you go back into Disk Administrator while the mirror is being created and click on the any part of the mirrored volume, The status at the bottom of the screen will display INITIALIZING. Once the mirroring process is completed, the status should display HEALTHY.

---

WARNING:

Update your emergency repair disk by running RDISK.EXE. For more information about using RDISK.EXE, please refer to chapter 6. If you don’t update the emergency repair disk and you need to restore your system from backups, you will lose your mirror!

---

Creating a Fault-Tolerant Boot Floppy

If you have created a mirror set for your system partition, you also need to create a fault-tolerant boot floppy. The purpose of the boot floppy is to enable the system to boot even if the drive that fails is the primary partition of the mirrored boot drive. Normally, the system begins to boot from the first primary partition installed by the BIOS. The NT bootstrap then begins loading NT from the ARC (Advanced RISC Computer) partition specified in the BOOT.INI file. The problem is that when the primary boot partition has failed, the partition referenced in the BOOT.INI file is invalid.

---

NOTE:

Although the ARC convention for identifying system disk partitions was originally developed for RISC systems, Microsoft has adopted this naming scheme for Intel-based Windows NT systems as well.

---

The best method to solve this problem and allow your system to boot from the mirror of the system partition is to create a floppy disk with the NT bootstrap code that hands off boot control to a different ARC resource—the mirror copy.

To create a fault-tolerant boot floppy, use the following procedure:

1. Format a floppy disk on your NT system. This can be done by typing format a: at the command line, or right-clicking on the floppy drive icon in My Computer and choosing Format.

   ---

   NOTE:

   You must use NT to format this disk because the bootstrap code created by formatting it with DOS is unable to load the NTLDR.

   ---

2. Now, you need to copy three files from your NT boot partition (usually the c: drive) to the floppy disk. These three files are hidden by default, so depending how you have your Explorer options configured, you might not see them. The easiest method to copy them would be to use the XCOPY /H command from a command prompt. Open a command prompt and enter the following three commands:

   XCOPY /H C:\NTLDR A:\
   XCOPY /H C:\NTDETECT.COM A:\
   XCOPY /H C:\BOOT.INI A:\

   ---

   NOTE:

   If you have a system that boots from a SCSI controller that does not have its BIOS enabled you will also need to copy the NTBOOTDD.SYS file to your floppy disk. If this file does not exist on your hard disk, then you don’t need it on the boot floppy.

   ---

3. Use the command attrib -s -r -h a:\boot.ini to make the BOOT.INI file on the floppy editable.
4. Edit the BOOT.INI on the floppy drive to point to the mirror partition instead of the primary partition. To do this, you must know the ARC name of the mirror partition. For example, if you have one SCSI adapter in your system and two hard drives, the first hard drive (SCSI id=0) contains a single partition, which is the system partition. The second hard drive (SCSI id=1) contains only a mirror of the first hard drive. If you installed Windows NT Server into a directory called \WINNT, your BOOT.INI for booting to the mirrored partition would look like this:

   [boot loader]
   timeout=30
   default=scsi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
   [operating systems]
   scsi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows NT Server Version 4.0"

   ---

   NOTE:

   It is important to understand how to create the ARC naming path necessary for correctly identifying the proper partition. An ARC path takes the following form:

   type(x)disk(y)rdisk(z)partition(a)path

   type	Identifies the disk controller. If the disk controller is SCSI, the type is scsi. Other disk controllers, such as IDE and ESDI, are referred to as type multi. On some SCSI systems, you also use multi.
   x	The number of the adapter in the order it is loaded by Windows NT. For computers with only a single adapter, x is always 0. Note that all buses of a multi-bus adapter are referred to with the same value for x. For example an Adpatec 2742AT controller has two SCSI buses. They are both referred to with the same x value, since they are part of the same controller card.
   y	Calculated by multiplying the bus number (on multi-bus adapters) by 32 and adding the target ID of the drive. For controllers of type multi, y is always 0.
   Z	The device's logical unit number (LUN). For controllers of type multi, z is 0 for the master drive and 1 for the slave drive. For SCSI systems, this is always 0.
   a	The number of the partition on the disk. To figure out the partition number you want, remember this: MS-DOS extended partitions (type 5) are not counted, nor are unused partitions (type 0). Starting with 1, count the primary partitions first, then the logical drives. If there is only one partition on the drive, this value is always 1.
   path	The directory where you installed Windows NT Server, such as \WINNT, \WINDOWS, \WINNT40, or \WINNT35.

   ---

5. Write-protect the floppy disk to ensure that it is not accidentally modified, or infected by a virus.

You should now test the floppy disk to make sure it does what you expect it to. Reboot the system and allow it to boot from the floppy disk.

---

WARNING:

Remember that the only way for NT to catch a boot-sector virus is to start the system from a floppy disk. A boot-sector virus can totally destroy your installation of NT. For this reason, I highly encourage you to check the floppy disk for viruses before booting from it. After all, you are trying to protect your system from problems, not create new ones!

---

One of three things should happen:

• If the boot disk was created properly, the system should begin booting and you should get a blue screen with a STOP message, PROCESS1_INITIALIZATION_FAILED, or similar message. Believe it or not, this is a good thing.

  What you see here is the NT bootstrap handed off correctly to the mirrored drive and NT coming to life. However, at a certain point during the boot process, NT realizes that it is running from the mirror partition of a mirror set. At this point, NT looks to see if the primary partition of the mirror set is accessible. If the partition is available and appears to be good—as is the case in this little test—NT dies with the blue screen you have just seen. This is done in an attempt to preserve the integrity of the mirror. However, if NT cannot detect the primary partition of the mirror set, it assumes that something is definitely wrong and continues to boot.

  If you want to verify this for yourself, you can try unplugging the drive that contains the primary partition of the mirror and try booting from the floppy.

• If you enter the ARC path incorrectly, you receive the following message:

  "Windows NT could not start because of the following boot configuration problem: Did not properly generate ARC name for HAL and system paths. Please check the Windows NT documentation about ARC configuration options and your hardware reference manuals for additional information. Boot Failed."

  To try to solve this problem, you should review the instructions earlier in this chapter for determining the correct ARC path.

• If the correct SCSI driver cannot be found, you receive the following message:

  "Windows NT could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem. Could not read from selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware. Please check the Windows NT documentation about hardware configuration and your hardware disk configuration and your hardware reference manuals for additional information. Boot Failed."

  To solve this problem, make sure the correct SCSI driver for your SCSI card is copied to the boot floppy. For additional help, you should contact the SCSI card's manufacturer.

Breaking a Mirror Set

There are two main reasons you might want to break a mirror set. First, you simply don't want the mirror any longer, or want to move the mirror to another drive. Second, one of the drives in the mirror has gone bad. In either case, the procedure for breaking the mirror is essentially identical. However, if you are breaking the mirror because one of the drives has failed, you should also refer the section later in this chapter on recovering failed mirror sets.

The procedure for breaking a mirror is as follows:

---

NOTE:

In order to create a disk mirror, you must be logged on the server as a user with administrative permissions.

---

1. Start Disk Administrator (WINDISK.EXE) from the Administrative Tools program group.
2. Click one of the partitions in the mirror set you want to break.
3. From the Fault Tolerance menu, select Break Mirror.
4. You are asked to confirm that you want to break the mirror. Select Yes to confirm.
5. From the Partition menu, select Commit Changes Now.
6. Disk Administrator prompts you to confirm your selection. Choose Yes.
7. The mirrored partition is assigned the next available drive letter.
8. Exit Disk Administrator.

---

If you are breaking a mirror containing the system partition, you must reboot before the mirror can be broken.

