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Windows Server Backup and Restore for Moodle

E-Learning Platform

Vasile Baneş Doctoral School of Faculty of

Electronics Telecommunications and Information Technology

"Politehnica" University of Bucharest Bucharest, Romania

[email protected]

Florin Babarada Dept. of Electronic Devices Circuits

and Architectures "Politehnica" University of Bucharest

Bucharest, Romania [email protected]

Cristian Ravariu Dept. of Electronic Devices Circuits

and Architectures "Politehnica" University of Bucharest

Bucharest, Romania cristian,[email protected]

Abstract—This paper presents methods for backing up and restoring the E-learning Moodle platform on Windows Server 2019 operating system to make backups to a shared network folder on a Windows 10 workstation. Therefore, the goal of this work is to put in practice of a user-choice or automatic mechanism of backup and restoration of the E-learning platform, with the customization of the functions using the tool Windows Server Backup to make backups to a shared folder in the network on a workstation.

Keywords—e-learning, backup, windows server

I. INTRODUCTION Moodle is an electronic learning platform created to

provide teachers and students with an integrated, secure and easy system to create learning environments with the possibility of personalization according to the activity field of the organization where it is implemented [1].

From time to time, a situation arises where the courses created on the E-learning site or the platform itself where I installed it will be lost, corrupted or deleted. To prevent these problems it is advisable to make a backup of the platform. Many authors complain a lack of backup on e-learning platforms [2] but the issue is still in progress [3]. Recently, other authors proposed the backup and restore from a shared network folder for this scope [4]. A particular concern was to find a solution that would maintain data confidentiality and security. The Platform Administrator must be sure that data backups in the cloud are not modified, intercepted and that no other person has access to them. In general, cloud solutions involve financial costs, which can be an impediment for a small business. in the situation where on the local hard disk where the e-learning platform is installed, backup copies are made that are likely to fail, the information will be partially or totally lost. This paper presents methods for backing up and restoring the E-learning Moodle platform on Windows Server 2019 operating system to make backups to a shared network folder on a Windows 10 workstation. Therefore, the goal of this work is to put in practice of a manual or automatic mechanism of backup and restoration of the E-learning platform, with the customization of the functions using the tool Windows Server Backup to make backups to a shared folder in the network on a workstation, Fig. 1.

Fig. 1 Stages of project development

In the company where I work, on the station installed with Windows Server 2019, I created an E-learning platform where I implemented a course of Knowledge Development and Testing in the field of Information Technology. After a period of time, the workstation where the server is installed, most likely there is a risk of losing data due to one of the following situations: computer virus, fire, hardware error, accidental or intentional human error, theft, software error, natural disaster, or others [5]. When data is lost, the impact can range from a partial or total loss, teachers must restore their data or wait for their restoration. In this situation, there are periods of inactivity that result from the restoration of the data from the beginning. Unfortunately, data loss is inevitable, it will happen sooner or later and a backup method must be prepared and implemented when the time comes. Determining what needs to be saved, the range and types of backups, and where the information is stored are part of the backup and restore strategy. In addition to data protection, the role played by the server in the network, files and storage must also be considered. Also, the impact that backups have on administrators, as well as the ability to keep the E-learning platform functional, must be considered. Other backup methods: a. Moodle has three variants: automatic course backup, manual and site backup; b. restoring the Moodle E- learning platform by creating a checkpoint in Hyper-V Manager – the advantage of virtualization is that it can easily save the state of the virtual machine; c. creating a Windows Server Backup that can be configured on a physical machine as well as on a virtual machine with backups, locally on the hard disk; d. another method is a cloud-based storage service, Windows Azure Online Backup, managed by a company that specializes in this. To protect the data on the server, the workstation was configured in RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) format [6]. Also, the impact that backups have on users, as well as the ability to keep the E-learning

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platform functional, must be considered. To protect the data on the server, the workstation was configured in RAID format. As first author, I chose to install Windows Server 2019 on a physical machine because Windows Server on a virtualized Windows would not have captured the hardware configuration and settings in the backup. This paper presents the configuration of the E-learning platform on the Windows Server 2019 operating system with the customization of Windows Server Backup functions to make backups to a shared folder on a network on a Windows 10 workstation.

II. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS To use Windows Server Backup and Restore I used Windows Server 2019 and for network backups, I used Windows 10 workstation. System-specific requirements are required to use Windows Server Backup. Windows Server 2019 supports both 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) system architectures. Windows Server Backup supports the following operating systems: Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2016 and Windows Server 2019.

The minimum hardware requirements for Windows Server 2019 are necessary to run the application. These are a 1.4 GHz CPU, 512 MB RAM – 2 GB for Server with Desktop Experience installation option, and a 1024×768 video display and a 5400 RPM hard disk [7]. The minimum disk space requirements for the system partition is 32 GB. The recommended requirements for Windows Server 2019 are the computers that should include a storage adapter that is compliant with the PCI Express architecture specification. Hard disk drives must not be PATA (Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment). Windows Server 2019 does not allow ATA/PATA/IDE/EIDE for boot, page, or data drives. Additional facilities may require internet access. Windows Server 2019 has its built-in utility Windows Server Backup wizard or WBadmin start backup command to schedule a backup. The Windows 10 workstation used for backups was configured with a 1TB hard drive to provide sufficient storage.

