User`s guide

Chapter 3. General information and

proprietary SonicWALL technologies

3.1 The disk/partition image

A disk (partition) image is a file that contains a copy of all information stored on

a disk. Image stores all the server data including operating system, databases, all

programs, data, and settings.

By backing up your information regularly you will completely protect yourself

from data losses in case of system failures and even server malfunctions.

To restore your system after a failure it would be enough to restore information

from a previously created image.

By default SonicWALL Bare Metal Recovery image files have “.tib” extension and

can contain images of several partitions or disks.

An image file, containing a large partition image or several disks images, might

have considerable size. In this case it can be split into several files that together

make an original image. A single image can also be split for burning to

removable media.

SonicWALL Bare Metal Recovery

stores only those hard disk parts that contain data (for

supported partition types). This reduces image size and speeds up image creation and

restoration.

A partition image includes all files and folders independently of their attributes (including hidden

and system files), boot record, FAT, and Root.

A disk image includes images of all disk partitions as well as the zero track with Master Boot

Record (MBR).

All SonicWALL Bare Metal Recovery archives files have a “.tib” extension by default.

SonicWALL Bare Metal Recovery allows you to restore not only the full ima

e but also

only necessary files and folders from the image.

3.2 Full and incremental backups

SonicWALL Bare Metal Recovery can create full and incremental (in enterprise version

only) backups.

A full backup contains all data at the moment of backup creation. It forms a base for

further incremental backup or is used as a standalone archive. A full backup has the

shortest restore time as compared to incremental one.

An incremental backup only contains data changed since the last full or incremental

backup creation. Therefore, it is smaller and takes less time to create. However, since it

does not contain all data needed to restore an image,

all

the previous incremental

backups

and

the initial full backup are required for restoration.

A standalone, full backup could be an optimal solution if you often roll back the system to

the initial state (for example, systems in a gaming club or Internet café where you need