---

When you break a mirror, NT does not delete any data. It simply breaks the mirror into two identical volumes. The primary part of the mirror retains the original drive letter, and the other half of the broken mirror gets the next available drive letter. If you want to recreate the mirror, you first need to delete the old mirror partition. You cannot simply rejoin the two broken halves together.

Creating a Striped Set with Parity

If you want to set up your system for disk striping with parity, follow these steps:

---

WARNING:

When you create a striped set with parity, NT has to reboot before the configuration can take effect.

---

---

NOTE:

In order to create a disk mirror, you must be logged on the server as a user with administrative permissions.

---

1. Start Disk Administrator (WINDISK.EXE) from the Administrative Tools program group.
2. If you have never used Disk Administrator, or if you have added a new drive since the last time you ran it, you are warned that it needs to write an identification tag to the hard drives. Choose OK.
3. The next step takes a little planning. Each of the stripes in a striped set must be exactly the same size, so the total size of the entire set can be only n*(m[nd]1), where n is the size of the smallest area of free space and m is the number of drives in the array. For example, if you have three drives with 50, 60, and 90MB of free, contiguous disk space, the total size of your set can be only 100MB㬮*(3[nd]1). Likewise, if you had six drives with 90, 100, 100, 110, 190, and 300MB of contiguous free space, the maximum size of your array is 450MB㭖*(6[nd]1).
4. Holding down the Shift key, click the areas of free space on each drive you will be using for the set.
5. From the Fault Tolerance menu, choose Create Striped Set with Parity.
6. NT asks you how big of a disk you want to create. The default is the largest set you can make, as calculated by the formula in Step 4. You can choose a smaller number, and the partition size that NT creates from the free space on each disk is x/(m[nd]1), where x is the total size of the set and m is the number of drives in the set. For example if you told NT to create a 400MB set on 5 drives, it would use a 100MB partition on each drive𤽨/(5[nd]1).

   Enter the size you want and click OK.

7. The striped set should now appear with the same drive letter and a light blue border.
8. Exit Disk Administrator.
9. You receive a warning reminding you to update your emergency repair disk. Click OK.
10. Reboot the computer.
11. When the computer comes back up, log on again as a user with administrative rights and go back into Disk Administrator.
12. Click any partition in the striped set. All other partitions that are part of the striped set with parity will automatically be selected. Choose Format from the Tools menu. You can format it as FAT, HPFS, or NTFS.
13. When the format is complete, exit Disk Administrator.

The striped set with parity volume you just created is now available for use. For more information on the Disk Administrator, please refer to Chapter 6, File System Management.

---

WARNING:

Update your emergency repair disk by running RDISK.EXE. For more information about using RDISK.EXE, please refer to Chapter 6. If you don't update the emergency repair disk and you have a problem with your system, you could lose data!

---

Recovering Failed Sets

If one of the disks in a mirrored set or a striped set with parity fails, FTDISK.SYS logs an event to the system log. In both of these cases, the system continues to function as usual, as is the intent with fault-tolerant systems. However, exactly what effect this failed drive has on system performance and how to fix the problem depends on which fault-tolerant method you are using.

Recovering a Failed Mirror Set

When one disk of a mirror fails, you will probably not notice a significant difference. This is yet another reason why you should make sure to periodically review your logs using the Event Viewer.

When one disk fails, FTDISK.SYS automatically adjusts itself to compensate for the problem. If the disk that fails is not the primary partition of your boot partition, the danger consists of only a single major problem. If the second drive fails, you will experience data loss. For this reason, you should endeavor to fix the mirror as soon as possible.

However, if the drive that fails is the primary drive of a mirrored set containing the boot partition, you have a potentially more serious problem on your hands. If this happens and you allow your system to reboot, then NT cannot load, because the boot information contained in the BOOT.INI file is pointing to the wrong location.

If you have determined that one of the drives of a mirror has failed, and the drive that failed is not the primary partition of a mirror set containing the system partition, use the following procedure to repair the problem:

1. Using Disk Administrator, break the mirror as described earlier in this chapter.
2. Shut down the system and replace the failed drive.
3. Turn the system back on and use Disk Administrator to create a new mirror on the new drive.
4. Update the emergency repair disk.

If the primary partition of a mirror set containing the system partition has failed, you need to follow this procedure. For ease of understanding, I call the failed primary partition Disk 1 and the mirror Disk 2:

1. Boot the system with your fault-tolerant boot disk. Instructions for creating this disk are provided earlier in this chapter.
2. Use Disk Administrator to break the mirror by clicking Disk 2 and choosing Break Mirror from the Fault Tolerance menu.
3. Exit Disk Administrator, acknowledging any warnings.
4. Shut down the system.
5. Replace the failed hard drive, if necessary. I call this new drive Disk 1.
6. Boot the system again from the fault-tolerant boot floppy.
7. Open Disk Administrator. If you replaced the hard drive, Disk Administrator warns you that this is the first time it has seen this hard drive and that it will write a signature to the disk. Acknowledge this.
8. If you didn't replace the hard drive, you need to delete the failed system partition from Disk 1 and commit the changes.
9. Create a new mirror by clicking Disk 2. Then, holding down the Ctrl key, click the free space on Disk 1. Choose Establish Mirror from the Fault Tolerance menu.
10. Exit Disk Administrator, acknowledging any warnings.
11. Reboot the system again, still booting from the fault-tolerant boot floppy.
12. Go into Disk Administrator and wait until the status on the system partition mirror is reported as HEALTHY.
13. Break the mirror again. (See the following Technical Note for a discussion of why this is all necessary!)
14. Exit Disk Administrator, acknowledging any warnings.
15. Reboot the system again. This time allow it to boot by itself.
16. Go into Disk Administrator and delete the partition that contains the duplicate of the system data from Disk 2.
17. You should now follow the normal procedures for reestablishing the mirror for Disk 1.

---

NOTE:

Although it might seem senseless to keep rebooting the system and breaking and restoring the mirror, there really is a good reason.

---

Remember that a mirror set is really made up of a primary and a secondary partition. The primary is the real thing. In the preceding steps, the primary partition failed. The first thing you had to do was break the mirror. This left you with the primary partition as being bad, and the secondary partition as being good. You deleted the primary partition—or replaced the drive if necessary. Then you created a new mirror based on the information from the secondary partition. The problem is, it is now the primary partition. That's why you reboot the system and break the mirror again. You now have two good partitions, with perfectly good data. You have basically accomplished your job, which is to recover the primary system partition. This leaves you free to delete the partition that was the secondary partition of the original mirror—and that saved your life—and re-create the mirror, using the correct partition as the primary partition of the mirrored set.

Recovering a Failed Striped Set with Parity

Because the data in a striped set with parity is spread across all the drives in the array, you don't lose any data if a single drive in the array fails. However, your system does take a significant performance hit, because NT must re-create the lost data from the information and parity data spread across the remaining disks. Additionally, by having a single drive fail, you have lost the fault tolerance. If a second drive in the array fails, you lose all data on that volume. So, although NT can continue to function with a single drive failure, you should make every attempt to replace the failed drive as soon as possible.

Follow this procedure to recover from a disk failure in a striped set with parity:

1. If you need to replace a failed hard drive, shut down the system as normal, swap the drive, and bring the system back up.
2. Log on as a user with administrative privileges.
3. Start Disk Administrator. If you replaced the hard drive, Disk Administrator warns you that this is the first time it has seen this hard drive and that it will write a signature to the disk. Acknowledge this.
4. Click the stripe set with parity that needs regenerating.
5. Hold down the Ctrl key and select the newly replaced drive, or click on a drive that's not currently part of the set that has free space equal to or greater than the stripe size used on the other disks.
6. Chose Regenerate from the Fault Tolerance menu.
7. Exit Disk Administrator and reboot the computer.

   When the computer restarts, it automatically begins to regenerate the data onto the newly added partition. This might take some time.

