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Back up Windows user settings

Updated

This article applies to CrashPlan Professional, Enterprise, and MSPs.pngOverview

This tutorial explains how to back up user settings from Windows operating systems. CrashPlan cloud instances can trigger CrashPlan apps to run Microsoft's User State Migration Tool (USMT) and back up the settings file that USMT generates. This article assumes your familiarity with USMT.

If you are not working with USMT data, select the appropriate article from Use CrashPlan to simplify device migration .

Applies to

  • CrashPlan cloud and CrashPlan console
  • CrashPlan app
    • installed for everyone (the default)
    • installed on devices running Windows 8 or later

Considerations

When you prepare a new device to receive settings and data migrating from a previous device:

  • Install the CrashPlan app for everyone (the default) on the new device.
  • Provide a user name on the new device that is identical to the user name for the device to be migrated.
    In other words, if you will migrate flora.x.sample's data from the old device, make sure to define the user flora.x.sample on the new device.
  • Review the migration instructions for users at endpoint devices.
CrashPlan and USMT
Our technical support agents are available to assist you with backing up Windows user settings. However, USMT is not a CrashPlan product, and our technical service agents cannot provide detailed assistance with USMT-specific tasks, such as deploying USMT to devices, creating the necessary .XML files, or selecting ScanState and LoadState options. For assistance with USMT, consult Microsoft's documentation.
Migrating and replacing
Migrating settings and files from an old device to a new device is also referred to as replacing a device. The two expressions are synonyms.

Before you begin

Install USMT on each device

For CrashPlan to back up Windows user settings, USMT must be installed on each device backing up to the CrashPlan cloud. Download and copy the USMT files to:

  • C:\Program Files\CrashPlan\USMT\

Customize USMT XML files

To determine what data to include in Windows user settings files, USMT reads its configuration from .xml files. CrashPlan cannot help you create or customize these .xml files. For assistance creating USMT .XML files, see Microsoft's documentation.

Later on, you will use the CrashPlan console to upload your XML files. You must supply at least one of the two Core XML files: MigUser.xml or MigApp.xml.

Do not back up user documents with USMT

Do not use USMT to back up user-created documents because the CrashPlan platform already does that for you. Avoiding duplication will save time during backups, and save even more time later, when migrating data and Windows settings to a new device.

  • Do not upload MigDoc.xml to the CrashPlan cloud.
  • Modify Config.xml to exclude files in the the user directory:
    1. Run a USMT ScanState command to generate the Config.xml, which contains elements like the one below.
    2. To exclude a component, set migrate ="no" 

      <component displayname="My Documents" migrate="no" ID="http://www.microsoft.com/migration/1.0/migxmlext/miguser/my documents/data"/>

Add an exclusion for profiles with administrator privileges

Security alert:
USMT backups of administrators' Windows settings pose a serious security risk.

When a Windows device includes an administrative user, the default USMT configuration will capture that user and the privileges that come with it. They will become available to anyone using the CrashPlan app to migrate that USMT data to a new device. As a result, a common user may acquire administrator privileges.

If you are not backing up a device specifically intended for an administrator's use, do not let USMT capture administrative privileges. Add the following inside the <Configuration> section of your Config.xml file:

<ProfileControl>
  <localGroups>
    <mappings>
      <changeGroup from="Administrators" to="Users" appliesTo="MigratedUsers">
        <include>
          <pattern>*</pattern>
        </include>
      </changeGroup>
    </mappings>
  </localGroups>
</ProfileControl>

Configure the CrashPlan environment to back up Windows user settings

Follow the steps below to enable and configure User Profile Backup in the CrashPlan console. (User profile and Windows user settings are synonyms.)

Step 1: Enable user profile backup

In the CrashPlan console, enable profile backups either for all the organizations in your environment, or for individual organizations.

Restoring Windows user profile files
Depending on the version of the CrashPlan app installed on the endpoint, CrashPlan stores the USMT.MIG Windows user profile file in one of these backup sets:

When restoring user profile files, you can either:

Option A: Enable user profile backup for all organizations

To enable User Profile Backup for all organizations:

  1. Sign in to the CrashPlan console.
  2. Go to Administration > Environment > Organizations.
  3. Select the top level organization.
  4. From the action menu, select Device Backup Defaults.
  5. Click Backup.
  6. If File Selection is locked:
    1. At Included files, add
      :main/ProgramData/CrashPlan/user_settings/
    2. (Optional) Click the push icon push icon.png to apply these settings to existing users.
  7. Select Enable User Profile Backup.
  8. At the bottom-right of the browser window, click Save.

Option B: Enable user profile backup for an individual organization

To enable User Profile Backup for one specific organization:

  1. Sign in to the CrashPlan console.
  2. Go to Administration > Environment > Organizations.
  3. Select an active organization.
  4. From the action menu, select Device Backup Defaults.
  5. Deselect Use device defaults from parent.
  6. Click Backup.
  7. If File Selection is locked:
    1. At Included files, add
      :main/ProgramData/CrashPlan/user_settings/
    2. (Optional) Click the push icon push icon.png to apply these settings to existing users.
  8. Select Enable User Profile Backup.
  9. At the bottom-right of the browser window, click Save.

console user profile backup.png

Step 2: Configure user profile backup

  1. At Core XML files, click on Select File.
  2. Select an .xml file from your file system.
  3. At Custom XML files, click on Select file.
  4. Select the Config.xml file from your file system.
  5. (Optional) Supply supplementary or custom .xml files.
  6. (Optional) Enter one or more ScanState Options separated by spaces.
    CrashPlan will invoke these options when it triggers the ScanState command at endpoint devices. Use any of Microsoft's ScanSate options except:
    /apps /auto /config /i /l /ppkg /targetwindows7 /targetwindows8
  7. (Optional) Enter one or more LoadState Options separated by spaces.
    CrashPlan will invoke these options when it triggers the USMT LoadState command at endpoint devices. Use any of Microsoft's LoadState options except:
    /all /auto /config /i /l /lac:password
    To prevent non-fatal errors from terminating LoadState, provide the /c option.
  8. At the bottom-right of the browser window, click Save.
  9. (Optional) Click the push icon push icon.png to apply these settings to existing users.
Scanstate, loadstate
For details about the options, see Microsoft's documentation.

Step 3: Start user profile backup

For all the devices in the CrashPlan environment or the selected organization, profile backups will start automatically after the interval specified at Backup Frequency.

For testing purposes, you can force an immediate backup of individual devices from the CrashPlan console:

  1. Open the CrashPlan console.
  2. Press Ctrl+Shift+X.
    The CrashPlan console command-line area opens.
  3. Enter: cc migration.backup.run <guid>
    Replace <guid> with the GUID of the device with the Windows user settings you want to back up.
    You can find the GUID for a given device in the CrashPlan console's Device Details. See the image below.
  4. Press Enter.

console device details guid highlighted.png

Step 4: Confirm that Windows user settings are backed up

To confirm that a device has completed a Windows user settings backup:

  1. From the CrashPlan console, select Administration > Environment > Devices.
  2. Select an active device.
  3. From device details, ensure the Profile Backup date is current and the checkmark is green.
    A red exclamation point indicates the most recent backup failed.
Find devices
Search for devices by GUID at the upper-left of the console interface.

External resources

 

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