Backing up the I-Tel Dialer

I-TEL Dialer Backup

If your company has already implemented a backup plan, please make sure to include the I-Tel server in your backups. Here are our suggestions

•  At least once a month, a full system backup for a bare metal restore, and possibly incremental backups as you see fit.
• Include a backup of the c:\Softdial in your nightly backups.
• You need to copy the CD’s that include the motherboard, video, and ethernet drivers into “C:\Install Images” which also needs to be backed up at least once and easily accessible during an emergency. If there is an emergency and we have to get involved in restoring your server. We will ask for, and need, the programs in the install images folder.

If your company does not have a backup plan they need to:

• BACKUP ASAP: We do not generally recommend one backup software, over the other, but one of the top rated is backup exec. We have also had good luck with a program called “Image for Windows” (http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/imagew.html ) for disaster recovery (total loss of data) for RAID. At a minimum you can use Windows built in backup software (NTBackup) for your folder and nightly backups. For details on this built in Microsoft utility you can go here: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/learnmore/bott_03july14.mspx
• You should be backing up c:\Softdial at a minimum, somewhere off the dialer, maybe to a USB external drive or a DVD. You will want to do this after making changes to your softdial setup.
• You need to copy the CD’s that include the motherboard, video, and ethernet drivers into “C:\Install Images” which also needs to be backed up at least once and easily accessible during an emergency. If there is an emergency and we have to get involved in restoring your server. We will ask for, and need, the programs in the install images folder.

The Data Drives / Call recording.

If you are doing “call recording”, here are some options:

• DVDR: As the call recording folder fills they can periodically backup 4.7 gigs of WAV files to a DVD and delete them off the server. Storing the DVD’s in a safe place.
• External USB Drives (Newer servers are sent with a 500gig drive): The WAV’s can be stored on USB drives and removed from the server, these drives are getting cheaper by the day.
• In-House backup system: Incorporate the I-Tel dialer into their standard backup procedures (tape, optical, etc).

It is each client’s responsibility to understand how to do a bare metal restore, in case they loose all the data on their C: drive. They do this by taking a backup and restoring it on a computer that can be used for testing. Practice is the key word… We have had good luck with Image for windows for bare metal restores. But if I were to suggest a software I would suggest backup exec. Although I have never personally used it, it is considered one of the best in the corporate world.

It is also the client’s responsibility to research, and understand, the best backup solution, that’s tailored to their needs.

Keywords - Kbase ITel Backup