   You can check the status of the regeneration by clicking the striped set with parity in Disk Administrator.

Backing Up Your Server

No matter how you implement fault-tolerant disk drives, there is always the possibility that data could get corrupted beyond repair, or even more common, that something could get accidentally deleted. Because there is no way to undelete files in Windows NT, it is very important that you maintain current backups of your system's data.

The damage caused by either failed hardware or accidental deletion ranges from minor nuisance to major catastrophe. To help protect your data, you should evaluate its importance and the impact data loss would have on your organization and then develop an appropriate backup plan.

In addition to deciding how often to back up your data, and what to back up, you should also consider making a policy on how user data gets restored. In most cases, if a system failure causes data loss, restoring the system is very high priority. But how do you deal with a user that comes and asks you to restore a file that he or she accidentally erased? It would be nice to be able to deal with this kind of situation immediately; however, in reality that's not always possible. That's why having a well-defined policy regarding restoring user data from tapes can be useful. It gives the user a statement of rights and provides the administrator the ability to prioritize.

How to Choose a Tape Drive

Choosing a tape drive is at least as important as choosing the other components that go into making your system. If you are going to use the backup software that comes with NT, you need to make sure the tape drive you use is listed on NT's Hardware Compatibility List (HCL).

When choosing a tape backup device, here are a few things to look at:

• Tape style: If you have tape backup units in more than one machine, you should consider standardizing on a tape format. This allows you a much greater level of flexibility. Two of the most common and respected tape formats in standard use today are 4-millimeter (mm) and 8mm tapes. These are data-grade versions of the 4mm audio DAT and 8mm video cassette. They have gained acceptance because they are cheap (around $10 per tape for 4mm and $18 per tape for 8mm); they hold large amounts of information (between 2 and 9 gigabytes per tape for 4mm and 4 and 25 gigabytes per tape for 8mm); and they are fast. Other common styles include the DC-6000 style and the DC-2000 format. Both of these styles have been around for years, and although they are made from heavy-duty materials, they are usually far more costly than 4mm and 8mm tapes and often orders of magnitudes slower.

  ---

  TIP:

  One format that has recently been gaining wide-spread acceptance for its high transfer rates, long shelf life and high capacity, is the digital linear tape (DLT). DLT provides about three times the storage capacity of 8mm tapes (10 to 40 gigabytes depending on compression and type of DLT drive), not to mention three times the speed (between 2.5 and 3.0 megabytes per second sustained transfer with peaks up to 10.0 megabytes per second), and more than five times the expected life span (tape shelf life of 30 years, and drive head life of 10,000 hours).

  One of the other advantages of the DLT format is the use of a multi-track, serpentine tape path. Multi-track means that in the case of DLT-2000 and DLT-4000 drives, data is stored on 128 parallel tracks (or 64 pairs of tracks) on the tape. The tape is read by moving forward along one track, and when the end of the tape is reached, it moves to the next track and reads backward. When the beginning of the tape is reached it moves to the next track and changes direction again. This is what is know as serpentine recording. It provides quick access to any point on the tape—significantly quicker than a single-track, longer tape.

  DLT was originally popularized by Digital Equipment Corporation, but it is an open solution. With the growing need for large and fast tape backup solution, more major tape drive vendors are offering solutions based on DLT. If you need fast tape backup for large amounts of data, DLT might be right for you.

  ---

• Capacity: When selecting a tape format, make sure you get one that meets your current needs but also will cover you as your system grows. Also be careful of the claimed data capacity of the device. Most drives now support built-in hardware compression routines, and the advertised data capacity is based on the drive's capability to compress the data as it's written to the tape. You can run into some potential problems here because if your system contains a significant amount of already compressed data, you will run into troubles with your backups. For instance, if you are using NTFS file-level compression, or you have a large number of zip archives, your system might report that you have 2GB of data used on your volume. However, you might find your system asking you for a new tape halfway through the backup. This is because the tape device is unable to further compress the already compressed data.
• Speed: With 4mm tapes, you can easily achieve data transfer rates of at least 30MB/minute. With 8mm tapes, the transfer rates are usually much higher. This is in contrast to the 1MB to 5MB/minute transfer rates of most DC-2000 and DC-6000 devices. Imagine backing up 8GB of data at 5MB/minute. That would take almost a full day! So when choosing a backup solution, make sure you calculate how long the backups take to run. In some cases, where the amount of data is so great, you might find that you need to use multiple tape devices to back up in parallel. For this kind of configuration, you would need a third-party backup program.
• Cost of media: You need to carefully consider the cost of media when purchasing a tape drive. Different styles of tapes can cost between $5 and $50 per cartridge. It is common for people to skimp on purchasing their hardware, by saying "I can't justify spending $1,000 on a tape backup, when I can get one of the same capacity for $300!" This logic often falls to pieces when you consider the cost of the media for many of these devices. It's not uncommon that the cost of media alone for a single year on some of these "cheaper" systems exceeds the combined cost of a good tape backup unit and equivalent number of tapes. You should always calculate this before you buy.
• Autoloader: An autoloader is a magazine that holds multiple tapes, and the backup software can automatically access any tape in the magazine as needed. There are two major reasons to use an autoloader. First, if you need to back up an amount of data that won't fit onto a single tape, an autoloader eliminates the need to manually change tapes, thus allowing the job to run unattended overnight. Another common reason to buy autoloaders is to be able to put a whole week's worth of tapes in the system at a time. The backups then run as necessary, and everything remains online, so you have almost immediate access if you need to recover a file. If you want to use a tape autoloader, you need to purchase third-party backup software, because NT's backup software does not support autoloaders.

Developing a Backup Strategy

Every site is unique and this makes it difficult to provide a general formula for developing a backup strategy. However, here are a few things you should look at in determining your backup strategy:

What Should You Back Up?

This might sound like an obvious question, but you should determine exactly what you need to backup. More to the point, you should decide if you will only backup the server—or servers—or if you need to backup the client workstations as well.

• Servers Only: Backing up only the servers on your network will certainly take less time and space. If you are only going to backup the servers, then you should make sure the users know that the contents of their workstations are not getting backed up. You might also want to adopt a policy that requires or encourages users to store their data on the server. This way if their workstations do have problems, their data is protected.
• Workstations and Servers: In some environments it is critical that the workstations and servers all get backed up. With most workstations today shipping with 1- to 2-gigabyte hard drives, many people want to maximize the use of this storage. Also, some environments consider data to be more secure when stored on the workstation hard drive.

---

TIP:

As tempting as it might seem to maximize the use of large capacity local hard drives, in anything larger than a small network, this can dramatically increase the work of the information technology staff. By storing all user data on the network, the user’s workstation can be quickly replaced, or reloaded with a clean image when their is a problem. This dramatically cuts down on the diagnostic time required to isolate problem with a workstation.

---

In addition to determining what machines get backed up, you will have to decide what portion of the machines need to get backed up. For instance, if you keep a large clip-art gallery—or other static data source—loaded on the hard drive of one of your servers, you might not want to back it up. If you could simply reload it from CD-ROM, as necessary, the tape space it would consume, and the time it would take to regularly back it up might not be worthwhile.

Where Should You Put the Tape Drive

Another great question with many different answers deals with where you should put the tape drive—or tape drives. Again, this depends on the setup of your network, how much money willing to spend, and what you want to accomplish.

The two main places for the tape drive would be in the server, or in a workstation.

---

NOTE:

The backup program that comes with Windows NT does not support running the backup program on an NT Server and backing up the data to a remote tape drive. What you would do instead, is to mount the server at the client workstation and run a local backup program at the server, such as the backup programs that come with NT Workstation, or Windows 95. However if you do this, you will not be able to backup the Registry database on the NT Server

---

I always recommend having the tape device attached directly to the NT Server, because that ensures it will always be available when needed. If it’s attached to a client workstation, if the workstation is turned off, the backups will not get done. Also, having the tape backup device directly attached to the server makes it easier to recover the entire server if there is a system failure and you need to restore from tapes.

