Actions Before/After Backup

Navigation: Z-DBACKUP Help System > Program > Actions >

Create/Edit

In professional backup environments, it is not unusual that certain programs, system services or batch scripts must be run or stopped before or after a backup. That's why we built an action list with predefined action into Z-DBackup.

Create / Edit Backup Action

Time

Select when an action should be run. Actions can be run before and after each backup as well as before and after full backups. Additionally, you can select the moment before the drive check which precedes the actual backup.

Before the start: The moment before Z-DBackup does anything that has to do with the backup.

Failure at start: This event gets triggered when a failure occurse during the drive check and the backup has to be aborted before any files have been copied. In this event Z-DBackup will execute the action specified here and then quit the backup. In this case actions specified for the events before data copy, after data copy and after the end will not be executed.

Before data copy: The moment directly before the main data copying starts. When selecting before each full backup the action will also be executed at this moment but only before each full backup and not before every backup (e.g. when you're making an incremental backup).

After data copy: The moment directly after the main data copying process and before any like Z-DataBurn, Z-FTPcopy or Z-TapeBackup, get started. This allows, for example, to re-start an SQL-Server before the FTP transfer begins. When selecting after each full backup the action will also be executed at this moment but only after each full backup and not after every backup (e.g. when you're making an incremental backup).

After the end: The moment at the very end of the backup, after Z-DBackup has finished everything else.

Types of actions
In the following table, you can find an overview of the different types of actions that Z-DBackup supports.

Option	Description	Available in the freeware version
Close Outlook	Quits the program Microsoft Outlook.
Close Z-TapeBackup	Quits the program Z-TapeBackup.
Copy backup archive	The backup archive(s) created by Z-DBackup can be copied to another directory or medium. Use the "Network copy" action to copy the backup to a remote location.
Copy log file	Copies the log file of this backup set to the selected directory.
Create Shadow Copy	Creates a shadow copy of the selected source drive.
Delete log file	The log file for this Backup Set is deleted.
Destroy	Close a program with a given window name. In contrast to the "Exit" function, the "Destroy" function tries several methods to also close minimized programs.
Disconnect USB device	Automatically deactivate/unmount the USB device used for the backup. The device can then be switched off without data loss.
Display message	Show a dialog box with a user-defined message.
Display note	Shows the note that was saved for the backup set as a message on the screen.
Eject CD/DVD/Blu-Ray	Eject the medium from a disk drive.
Eject REV medium	Eject Iomega® REV™ medium. This function is available if the Iomega® REV software is installed. If you use Windows Vista™ or newer, please make sure you have the latest version of the REV software installed.
Eject target medium	Eject target medium, can be used to eject RDX mediums etc.
Empty Recycle bin	Empties the Windows recycle bin.
Erase tape	Clear a tape medium and delete all its contents. You can erase a tape before each full backup, for example.
Exit	Programs frequently prevent backup programs from accessing their files as long as they are active. If you want to backup such files, you can use this action to close a program before the backup. If you do not want to quit a program, but still want to include open files in a backup, you can install our module Z-VSScopy for Z-DBackup.
FTP download	Automatic download of files or directories from an FTP server. For this action, the FTP tab in the Backup Set settings must be filled in.
Load REV medium	Loads an Iomega® REV™ medium. This function is available if the Iomega® REV software is installed. If you use Windows Vista™ or newer, please make sure you have the latest version of the REV software installed.
mediDok SQL-Backup	Trigger a backup of the mediDOC SQL data base.
Mount HDD	Mounts the target HDD.
Mount VHD	Mounts the selected VHD file.
Network copy	Copy the Z-DBackup backup archive to a network drive/directory with a UNC path.
Pause	Pause x seconds.
Play sound	Play a Wave sound file.
Priority - High/Low/Normal	Set the process priority of Z-DBackup to one of the following Values: low, normal, high. A process with a higher priority gets prefered by the operating system when it comes to allocating cpu usage time. Setting the process priority of Z-DBackup to low or high can have an influence on the performance of Z-DBackup compared to other currently running programs if the cpu is under heavy load.
Run batch file	Start a batch file and await its termination before the backup is resumed. If the exit code/return value of the batch script is larger than 0, the backup is aborted because this signifies an error condition.
Run VBScript	Start a Visual Basic Script (.vbs) and await its termination. The backup will start only when the script is not running anymore. To use this feature, the Microsoft Windows® Scripting Host must be installed. You can check this by running the example script Test.vbs that comes with Z-DBackup.
Run Z-Cron job	Run a specified Z-Cron job. To use this feature, Z-Cron must be installed and there must be at least one Z-Cron job. Optionally, you can control remote computers in the local network with Z-Cron.
Self backup	Z-DBackup's program settings and Backup Sets are saved.
SSH/FTP - download	Automatic download of files or directories from an FTP server via the secure SSH protocol. For this action, the FTP tab in the Backup Set settings must be filled in.
SSH/FTP - upload	Automatic upload of files or directories from an FTP server via the secure SSH protocol. For this action, the FTP tab in the Backup Set settings must be filled in.
Start + wait	To open a file and wait for the associated program to finish, you can use this option. The backup or next action is run only when the file isn't open anymore.
Start Addison Service	Starts the Addison service.
Start MSSQL Express	Start Microsoft SQL Express Edition.
Start MSSQL Server	Start Microsoft SQL Server Engine.
Start system service	Start a selected system service.
Start TurboMed® DB	Start TurboMed Database. This function is only available if the TurboMed software is installed.
Start	This option allows to open/start any file. Immediately after loading, the next action is executed or, if all actions have been run, the backup is started.
Stop Addison Service	Stops the Addison service.
Stop MSSQL Express	Stop Microsoft SQL Express Edition.
Stop MSSQL Server	Exit Microsoft SQL Server Engine.
Stop system service	Stop a selected system service.
Stop TurboMed® DB	Exit TurboMed Database. This function is only available if the TurboMed software is installed.
TapeLoader - Load tape	The specified tape is loaded.
TapeLoader - Unload tape	The specified tape is unloaded/ejected.
Trigger-File	The execution of the backup is dependent on whether changes where made to a selected trigger file or not, since the last backup. Whether the trigger file changed or not is determined by comparing the current checksum of the trigger file to the old checksum. For this action the only applicable execution time is "before the start".
TPC-CMD	A specified TCP command is sent to an IP address.
Unmount HDD	Unmounts the target HDD.
USB-Power on	Establishes a USB connection betweem a USB device attached to a "USB Connect Switch" and a PC.
USB-Power off	Disconnects a USB devices attached to a "USB Connect Switch" from the PC.

File to run
If you have selected "Start", "Start + wait" or "Terminate", you can specify a file in the field "File to run". You can also click on the button on the right side of the text field to choose a file.

Similarly, you can specify a system service if you have selected the options "Start service" or "Stop service".

Parameters
If you want to start a program with commandline parameters, you can enter them in the "Parameters" field. In the professional version, you can also use the following variables in this field, which stand for a string:

Z-DBACKUP Variables
ZDATE	current date
ZCODE	Return value of Z-DBackup: 0 = Backup OK 1-9 = Error during Backup 10 = Error while burning file to disc 20 = Error during tape backup 30 = Error during FTP transfer 40 = Error during copying
ZFILE	Name of the backup file

Actions before/after the backup

•Actions

•Shell Script

•Start/Stop Service

•VBScript

•Z-Cron Job

•SSH Copy

•USB-Connect

•Add-On Modules

All used trademarks and company names are subject to copyright of their respective companies.