Data backup schedule
The University IT (UIT) Backup and Recovery Service (BaRS) is a centralized, backup solution for virtual machines (VM), files and folders on physical servers and cloud compute instances, NAS devices, NFS and CIFS shares and databases like Oracle and MS SQL.
The service provides a default schedule to backup your endpoint between midnight and 6 a.m. daily. Specific backup schedules can be created to meet your requirements on demand.
Data backup retention
By default, BaRS retains:
- Daily recovery points for 21 days
- Weekly recovery points for 4 weeks
- Monthly recovery points for 3 months
Custom retention policies can be created to meet your backup retention requirements.
Data recovery
You can initiate a data restore at any time, day or night, using the BaRS console. Access to the console is provided upon subscribing to the service.
If you need help with the restore, you can submit a Help request to work with a UIT consultant. Note that the restore of a single file might take only a few minutes. The restore of an entire system may take time depending upon size of stored data.
Data security
Your data is secure. With the exception of UIT systems administrators who manage the backup system, only you have access to your data. UIT system administrators must have access to the data in order to operate the service; however, they are bound by strict confidentiality agreements and university policy to protect the security of the data. All backup data is encrypted in transit and at rest while being stored in cloud storage.
For more information on data security considerations, refer to the documents below:
Setup
VM backups are agentless. For physical servers, cloud compute instances, NAS devices, NAS mounts/shares and databases, an agent needs to be installed.
Support
The backup service is monitored 24x7 for performance and component failures. Service administrators are alerted to failures and respond to alerts.
Termination
To cancel BaRS service, submit a Help request. Be sure to provide the name of the machine(s) that should no longer be backed up.
