Configuring Automatic Backups

You can protect your server computer running Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2 and its data automatically by scheduling daily backups. To configure scheduled backups, you will need to first:

Decide what you want to include in your backups and where you want to store them. (For more information, see Backing Up Your Server.)
Decide whether to run backups once a day or more often.

	Note
	You cannot use Windows Server Backup to back up files and folders in volumes that require more than 2040 GB.

Then, you can create scheduled backups using the following methods:

You can create a backup schedule using the Backup Schedule Wizard accessed from the Windows Server Backup user interface (Wbadmin.msc).
You can use the Windows PowerShell cmdlets for Windows Server Backup. For more information, see Using Windows Server Backup Cmdlets.
You can use the Wbadmin enable backup command to directly configure scheduled backups. For examples and syntax for this command, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=93106.
You can use the Wbadmin start backup command with Task Scheduler to create a series of scheduled tasks.

This section contains instructions to help you do the following:

Additional considerations

To configure a scheduled backup, you must be a member of the Administrators group or Backup Operators group, or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority.
After your scheduled backups start running, periodically review the schedule to confirm that it still meets the needs of your business and consider revising it when you add or remove volumes, applications, features, or roles. In addition, check the status of your backups using the Windows Server Backup user interface, the Wbadmin get status command, or the Windows PowerShell cmdlets for Windows Server Backup.

Additional references

Backing Up Your Server
Install Windows Server Backup Tools
Wbadmin command (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=140216)