However, the advantage of placing the tape backup unit on the workstation is that if there is a problem with the tape drive, it can be corrected without disturbing the server. However, if the tape drive were directly attached to the server, the server would have to be shut down in order to rectify the problem.

The other consideration when using a client workstation to backup a server—or using a tape drive in a single server to backup multiple servers—is what effect it will have on network bandwidth. Remember, backing up multiple gigabytes over the network can have a negative impact on other applications running over the network. An if you do a verify on the backup, you actually end up copying the data over the network twice!

How Often Should You Backup

The foundation of a successful backup program is to implement a fixed schedule and keep up with it. Just like exercise programs, it doesn’t do much good to do it here and there. Set a schedule and stick to it!

As part of the schedule, you should rotate the tapes you use. If you only have a single backup set, you can’t go back to an older version if the tape set you are restoring from fails. Also, if you are in the middle of performing a backup, and the system crashes, how are you going to restore the system? If you have multiple backup sets, that will not be as much of a problem.

---

TIP:

If you are backing up 1 gigabytes of data to an 8 gigabyte tape, don’t get lulled into using the same tape to do a full backup each night of the week. You should always use a rotational schedule.

---

Also, sometimes you might not become aware of a problem, such as a viral infection, until weeks, or months after it occurred. By keeping archived copies of your data, you can recover from these incidences better than if you always use the same tape set.

---

TIP:

Tapes wear out. You should keep track of the number of times you use a tape, as well as the date of the first time you used it. You should retire tapes after they get too old, or have been used too many times. The exact life span of different tape types varies, and you should check with the manufacturer of the drive for recommendations. You might also check with the tape manufacturer, but they are often a little on the optimistic side because they want you to believe their products will last forever—or at least forever in computer years.

---

You will need to determine how often you want to run a backup by deciding how many days worth of data you can afford to lose. One common method of backing up is to perform a complete backup every Friday night, and then perform a differential backup each additional night of the week. The differential backup stores only the data that has changed since the full backup. Then, if you want to recover data, you would need the full backup tape, and one of the differential backup tapes. This is often good if your tape device cannot store all your server’s data on a single tape.

---

TIP:

Always make sure you label your tapes. This prevents accidentally using the wrong tape. It will also speed up the recovery process, should you need to restore your system from tape.

---

Ideally you would supplement this strategy with a good rotational method that also includes off-site storage for added protection. For instance every two weeks, or once each month, you might retire a full-backup take and take this tape off site. Then in the event of a catastrophic accident, such as the building burns down, you will loose at most 2 to 4 weeks worth of changes. Of course the frequency with which you send tapes off site will increase depending on the value of your data.

---

CAUTION:

NT does not encrypt data on the tapes when it does a backup, so be sure to put your tapes in a secure place, both onsite and off-site. Anyone who gets possession of that tape will have a complete copy of everything stored on your system.

---

Installing a Tape Driver

The first thing you must do before you can use NT Backup is install a tape driver. NT Backup supports only backing up to and restoring from tapes, not floppy media or other hard drives.

To install a tape driver, use the following instructions:

---

NOTE:

Make sure you are logged on as a user with administrative permissions before attempting to load a tape device driver.

---

1. Open the Control Panel, and double-click on the Tape Devices icon. This will open the Tape Devices window.
2. Click the Detect button. This will attempt to locate a compatible tape device attached your system.

   If this does not work and you have a tape drive attached to your system, or if you have a diskette from the tape drive manufacturer that contains the necessary tape device driver, click the Drivers tab at the top of the window, then click the Add button. This brings you to a window where you can pick the tape driver you want to install.

3. Once NT has detected your tape device, or you have chosen it from the list, you might be asked for the location of the NT Server distribution media. Enter the appropriate path, and NT will copy the necessary files for your tape device.
4. When NT is done, it will ask you if you want to reboot you system. You must reboot your system before you can use the newly installed tape drive.

Using NT Backup

NT Backup is a simple but elegant backup solution that serves the needs of most smaller LANs. You can use the NT Backup to perform selective backups and restores, for tape maintenance such as tape formatting and retentioning, and for backing up the local Registry.

Let's take a walk through a basic backup procedure.

First, be sure to have a tape ready. Some DC-2000 and DC-6000 cartridge formats require that you format your tapes before you can use them. Other tape formats, such as standard 4mm and 8mm tapes do not need to be formatted. A simple way to tell if your drive requires you to format tapes is to insert a tape, and from within Backup, look at the "Format Tape..." option under the "Operations" menu. If "Format Tape..." is grayed out, you can safely assume the tape does not need to be formatted.

Notice the drive Window in the figure above. This window will show all local volumes, including CD-ROMs, as well as any current network connections. Placing a check mark in the box next to any volume, tells NT Backup that you want to backup the entire contents of that volume. Place a check mark next to any volume you want to backup.

Figure 23.4

The NT Backup utility is a full-featured tool for backing up and restoring data on your computer.

Figure 23.5

The check mark next to Drive E shows that it is selected for backup.

Once you have selected the drives you want to backup, click the "Backup" button.

This window is used to configure the options for your backup. Here is an overview of the various features provided on this window:

• Current Tape: This field will contain one of three things. If there is no tape in the drive this field will say "There is no tape in the drive." If the tape is blank, the field will read "The tape in the drive is blank." Finally, if the tape already contains information, the field will display the current name of the tape, such as "Wednesday backup of SAMSON server."
• Creation date: If the tape in the drive currently has data, it will tell you the date that the first backup set was written to the tape. Otherwise, this field will be empty.
• Owner: If the tape in the drive already has information on it, this field will contain the name of the user who created the tape. If the tape is blank, this field will also be blank.

  Figure 23.6

  The Backup Information window.

• Tape Name: If you are performing a replace operation, you will be able to assign the tape a name. By default the tape will be called "Tape created on" with today's date on the end. If you are performing an append operation, you will not be able to change the name of the tape.
• Operation: You have two options here: append and replace. If you choose replace, all data currently recorded on the tape will be lost. If you choose append, the system will write you current backup job after the end of the last job on the tape. This allows you to store multiple backup sets on a single tape. If you choose replace, you will be unable to change the tape name, which is assigned by the first backup set on the tape.
• Verify After Backup: If you choose this option, NT will backup all the selected data according to the other options you selected. It will then read all the data back from the tape and compare it to the originals. Using the verify option typically takes twice as long, and if you are backing up a network share, it will create twice as much network traffic.
• Backup Registry: This option will be grayed out unless you select at least one file on the system partition to backup. Choosing this option will cause the Registry hives to be copied to the tape. Essentially this means it will copy all files meeting the criteria %system_root%\system32\config\*. As a general practice, you should always backup the Registry whenever you backup your system partition.
• Restrict Access to Owner and Administrator: By checking this option, NT will write a header to the tape designating that it's access should be restricted. Please note that the data on the tape is not encrypted and therefore it is possible the data on the tape could be read by alternative means. Using this option is not an excuse for lax protection of sensitive backup tapes. This option is only available when you are performing a replace.
• Hardware Compression: If your tape device doesn't support hardware compression, this option will be grayed out. Some tape devices do not support mixing compression types on a tape, so if you are performing an append and this option is gray, although your device supports hardware compression, this is probably why.
• Backup Set Information: If you are backing up information on different volumes, Backup treats them as different backup sets. You are told how many set will be backed up. In our example, we are backing up two volume sets and the screen tells us "(1 of 2 sets)" and provides us a slider bar to view the options for each set.
• Drive Name: This gives you the local mapped drive and the universal naming convention (UNC) name for the current backup set. If you are backing up data from more that one volume, remember that you should use the slider at the right to determine which backup set you are viewing/
• Description: You can enter an individual description for each backup set. When you catalog a tape, this information will show up next to the backup set, allowing you to know exactly what it contains.
• Backup Type: You can set the backup type individually for each backup set. You have five options here:

  Full (Normal) Backup: All selected components are backed up and their archive bits are cleared.
  Copy Backup: All selected components are backed up and their archive bits are not changed.
  Incremental Backup: All selected components that have their archive bit set are backed up and their archive bits are then cleared.
  Differential Backup: All selected components that have their archive bit set are backed up and their archive bits are not changed.
  Daily Backup: All selected components that were modified today (regardless of the status of their archive bits) are backed up and their archive bits are not changed.