III. WINDOWS SERVER BACKUP TO A SHARED NETWORK FOLDER

Windows Server Backup is a necessary tool for backing up and restoring data. To use the Windows Server Backup tool on the server where the E-learning platform is installed, I have performed the following steps: I logged in to the server, opened Server Manager, click Management → roles and functions, click Next when the Add roles and functions wizard appears. Click Next on the Select Installation Type screen, click Next on the Select Destination Server screen. Click Next on the Select Server Roles screen. Select Windows Server Backup and click Next, click Install, and then click Close. After the installation is complete, I launched the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) Windows Management Backup snap-in by selecting Manager → Tools → Windows Server Backup as shown in the /G Fig. 2. To view the list of commands accepted by the wbadmin command line tool, I opened an order prompt with

administrative rights and wrote the following command: wbadmin / ? [8].

Fig. 2 Enable the Windows Server Backup feature To be able to perform Windows Server Backup to a

network folder, I first used the built-in Windows Server Disk Management tool. It creates VHD (Virtual Hard Disk) and VHDX files (Hyper V Virtual Hard Disk), displayed in file explorer as a local drive. This configuration allows Windows Server Backup to share on the network, then use HVD to back up to Windows Server 2019. From cmd (command prompt) I launched the command "diskmgmt.msc" to run Disk Management, in the next window, I selected action and Create VHD. I passed the network location and disk size and its initialization to create a new partition. Select Windows Server Backup to schedule a backup task for the virtual drive. Only at this point does Windows Server Backup allow me to program a backup in the shared network folder on the workstation allocated for this purpose. When the backup was configured, both a full server restore and a custom configuration were selected. The following presentation shows a description of custom backup options for a shared network folder on a Windows 10. Windows Server Backup has three options that you can select when deciding where to backup your backups. These options include backup to a network folder; hard disk backup; copy to an external disk volume attached to the computer. In this case, I selected the first option. The backups can be configured by running one of the actions, Fig. 3: regularly, scheduling the running time and day or once if a scheduled backup has not been created to specify the storage location that is different from the backup.

Fig. 3 Backup actions

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I ran the action for a single backup operation using the Backup Schedule command in the Actions pane of the Windows Server Backup Console. This option, a scheduled backup to a shared network folder, allows you to store the backups on a shared network folder where there will be only one backup at restore time. Which means that every time the scheduled time and day comes to backup, a backup appears in the folder, which overwrites the previous backup in the folder. I connected to the station with Windows 10 and on partition D I created and named a folder "Share E-learning Backup Network". For both sharing and security permission, I only passed the administrator account with full rights to protect the folder from being accessed by unauthorized persons. In order to maintain multiple backup versions, I considered attaching and using external hard drives dedicated only for this operation Before making a backup for remote sharing, I considered that the write, edit, delete permissions are properly set to maintain the integrity of the backups. After selecting the location, the operation can continue. To complete a backup from the server on which the e-learning platform was installed to a shared network folder on the Windows 10 station allocated for this purpose, the following steps were taken: I connected to the machine configured with Windows Server 2019 from where I opened Server Manager [9]. I clicked Tools → Backup for Windows Server. I have selected Backup Schedule from the Actions panel. I selected different options when the message with the same backup option appeared and clicked Next. I selected Custom for the backup configuration and clicked Next. I selected Add items like the time and day of the backup repeat, then I selected from the C partition the folder where the E-learning client is installed, then clicked OK. On the Specify Destination Type screen, I selected the remote shared folder, and then clicked Next. I entered the location in this case the station with windows10 \ ti1040 Share E-learning Backup Network. I did a last check with the backup items to confirm the settings and then selected the Backup button. The settings were reviewed and Finish was clicked. A Confirmation message appears – the backup was successfully completed and then I click Close like in Fig. 4.

Fig. 4 The result of the scheduled backup of the Moodle E-learning platform in a shared network folder A final action was to check the network folder if the

backup appears, as shown in Fig. 5.

Fig. 5 Backup stored in a shared network folder

IV. RESTORATION OF E-LEARNING PLATFORM

I launch the Windows Server Backup utility and from the Actions pane click on the Recovery option. In the Getting Started screen, select Remote Folder and choose the location where the backup is saved, namely on the Windows 10 station, partition E, the Share E-learning Backup Network file. At Select Backup Date, I selected the most recent backup date to restore. In the next screen, select File and Folder Recovery. Then I selected Items to recover from the backup file taken the night before. In the recovery options, I selected the Recovery destination here as the path to the Windows Server 2019 station where the E-learning platform is installed on the C partition and how the files are restored. Security settings are configured only for the server administrator account that has full rights. Finally, I confirmed the configuration options selected in the Recovery Wizard, and then clicked the Recover button to begin the restore process. The recovery process will progress and then it will be completed by appearing the message Completed. At this moment, the restoration of the E- learning platform is successfully completed Fig. 6.

Fig. 6 Result of restoration of the E-learning Moodle platform from the shared network folder

After this restoration applied to the platform, I verified that it is functional and that the information of the course of Improvement and Testing of Knowledge in the field of Information Technology are the most recent.

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V. CONCLUSIONS This paper presented the steps with creating a workstation

installed with Windows Server 2019 to backup the E-learning Moodle platform to a Windows 10 station to a shared network folder for backups. In order to restore the E-leaning Moodle platform following accidents, a station has been configured with the Windows Server 2019 operating system, which has been activated and programmed by different methods Windows Server Backup. A Windows 10 workstation has been set up where a shared network folder has been created for storing backup. Two working methods were used for storing backups generated by Windows Server Backup: the first method was to use a shared network folder, and the second method was to use the local hard disk for backups. Backing up and restoring is an essential part of managing the daily E-learning platform because these options allow making the platform accessible to students in a short time without loss of information if the data is corrupted by incidents.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This work is partially supported by the PhD student doctoral program.

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