Quickstart

Using the GUI

Configuration

To create a new backup job, click on File, New Job, select the location where the configuration file for this job will be saved, give the file a name (e.g. backup.txt) and click on Open. The configuration screen will be then presented: use the + and - buttons to add/remove one or more directories to backup, an archive directory where the backup will be stored and set the other optional settings before saving.

Advanced, global settings can be reviewed and edited by clicking on File, Settings.

Usage

Once a configuration file is created or opened, a summary of the job's settings is presented at the top of the screen, together with a list of the snapshots already included in the archive.

Click on the Backup or Restore button to start the job. Errors, warnings and info messages can be reviewed by clicking to the icons in the status bar. After the analysis phase, the list of files to be added or restored from the snapshot are presented in a tree. By right clicking on each node, the tree can be expanded or opened in a new window. After reviewed the files list, click on Ok to continue.

Any job can be interrupted at any time by clicking on Job, Kill Job.
The configuration file of each job can be reviewed and edited by clicking on Job, Edit.
A list of the files contained in each snapshot can be obtained by selecting the snapshot from the table and clicking on Job, List Files.

Using the CLI

Configuration

ZipSnapNG comes with a global configuration file and individual settings for each backup job. The first is located at etc\ZipSnapNG.properties and created at the first run while the latter may be generated by running:

ZipSnapNG <path\new_config_file.txt> config

Open the new_config_file.txt and set at least the required directoriesToBackup and backupDirectory (see below for the full list of the configuration directives).

Advanced configuration settings can be edited as well if necessary by modifying the ZipSnapNG.properties file (see below for the full list of the global settings).

Usage

ZipSnapNG receives from the command-line two options: the path of a configuration file and a command. The configuration file is read at first and contains what is needed for the backup job: which directories are included in the snapshot, where is the archive directory, if a password has to be set etc.

To run a backup job:

ZipSnapNG <path\new_config_file.txt> backup

To restore the latest snapshot:

ZipSnapNG <path\new_config_file.txt> restore

To restore snapshot #5:

ZipSnapNG <path\new_config_file.txt> restore 5

To retrieve information of all the snapshots of an archive:

ZipSnapNG <path\new_config_file.txt> info

To retrieve information of the snapshot #5:

ZipSnapNG <path\new_config_file.txt> info 5

To manually apply the configured retention policies to an archive:

ZipSnapNG <path\new_config_file.txt> purge

Command-line Syntax

USAGE:  ZipSnapNG <config_file> <command> [option]

<config_file>: the location of the configuration file

<command>:
 backup      Add a snapshot of the directories defined in the configuration
             file into the archive. Only new or modified files are added to
             the catalog and only the portion that has changed is saved.
 restore     Restore the last snapshot from the archive to the original
             location or into a different directory, as specified in the
             configuration file. For updated items, only the portion of the
             files that needs to be restored is extracted from the archive.
 info        Show information regarding the archive pointed by the
             configuration file, including number of files and size.
 purge       Apply the retention policies set in the configuration file to the
             catalog.
 config      Generate a sample configuration file at the location specified by
             <config_file>

[option]:
 For "backup" is the path of the shadow copy device
 For "restore" is the snapshot number to restore
 For "info" is the snapshot you want to list all the items

Job settings

Main configuration directives:
- directoriesToBackup: location on the filesystem to be included in the backup. Multiple sources can be added, separated by ";" (e.g. c:\dir1;c:\dir2). Mandatory if command is "backup"
- backupDirectory: location on the filesystem where the backup will be stored. Mandatory for all the commands
- password: set an optional password for the backup/restore process (default: empty)
- runAfterBackup: optional command to run after the backup. The backup directory will passed as first parameter, the backup file as second parameter (default: empty)
- purgeAfterDays: optional number of days after which snapshots older than the threshold will be deleted. Pruning happens just after the backup process (default: empty)
- restoreInto: instruct how to restore the snapshot. Available options are:
- if empty, the files will be restored to the origin location
- if a directory is provided, the files will be extracted there with the origin location converted into a folder (e.g. c:\dir\subdir\file.txt -> c:\restoreInto\c-dir-subdir\file.txt)
- if source/destination mapping is provided separated by "->", the files will be restored by merging the original and destination directories configured in the mapping. Multiple pairs can be configured separated by ";" (e.g. c:\original1,c:\destination1;c:\original2,c:\destination2)
- interactive: require the interaction of the user. Set to "no" when running in a batch job (default: yes)
- filter: optional regex filter to be applied for all the commands (default: empty)