The biggest challenge when implementing a disaster recovery plan is to identify and quantify all your important data assets. Backup Profiler helps you plan, implement, and monitor your disaster recovery strategy for all Windows and Macintosh computers by giving a hardware asset profile and tracking the amount and type of data on client computers and the change rate of that data.

Backup Profiler gives you a summary report of all the systems on your network. You can use that information to determine your storage hardware capacity requirements, set up your backup software (ensuring important files are included in the backup and unimportant files are filtered out of the backup), and prepare offsite hotsites in case disaster strikes.

Using Backup Profiler can save you time and money on backup planning and implementation. More importantly, Backup Profiler can help avoid disaster by identifying important data on your client computers.

In order to use Backup Profiler, LANsurveyor Responders must be installed. Refer to Install LANsurveyor Responders for installation instructions or visit the  Responder web page for more information on Neon Responders.

Step 1 of 2: Draw a Map

Use the map you created in Draw Your Network Map or create a new map that includes all your Neon Responders. Make sure you select the Neon Responder option in the TCP/IP services section of the Create New Network Map dialog box.

Step 2 of 2: Backup Profiler Wizard

Click on the Backup Profiler toolbar icon or select New>Backup Profiler in the Report menu to create a Backup Profiler Report. Once selected, the Backup Profiler Wizard is displayed.

Any computers already selected on the map will be checked. To select all the Neon Responders, click on the check box next to "Neon Responder Nodes" and click Next.

Set your Backup Profiler options then click Next. You may choose to report on all files or just files modified within a specified number of days. You may also search for files with any file extension or search for only files that match the extensions listed in "BP2ExtList.txt" in the LANsurveyor Shared Documents. There are more than 6000 extensions listed by default in the "BP2ExtList.txt" file, but you may want to edit the file to only include database files, spreadsheets, or whatever files you define as critical.

Now schedule the time to run the report or select "now" and click Finish.

The report is generated. Click on any column to sort by that column. Once completed, you can save the report or click on the View Report with Excel button to automatically open the report in Excel.