• Log Information: You can tell NT where to save the backup log information. You should store the log files in a secure place since there is really no reason for this to be public information. By default the log is written to %system_root%\backup.log, which is not necessarily a secure location.

  You can also set what kind of information the log records. By default, NT will record summary information only. The summary information consists of information such as the number of files backed up, the number of bytes backed up, the date and time the job started and when it finished, the elapsed time, the name of every directory that was backed up and a list of exceptions. If you choose the "Full Detail" option, NT will record the name of every file backed up. While to some people this might seem like a neat idea, don't forget that logs that contain full details grow very quickly. Of course if you don't want a log, then you should check the "Don't Log" option and no log file will be created.

Once you've finished configuring the backup options, click OK and NT will start the backup. A Backup Status window will appear showing the current progress of the backup.

If you wish to stop the backup at any time, click the Abort button and you will be prompted to confirm whether or not you really want to abort the backup.

If NT comes across any open files during backup, it will wait 30 seconds for the file to close. If the file does not close, then Backup skips over it and logs an exception to the backup log.

When NT is finished backing up all the files, the Backup Status window will remain on the screen. You can click OK to dismiss it and then you will be returned to the main Backup screen.

Figure 23.7

The Backup Status screen.

---

NOTE:

NT Backup generates an audit entry to NT's Application Log when a backup set begins and when it completes. This means that if you back up two volumes, C and D for example, you will end up with four events logged in the Application Log.

---

Restoring selected files and directories from backup tapes

To restore files created with the NT Backup program follow these steps:

---

NOTE:

Make sure you're logged on as a user with permissions to access the tape you need to restore, as well having permissions to the destination, and the restore user right if you want to restore the files with their NTFS access control lists (ACLs) intact.

---

1. Start NT Backup (NTBACKUP.EXE).
2. Insert the tape you want to restore from.
3. Open the Tapes window by double clicking on the Tapes icon, or by choosing Tapes from the Window menu.

   Figure 23.8

   The tape backup unit resides on a client workstation.

4. The Tapes window will now display a list of all backup sets available on the current tape.

   If you don't see a catalog of the current tape, choose the Catalog option from the Operations menu.

5. With NT Backup, you can choose exactly what you want to restore. If you want to restore the entire tape, place a check box next to each of the volume sets listed in the Tapes window. If you only want selected sets, click only next to the sets you want. If you want specific files within one or more of the volume sets, you can browse through the tape, selecting only the files you want to restore, as shown in.

   Once you have selected all the files you want to restore, click on the Restore button, or choose Restore from the Operations menu.

   Figure 23.9

   The Tape Devices Control Panel applet is used to install tape drivers.

6. The Restore Information window appears.

   If you are restoring more than one set, NT Backup displays the information for one set at a time and provides a scroll bar that can be used to view the restore information for the other sets.

   Figure 23.10

   The Restore Information screen.

   You are presented with the following information for each set being restored:

   Tape Name: This is the name of the tape currently in the tape drive.
   Backup Set: This is the ordinal number of the backup set on the tape. If you have backed up five volumes to the tape and restore files from the last set, the value for this field will be 5.
   Creation Date: This is the date that the current backup set was created.
   Owner: This is the name of the user account that created the backup tape.
   Restore to Drive: Using this pick list you can specify any currently mounted, writeable volume to recover the files to. By default they will be recovered using the exact same directory structure from where they were backed up.
   Alternate Path: If you don't want the restored files to use their original file structure, you can specify a path where Backup will create the restored files.
   Verify After Restore: If you want to ensure that there were no problems restoring the data, you can have NT Backup verify the data. Selecting this option makes restoring files take roughly twice as long.
   Restore Local File Permissions: You can select this option if you want files and directories restored with their NTFS permissions intact. You can only choose this option if the files were originally backed up from an NTFS partition and if you are restoring them to an NTFS partition.
   Restore Local Registry: If you want to restore the system Registry, use this option. This option is only available if your are restoring from a backup of the system partition that was made with the Backup Local Registry option selected.
   Additionally, you can specify the location of a restore log and the level of information that is recorded to the log.

7. Click OK and Backup will begin to restore the files.
   The status of the job is displayed during execution.
   You can abort the restore job at any time by clicking Abort.

   Figure 23.11

   The Restore Status screen.

---

NOTE:

NT Backup generates an audit entry to NT's Application Log when a you begin to restore files from a backup tape and when the restore job is complete. If you restore files from more than one set, NT will generate an audit entry for the beginning and end of each set.

---

Restoring the Entire Server from Backup Tapes

If you need to restore the entire server from tape because of a system failure, use the following procedures:

1. If the system failure was due to a problem with the hard drive, replace the hard drive or do whatever is necessary to make sure it is functioning properly now.
2. Boot from the Windows NT Setup Disk 1 and perform a basic NT Server install from scratch.
3. Boot from the Setup disk again and perform a repair, using the system's Emergency Repair Disk. This restores part of the Registry.
4. Once the system reboots, use NT Backup to restore the last full system backup.
5. Restore any incremental or differential backups that were performed since the last full backup.

Running NT Backup from the Command Line

I have discussed how to use the GUI interface for NT Backup to perform backups and restores. However, in some instances you don't want to work with the GUI interface, so NT Backup provides a set of parameters that can be used to call NT Backup from the command line to perform different functions. The syntax for NTBACKUP is as follows:

NTBACKUP operation path [/a] [/v] [/r] [/d "text"] [/b] [/hc:{on|off}] [/t {option}] [/l "filename"] [/e] [/tape:{N}]

operation	Specifies whether NTBACKUP should perform a backup or a restore. Accepted values are BACKUP or RESTORE.
path	Tells NTBACKUP which file or path should be backed up or restored. You can enter more than one entry here.
/a	Use this option to have the backup appended to the end of an existing tape. If you don't specify this option, NTBACKUP starts at the beginning of a tape and replaces any previously backed up data contained on the tape.
/v	Specifying this option has NT verify all data after performing the backup. Using this option takes much longer, and if used to back up data from a network share it effectively doubles the amount of network traffic.
/r	Tells NTBACKUP to mark this tape as a restricted access tape. Tapes marked as such can be read only by the owner and by members of the backup operators and administrators groups.
/d "text"	Supplying this uses the text in quotes as a description of the tape set. For instance, you might use this to mark your tape with an identifying number or with other information such as "Backup of FARINELLI workstation on 1/1/96."
/b	Including this option causes NTBACKUP to include a copy of the local registry on the tape. Note that this can be used only to back up the local registry. It cannot be used to back up the registry of a remote system.
/hc:{on|off}	Supplying the switch /hc:on tells NTBACKUP to use hardware compression, which on many systems effectively doubles the storage capacity. Using /hc:off causes NT to disable hardware compression. To use this option, your tape device must support hardware compression. This option is not effective when used with the /a option, because if you are appending your backup to a tape, NTBACKUP automatically uses whatever compression option was used for the first backup job on the tape.
/t {option}	Tells NTBACKUP whether to perform a Normal, Incremental, Differential Backup, Copy, or Daily Backup. Accepted values for option are NORMAL, INCREMENTAL, DIFFERENTIAL, COPY, and DAILY.
/l "filename"	Tells NTBACKUP to save a log file for the job in file "filename." By default, NTBACKUP uses a file called %SYSTEM_ROOT%\XXX.
/e	Supplying this option causes only exceptions to be written to the backup log. Without this option, NTBACKUP includes complete backup descriptions for the job. When backing up large numbers of files, the backup log can grow extremely large. Using this option can help keep the log to a more manageable size.
/tape:{N}	NT supports up to 10 tape drives. Use this option if you have more than one drive installed. Tape drives are designated as 0 to 9. By default, NT uses tape device 0.

