The sequence of events for a backup job performed by NovaBACKUP is as follows:
- The backup/copy/image job starts
- any custom "pre" commands are performed
- It looks for the destination
- It creates an empty file at the destination with the name of the file that will be stored.
- if a file with the same name already exists, it is now a null file (overwrite mode)
- if you used append mode, this would be a new file each time, as the date and time is appended to the filename
- "Plugin" backup selections are performed
- System State
- Microsoft Exchange
- Microsoft Hyper-V
- Microsoft SQL Server
- NOTE: these will not update the Status section of the software while running in most cases, it will simply say it is running, but will not update the transfer rate or estimated time of completion. These all Require VSS to run.
- VSS snapshot operations are performed
- files included in a snapshot are only open files
- enabled by default, required for Image Backup jobs
- VSS operations are skipped if the [Setting] named "Enable open file backup/copy" is cleared
- the file selection list is processed to determine if a file was in the snapshot or is just on the drive as selected
- files are streamed (copied) to the (presently null) backup media file that was previously created
- All numbers shown on the Status tab that are related to transfer rate or time remaining are estimates only, and are only updated once a file has been processed
- normal verification is performed after each file to confirm it was written to the backup file
- once all files have been processed, advanced verification would be performed at this point, restarting the entire backup process but not writing any data to the backup file
- Log files are written out
- any custom "post" commands are performed
- if eject media after completion is selected, the destination drive is ejected (optical media, RDX, or USB drives)
- if shutdown after completion is selected, the command is executed and the system is shut down