Backups - How to backup remote clients part 1/2 - .PST files with Outlook opened or any soft of locked files

There is an interesting command line tool that give the ability to backup .pst files with outlook on, any locked files or opened and finally all pcs files to a different location.

This tool is Hobocopy:

https://github.com/candera/hobocopy/downloads

You should consider that there is a Hobocopy GUI with graphical interface:



At the end of acticle I proceed to copy and paste relative binaries but you must take really care about O.S. version (32 bit, 64 bit and 7/8/10 or XP) and verify that visual C++ is installed in correct versioning on clients.

These are main procedure that we implemented (without too much details) too centralize client .pst backups.

During next weeks I am intending to create a second article and explain (without excessive details) ho to centralize real time backups on client about files that are not locked to remote share.

1. You need to create a .vbs script that memorize on each pcs .pst location and name and user name that utilize that particular pcs/laptop. (it must be executed with local user permissions).
This .vbs could be executed with SCCM 2007/2012 package or with a client scheduled task that can be passed through GPO too.

2. Secondary you need to create a second .vbs that read precedent information on client on .txt file and that execute hobocopy to backing up user's .pst to remote shared folder.

In this specific case you should verify if  in that moment pcs is in correct lan (to avoid bandwidth saturation), utilize BITS in any case, verify with md5 if local pst changed size from the one that is already backup up on remote file server, write verbose logs.

In this case you should create a second SCCM 2007/2012 package and it could run with or without user logged in (with administrative rights), infact hobocopy utilize VSS.

An alternative it could be to remote execute scripts (that you should copy in a particolar folder of each pcs) utilizing psexec from a single location/server and schedule that periodically.

In my opinion SCCM is great about that but you could evaluate pdq too or psexec.

Here they are some useful blogs articles about these arguments.

About .vbs I would prefer to do not share them but they are really easy to be implemented.

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Software - PDQ Inventory and Deploy

http://www.alessandromazzanti.com/2015/09/software-pdq-inventory-and-deploy.html

Tips - how to migrate PDQ deploy and PDQ inventory to another server


Server - PDQ Deploy utility per monitorare la rete ed installare software


SCCM 2007 all blog's articles


SCCM 2012 all blog's articles


PSexec - How to execute remote commands about .vbs, .exe, microsoft patch installation...


Scripting - Eseguire .vbs ed installazioni programmi su pc remoti in un dominio o un workgroup con PSEXEC


Scripting - Installare patch su client remoti in automatico


Tips - Abilitare il Remote Desktop su un server remoto con psexec


Scripting - Eseguire comandi remoti sui pc in rete con PSEXEC



Hacker - Rendere l'utente SYSTEM super amministratore del sistema anche su Windows Patchati con PSEXEC


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hobocopy-unstable-32bit-20110505-01.zip — Interim release of hobocopy for 32-bit machines running W2K3, Vista, Win7
627KB · Uploaded 

hobocopy-unstable-XP-32bit-20110505-01.zip — Interim release of hobocopy for 32-bit machines running XP

hobocopy-unstable-64bit-20110505-01.zip — Interim release of hobocopy for 64-bit machines running W2K3, Vista, Win7

vcredist-2010_x86.exe — 32-bit Visual C++ runtime. Needed for 32-bit versions of hobocopy *after* 1.0

vcredist-2008_x86.exe — The Visual C++ runtime redistributable, 32-bit (x86) version. Needed for the 32-bit version of hobocopy 1.0.

vcredist-2008_x64.exe — The Visual C++ runtime redistributable, 64-bit (x64) version. Needed for the 64-bit version of hobocopy 1.0.