Using the NT Scheduler Service to Schedule Regular Backups

Although NT Backup does not have a built-in scheduling mechanism, you can use the scheduler service built into the NT system to run regular backup jobs automatically.

Before you can do this, you need to make sure the scheduler service has been started and the scheduler user has the appropriate user rights on the local system and on any system you need to back up.

Let's assume your system has two volumes: C and D. To perform a full backup of your system every Friday night at 10:00 pm and a differential backup of your system every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday night at 10:00 pm, you need two scripts, as follows:

backfull.bat:

ntbackup backup c: d: /v /d "Full System Backup" /b /t normal /l "c:\users\backup\backfull.log" /e

backdiff.bat:

ntbackup backup c: d: /v /d "Differential System Backup" /b /t differential /l "c:\users\backup\backdiff.log" /e

Create a directory for these scripts. c:\users\backup might be a good location. Now you have two files: c:\users\backup\backfull.bat and c:\users\backup\backdiff.bat.

You then set up the jobs in the system scheduler by issuing the following two commands:

at 22:00 /interactive /every:friday "c:\user\backup\backfull.bat" at 22:00 /interactive /every:monday,tuesday,wednesday,thursday "c:\user\backup\backdiff.bat"

Now you're all set. Each morning you can simply take out the tape for the previous night and insert a new tape.

Backing Up Remote Volumes

You can use the scheduler service and NTBACKUP to back up remote volumes, but you must take some additional steps.

By default, the scheduler user runs using the built-in SYSTEM account. When you run NTBACKUP from the scheduler service, it runs in whatever user context the scheduler service is using. The built-in SYSTEM account cannot make remote network attachments, so it cannot back up remote network shares.

If you want to back up remote network shares in this way, you need to run the scheduler service with a user context that has both backup and restore user rights and has permission to access files on the remote system.

Once you have the scheduler service running as a user with backup and restore user rights, and permissions to access the remote network shares you want to back up, you can create a batch file like the following to back up a share called CLIENTS from a machine called SAMSON:

net use k: \\SAMSON\CLIENTS net use k: /d

---

NOTE:

Remember that if you tell NTBACKUP to verify data backed up from a network share, you double the amount of network traffic.

---

Assuming you save this batch file as c:\users\backup\samson.bat, you could have NT's scheduler service run this batch file every weeknight at 10:00 pm by issuing this command:

at 22:00 /interactive /every:monday,tuesday,wednesday,thursday,friday "c:\user\backup\samson.bat"

---

NOTE:

If you include a /b switch in a backup command like the one contained in the batch file listed earlier, it backs up the registry on the computer that is running NTBACKUP, not the computer whose share it is you are backing up. Using NTBACKUP, there is currently no method to back up the registry on a remote machine.

---

Using an Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS) with NT

Think of jumping out of the plane without a parachute. This is essentially what you are doing if you run your server without an uninterruptable power supply (UPS). This is one of the most important investments you can make to protect your server. I would consider it a crime comparable to treason to set up a server of any kind without providing an UPS device for protection against power problems.

---

TIP:

There are two ways to pronounce UPS. If you have noticed that I write "an UPS," you probably realize that I pronounce it "ups" as a word. This is the most common way. You can also find people pronouncing the letters individually, "U-P-S."

---

Now that you realize how important they are, I will explain why. An UPS is a device that is plugged in between your computer and the wall and provides protection for your computer in the event of a power failure. Most UPSs also provide line conditioning to ensure the quality of power that actually reaches the computer. This translates into longer life for your computer's power supply, and for all of your computer's components. Also, since most servers rely heavily on disk caching—such as Windows NT’s lazy write file system—you risk loosing all data stored in a write cache.

---

NOTE:

If you are using NTFS under Windows NT and the power goes out, you will not get file system corruption, however, you will loose the contents of the lazy write cache that has not bee committed to disk.

---

In most cases an UPS is not intended to enable you to continue working through a lengthy power outage. Rather, it is intended to permit your server to shutdown gracefully without loosing data.

---

NOTE:

Of course, in some mission-critical situations your system must be able to outlast long power outages, but the cost of UPS devices to support this kind of operation can be costly.

---

---

TIP:

Buy an UPS for each of your servers. Now that you have that settled, let's talk about the rest of your network. Realize that if there is a major power failure, an UPS protects the machine attached to it, but what about the rest of your network? What about the routers? What about the hubs? Sometimes people put UPSs on their workstations and servers and think they are protected from catastrophe. Boom, the power goes out and they lose their network connections because their hubs are gone. These devices are important too! Just remember to ask yourself what you need. Do you just need to make sure that your sever can shut down safely, or do you also want to make sure that your users do not lose data because their workstation die, too? If the later is your goal, you need to put UPSs on their workstations, but also on all the network components.

---

Deciding What to Protect

One of the questions you need to answer is what you want to protect with your UPS—what is the goal for which you are installing the UPS. There are so many mitigating circumstances that it is almost impossible to list them all, but here are a few things to look at:

• Server CPU: Obviously you want the CPU itself on the UPS.
• External Storage Devices: Don’t forget to plug any external storage devices into the UPS as well. This includes external CD-ROMs, hard drives, and tape backup units. It would even include many scanners, if they are plugged into a SCSI interface. If you lose power to any of these devices, it will cause problems with your system.
• Server’s Monitor: In general, the larger the monitor, the more power it consumes. If your NT system will be performing a shutdown without your intervention during a power failure, you might not need to put the monitor on the UPS. However, if you need to monitor the events on the server, you’re going to have to make sure to put the monitor on the UPS and determine the correct balance between the size of the monitor versus the power consumption and how that will affect your UPS budget.
• Printers: In general, you should not plug printers into UPSs, particularly laser printers. This is because of large amount of power these devices require when they actually print something will overload most UPSs that your would be using with an NT system.
• Networking Hardware: If you need to provide continued network access to coordinate remote shutdowns, you will need to ensure that all your networking hardware, such as bridges, routers and hubs, is protected by an UPS.
• Workstations: If it is critical that users don’t loose even a moment’s work, you will need to put an UPS on each workstation. Then when there is a power failure, the server can send a message to all its clients indicating that it will be shutting down. The users will have time to safely save and exit their applications. If you need to provide this level of support, then make sure you have your networking hardware protected as well, as listed in the previous bullet.

Choosing an UPS

As with any other component of your server system, you should give careful attention to buying an UPS. Of course, price is always going to be a factor, but here are some other things to think about:

• Runtime: You want an UPS that is going to support your system for at least 5 minutes under full load. You also need to consider what will happen if you have multiple shorter power outages in a row. Each outage drains from the UPSs battery, and the UPS might not have enough time to recharge before the next hit, so it will already be at a disadvantage. Always purchase you UPS with room to grow into. Remember, as you add more disk drives, CD-ROMs, and memory, the total power requirement of your system increases.

  ---

  TIP:

  One of the most difficult tasks about buying an UPS is determining how large it should be. There is no simple rule that determines 100% accuracy, but for a conservative guess, you should add up the rated power consumption for all devices you will plug into the UPS. The rated power consumption on all electrical components is given in watts. Most UPSs are traditionally rated in volt-amps (VA), which measures the UPSs output capacity. The relationship between the two is determined by a power factor, which varies depending on the make and model of the UPS. However, a good rule of thumb would be that a 1000VA UPS can support a maximum load capacity of 600 to 700 watts. At the maximum load capacity the UPS will provide the least amount of runtime. The smaller the load capacity, the longer the runtime.

  Unfortunately there is no simple shoppers method that you can use across all UPS vendors for quick comparison. In order to determine your systems runtime at different load levels, you will often need to contact the UPS vendor for help.

  ---

• Type of protection: UPS protection is often classified into three categories, on-line, stand-by, and line-interactive.

  On-line UPSs are the original type of UPS device, sometimes called a double-conversion UPS. With an on-line UPS, the computer is always feeding from the battery, so the battery is constantly charging. When the power fails, the UPS continues feeding the attached device, with no interruption or switching. These are also the most expensive type of UPS, and according to some people, unnecessary.

  Stand-by UPSs are very common, particularly in the newer low-cost UPSs targeted for the home consumer market. Stand-by UPSs work by constantly monitoring the quality of the incoming AC power and when it detects a dip in voltage, the UPS provides power to the attached equipment.

  ---

  NOTE:

  Remember a battery provides a type of electricity called Direct Current (DC), while the type of power you get from the electrical outlets is Alternating Current (AC). The UPS is in essence a large battery and it needs to convert the DC power provided by the battery into AC power, which the computer’s power supply expects to get. This process is called inversion and the UPS provides this through a built-in inverter.

  ---

  The amount of time the UPS takes between the beginning of the voltage dip and when it begins providing power to the attached equipment is called the transfer time, and it varies depending on the make and model of the UPS, but is often between 2 and 10 milliseconds. The power supplies in most computer hardware are rated to be able to keep the system going for a minimum of 10 to 15 milliseconds after the loss of power. This is called the hold-up time for the power supply. In actual tests, though, most systems are not even affected by power losses of 50 to 100 milliseconds, or greater. However, you want to be sure to get an UPS with a low transfer time.

  Line-interactive UPSs provide the functionality of stand-by UPSs, but they also provide enhanced line conditioning. They use voltage regulation methods to try to correct over and undervoltages without changing over to the battery. This is usually listed as brownout protection and can help to increase the life of the UPS.

• Intelligent serial/network communications: For your server, you want to buy an UPS that is capable of communicating intelligent messages with NT, typically through the serial port. It is not enough to simply offer a serial port that reports when the battery has kicked in so that NT can shut down. A good quality UPS will also send NT messages about the quality of the line, battery charge levels, and other environmental conditions. Most cheaper models, especially those geared more for the home market, are not able to communicate intelligently with Windows NT. If you do nothing else, make sure to invest in an intelligent UPS with a serial interface. For a larger network, where you use Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) network monitoring packages, you might consider getting an UPS with a network card that supports SNMP monitoring and control.
• NT-specific software: Although NT provides its own built-in support for talking with UPS intelligent devices, the software provided by some UPS manufacturers often provides more robust and value-added enhancements. For example, some models are able to communicate information about the quality of the line to NT. When there is a brown-out, the UPS reports it to NT and NT logs the event in the system event log and tells you the line voltage. This can be useful for diagnosing and isolating bad lines so they can be fixed. Other software provides features such as paging and integration with various management packages, such as Microsoft’s Systems Management Server (SMS). For example, American Power Conversion’s (APC) PowerChute Plus software, which ships with their intelligent UPS devices, provides an SMS MIF file that records UPS events and status information in the SMS database.

  ---

  NOTE:

  Before installing any software that comes with your UPS, you should ensure that it is designed for your version of NT, including any service packs you might have installed. I have had problems with this in the past. When in doubt, contact the vendor before installing the software.

  More than nine months after NT 3.5 had been shipping, I installed an intelligent UPS from a major UPS manufacturer—not names mentioned—along with their software, which was designed for NT. Nowhere in the instructions did it even mention which version of NT it had been designed for. After spending hours cleaning up its mess and subsequently contacting the UPS vendor to complain, I found out that the version I had been sent was only for NT 3.1.

  ---

• Audible power failure indicator: Many products provide an audible sound that indicates when something is wrong. Although it is a useful feature, it can sometimes be quite annoying, especially if your power is typically of poor quality.
• Visual load indicator: Many of the better UPS models provide a visual indication of how much power is being drawn by the attached equipment. This is done with either a thermometer-style indicator or a numeric display.
• Visual time indicator: Again, this feature is typically provided on many of the better UPS models. Usually it is displayed the same as the load indicator—with either a thermometer-style indicator or a numeric display. This is a particularly useful feature and well worth choosing a good model to get.
• Site Wiring Indicator: Some UPSs provide a visual and/or audible indicator to alert you to hazardous situations cause by improper electrical wiring, such as poor grounding or reversed line polarity. If you don’t get an UPS with this feature, be sure to have your line checked by a licensed electrician (or at least someone competent in the subject) to ensure that the wiring at your site was done correctly.
• Location of power switch: This might seem silly if you have never dealt with an UPS before. An alarmingly high number of UPS devices—even many of the better ones—have simple on/off toggle switches or buttons located right on the front of the console. This is fine for access, but most people don't need to use them very often, so putting them in back, or providing a guard to protect against accidents, seems in order. In many environments, UPSs are kept on the floor, and more often than not, under desks. I have heard many cries from upset people who have accidentally kicked or knocked their switches and shut their whole systems down. At least give this some thought.
• Replaceable Batteries: Some UPSs have user replaceable batteries. In a cheap, dumb UPS that is nothing more that a simple battery with inverter circuitry, the expense of the battery makes up most of the cost of the UPS. However, with more advanced, intelligent UPSs, the intelligence and other parts of the UPS begin to have a definite long-term value. Since UPS batteries don’t last forever (typically two to five years, depending on usage), investing in an UPS with user-replaceable batteries can cut down on your long-term expenses.
• Test button: You should test your UPS on a regular basis to ensure that it is functioning properly. Having a test button built into the front of the unit is an easy way to do this.
• Number of outlets: Typically, the number of outlets provided with an UPS is related to its volt-amps rating. If you have any external devices, it's not uncommon to need more outlets than are provided, particularly on the cheaper models, which often come with only two outlets.

Installing Your UPS

Although NT has built-in support for intelligent UPS devices, some makes and models of UPS devices actually come with their own software, which usually provides more robust services than the built-in UPS service. If your UPS comes with its own software for NT, you should probably use it, just contact the vendor to make sure it supports Windows NT 4.0.

However, if your UPS does not come with its own software, you can use the UPS service built into NT. The UPS applet can be configured to work with most of the intelligent UPS devices on the market.

---

TIP:

Before buying an UPS, you should be sure to consult the latest NT Hardware Compatibility List (HCL).

---

To install the UPS, you should follow the manufacturer's installation instructions for attaching the UPS to a serial port on your Windows NT system. Once the connection is established, use the following procedure for configuring the UPS service.

To configure the UPS service, you must be logged on as a member of the administrators group. To do this, follow these steps:

---

NOTE:

To configure the UPS service, you must be logged on as a member of the administrators group.

---

1. Choose the UPS icon from the Control Panel. A window appears.

   Figure 23.12

   The UPS window.

2. At this point the UPS service is disabled. You must check the box labeled "Uninterruptable Power Supply is installed on" and select the COM port before you can continue configuring the service.
3. The UPS service supports three common controls that can be sent by many intelligent UPS devices. These controls are as follows:

   Power failure signal: You should check this box if your UPS is capable of sending a signal to NT when it detects a power failure. You must also select whether your UPS sends a positive or negative voltage for this signal. This information can be found in the documentation for your particular UPS.
   Low battery signal at least 2 minutes before shutdown: Check this box if your UPS is capable of sending a signal to NT when it detects a low battery. Again, you should set the positive or negative value according to the documentation for your UPS.
   Remote UPS Shutdown: You should check this box if your UPS is able to respond to a signal to shut itself off. For example, if your UPS has a network interface and could receive a command from network management software to shut down, you would use this option. You must also select whether your UPS sends a positive or negative voltage for this signal. This information can be found in the documentation for your particular UPS.

4. If you want NT to run a particular command or batch file before the UPS service shuts the system down, check the Execute Command File box and enter a valid .CMD, .BAT, .EXE, or .COM file into the textbox.
5. The correct values in the UPS Characteristics section depend on the make and model of your UPS. You should consult your UPS directions for the proper value to enter here.

   Expected Battery Life: Some UPS devices have a built-in load indicator that gives you a good indication of how long the system should continue running with the current system load. If you use this value for setting the expected battery life, you should make sure that all devices needed for the system, such as the monitor, are turned on when taking this reading. However, if your UPS does not have a method of indicating the current load, you should be sure to use the charts included in most UPS manuals to determine how long the battery should last. To do this properly, you need to know the power requirements for each device plugged into the UPS. The default for this value is set to a conservative 2 minutes, although you should definitely make sure to use the proper value discovered earlier. The UPS applet accepts settings between 2 and 720 minutes.
   Battery recharge time per minute of run time: This value is the number of minutes your UPS must recharge for each minute it provided power backup for your system. Properly filling in this value enables NT to keep track of the recharge state of the UPS so that if there are multiple short power outages, it can properly calculate the current battery level. You need to consult your UPS manual for this setting, and it depends on the amount of power drawn by the system connected to the UPS. The default for this setting is 100. This means that if the UPS was needed for two minutes, it would take 200 minutes (over three hours) to completely recharge. This setting can be set to between 1 and 250 minutes.

6. You now need to fill in the values in the UPS Service section of the dialog box. These values depend on your personal preference, and you want to choose values that make sense for your environment and how long your UPS can sustain the system.

   Time between power failure and initial warning message: When the standard line power fails and NT must switch over to the UPS to supply power, NT sends an administrative alert. The value you specify here determines how long NT waits after the power fails before it sends the first administrative alert. You want to choose a value here that makes sense. For instance, you want to ensure that this value is low enough that NT has time to send the administrative alert before the power actually fails. It is best practice to keep this number fairly low. In general, the default value of 5 seconds is good for most environments. If you want to change it, values between 0 and 120 seconds are accepted.
   Delay between warning messages: Once NT has sent its first message warning you that the UPS has kicked in, it continues to send warnings on a regular basis. The amount of time between warnings is set by this option. The default is 120 seconds and can be changed to anything from 5 seconds to 300 seconds. The default setting of 120 seconds is probably about right for most environments. There is no way to prevent these follow-up warning messages. If you don't want these alerts, the only thing you can do is set this value to its maximum, which is 5 minutes.

7. Once you have entered all these values, you can click OK, and NT takes care of the rest. It creates a Registry subkey for storing your configuration. It also starts the UPS service and sets it to start automatically in the future. You now want to test the UPS system to ensure that it works properly.

Testing Your UPS

You should definitely test your UPS on a regular basis. The simplest way to test an UPS is to unplug the UPS from the wall. You might not want to try this the first time with your live NT system. Some UPS devices do not actually switch to battery unless there is a load applied, so you should make sure to have something plugged into it—a monitor is good for testing. Or you can simply tell your NT system to shutdown and when it tells you it is safe to shut off the computer, pull the UPS’s plug from the wall.

---

CAUTION:

If you are like most people, you probably got you new UPS and want to play with it right away. You should always make sure to allow your UPS time to fully charge (usually overnight) before using it.

Failure to allow your UPS to fully charge before using it could prevent it from properly protecting you, because NT assumes that it is fully charged and makes its calculations based on this assumption.

---

Once you are confident that the UPS actually does what it is supposed to, you can turn your attention to how NT responds:

1. Make sure you are logged in as an administrative user.
2. Unplug the UPS from the wall, wait a minute or two, then plug the UPS back in. Did NT send you a message after the number of seconds you chose when configuring the UPS?
3. Open the Event Viewer and view the system log. You should see an event indicating that the system switched over to UPS support, and then a second event indicating the return to line power. If you double-click the event, it gives you more information.
4. You might also want to make sure that NT is able to shut down properly when the battery is depleted. To perform this test, rather than allowing your UPS to deplete, you might set the Expected Battery Life in the UPS applet to a much smaller value. If you do this, NT shuts down the system much faster. Realize that the system needs time to recharge after these tests before it can provide you with maximum protection.

Although you don't need to test all these features all the time, you should regularly test your UPS to make sure that everything is functioning properly. Most UPS models include a test button that is equivalent to momentarily unplugging the UPS.

UPS Entries in the NT Registry

When you install Windows NT, by default, no entries are created for the UPS service in the Windows NT Registry. However, the first time you run and configure the UPS applet in the Control Panel, NT creates an UPS subkey, which can be accessed through the following path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\UPS.

For the UPS service to function properly, this subkey must exist and contain valid entries. If you uninstall the UPS service, this Registry subkey is not automatically removed.

Seven values can be set in this subkey that affect the functioning of the UPS service (see Table 23.1). All of these values can be set using the UPS applet.

Table 23.1. Table caption.

Value Name	Value Type	Permissible Value	Default Value	Description
BatteryLife	REG_DWORD	2-720 minutes	2	The length of time the UPS battery should last during a power failure.
CommandFile	REG_EXPAND_SZ	a filename	none	When the UPS service must shut down your NT system, this is the command or batch file it runs before doing so.
FirstMessageDelay	REG_DWORD	0-120 seconds	5	During a power failure, Windows NT waits this number of seconds before sending a broadcast to notify the users.
MessageInterval	REG_DWORD	5-300 seconds	120	After sending the first broadcast message to users that the system is running from battery backup, NT repeatedly sends broadcast warnings every few seconds. The time between broadcasts is set by this value.
Options	REG_DWORD	value mask	none	[need to research this more.]
Port	REG_SZ	COM port name	COM1	The COM port that Windows NT expects to find the UPS attached to.
RechargeRate	REG_SZ	1-250 minutes	100	Specifies how many minutes it takes to fully recharge the UPS.

Summary

Windows NT was designed to provide the level of fault tolerance necessary for supporting large, mission-critical applications and server solutions. This chapter discussed three major fault tolerance systems provided by Windows NT: disk fault tolerance, server backup, and support for uninterruptible power supplies (UPS).

You got to see how Windows NT that provides fault tolerance for disks, including how it can work with the drive controller on a SCSI disk to perform sector sparing, the fault tolerance, including fault-tolerant disk support, such as sector sparing, as well as some of the recoverability features of NTFS, including support for sector sparing on non-SCSI disks. You also learned a little about FTDISK, the Windows NT driver that is used to support disk fault tolerance, including RAID. You had the opportunity to learn about the different levels of RAID, find out which are supported by NT, and what situations each is good for.

The chapter continued with a discussion about backing up Windows NT. You got some advice on what to look for in choosing a tape backup device for your sever, as well as how to use NT’s built-in tape backup program for backing up your server.

Finally, you learn about uninterruptible power supplies and what to look at when purchasing one for your NT Server. You also got to see how to configure the built-in UPS support for Windows NT and how it can be used to monitor power events to ensure the integrity of the data on your server.