Cobian as an application or as a service.

Questions about Cobian Backup 11 (Gravity)
Tatone69
Posts: 10
Joined: 03 Dec 2020, 19:28

Cobian as an application or as a service.

Post by Tatone69 »

Regards, sorry me for my bad english.
:D
Could you please explain what is the difference between installing Cobian as an application or Cobian as a service?
Thank you.
User avatar
cobian
Site Admin
Posts: 4492
Joined: 31 Oct 2020, 01:25
Location: Sweden
Contact:

Re: Cobian as an application or as a service.

Post by cobian »

Application vs. service
A service is a special windows application that runs even if no user is logged on the system. The service can run under a special account (LocalSystem account) or under some other existing account. On Windows NT-based systems is recommended to run this program as a service. You decide if you want to run the program as a service or as an application in the installation program. You can also change the way the program will work from the Options dialog box.

When running Cobian Backup as a service, a problem can arise: if you want to access a shared drive or folder or some non-local resource, you cannot run the service under the default system account. You must run it under an account which has network access (example: the Administrator account). In the installation program, you can choose to configure the service to run under the system or other account.

Another difference is that you cannot terminate a service the same way you close an application. You stop/start a service using the Control Panel - Administrative tools - Services icon. You can also control the service from the Options dialog box.
--
Luis Cobian
Cobian Backup's creator
Tatone69
Posts: 10
Joined: 03 Dec 2020, 19:28

Re: Cobian as an application or as a service.

Post by Tatone69 »

Thanks for the answer and sorry me for my bad English.
But in my test I installed Cobiam as an application, left the 2 PCs without user logon and completed the backup without errors.
I did this test, on 2 PCs with Windows 10 where Cobian is installed, and another PC with Windows7.
Both PCs stopped on the login screen, users not logged in.
I have installed Cobian as an application.
I set up the backup:
01 - as source, a shared folder on the network, sharing for everyone, on the PC with Windows 7;
02 - as destination, a folder on the Windows 10 PC where Cobian is installed.
Cobian backed up without errors.
I repeated the test, reversing the source and destination:
01 - as source, a folder on the Windows 10 PC where Cobian is installed.
02 - as destination, a folder on the PC with Windows 7.
Cobian backed up without errors.
I understood that to make a backup on your network, Cobian had to be installed as a service.
If installed as an application, Cobian did not have to backup.
Another difference I understood was, Cobian installed as a service does not allow starting the UI to interact, but I tried to install Cobian as a service, I saw it is possible to install the UI.
So in my usage I found no differences between installing Cobian as a service or as an application.
User avatar
cobian
Site Admin
Posts: 4492
Joined: 31 Oct 2020, 01:25
Location: Sweden
Contact:

Re: Cobian as an application or as a service.

Post by cobian »

If it works as an application for you, it's OK then. But you need to log in at least once a day to be sure that the program starts.
--
Luis Cobian
Cobian Backup's creator
Tatone69
Posts: 10
Joined: 03 Dec 2020, 19:28

Re: Cobian as an application or as a service.

Post by Tatone69 »

So for you, to be sure Cobian works it has to be installed as a service when not logged on?
Excuse me, I report what I wrote from you:
"A service is a special windows application that runs even if no user is logged on the system."
But in my test, Cobian was installed as an application, the user was not logged in, Cobian worked anyway.
So this difference between program and service doesn't exist?
I would like to understand what are the real differences between the two installations.
Perhaps initially how it was developed to have more differences, which with subsequent updates are fewer?
Thanks. :D

I took another test.
I tried to shut down the PC, turn off the UPS.
I turned on the UPS, I turned on the PC leaving it in the user logon screen.
Cobian backed up the 2 tests above.
I did a web search.
A user writes:
"Hi I use Cobian backup on a windows 2003 server as a backup program to copy data to a network share and I have the following problem.
If I install the program as an application, and therefore it is always present on the bottom left, the process works and copies all the data to me at the scheduled time, if instead I install it as a service and launch the same backup task I get the following error.
I could also leave it as an application but I think the server is set to automatically close the sessions left open and therefore it does not start if I schedule it at night. "

On windows server 2003, it closes any sessions left open.
If Cobian is installed as an application, it does not perform the scheduled back.
If Cobian is installed as a service it performs the scheduled back.
Correct?
I wonder on Windows 10 instead this does not happen?
In my test it didn't happen.
Correct?
Is this the main difference between installing Cobian as an application and as a service?
Greetings.
User avatar
cobian
Site Admin
Posts: 4492
Joined: 31 Oct 2020, 01:25
Location: Sweden
Contact:

Re: Cobian as an application or as a service.

Post by cobian »

If the program is installed and running as a service and you are accessing some network resources, you cannot run it under the Local System account. Perhaps that's the issue?
--
Luis Cobian
Cobian Backup's creator
kataflan22
Posts: 10
Joined: 24 Jan 2023, 18:54

frequently asked questions

Post by kataflan22 »

Good morning Luis, how are you?

My name is Gustavo and I have some frequent doubts about Cobian Gravity 11 backups, if you can help me please, I will leave below a small list with my doubts...


1 - What would it be like to generate a Phantom backup?

2 - What is the difference between Differential and Incremental backup?

3 - There in the general settings I saw that there is an option called "Groups" where I can create a new Group, what would this Group be? how can i use it?

4 - What changes for each type of backup priority? what's the difference between me putting priority low, normal or high?



This would be my doubts, I know they can be very basic lol, I hope you can help me please, I'm waiting :)
User avatar
cobian
Site Admin
Posts: 4492
Joined: 31 Oct 2020, 01:25
Location: Sweden
Contact:

Re: Cobian as an application or as a service.

Post by cobian »

1 - What would it be like to generate a Phantom backup?

* How do you define a Phantom backup?

2 - What is the difference between Differential and Incremental backup?

Incremental - The program will check if the source has been changed from the last backup. If there is no need to copy the file, it will be skipped, saving backup time. The incremental procedure checks the Archive bit attribute of the file. You may want to manually reset the attribute to force a full backup: use the "Set the archive attributes" on the Task menu.

Differential: The program will check if the source has been changed from the last FULL backup. If there is no need to copy the file, it will be skipped, saving backup time. The differential procedure checks the Archive bit attribute of the file. You may want to manually reset the attribute to force a full backup: use the "Set the archive attributes" on the Task menu.

3 - There in the general settings I saw that there is an option called "Groups" where I can create a new Group, what would this Group be? how can i use it?

If you for example want to execute several tasks at the same time, you can create a group and execute this group.

4 - What changes for each type of backup priority? what's the difference between me putting priority low, normal or high?

A high priority task will be placed and executed FIRST in the execution queue.
--
Luis Cobian
Cobian Backup's creator
kataflan22
Posts: 10
Joined: 24 Jan 2023, 18:54

Re: Cobian as an application or as a service.

Post by kataflan22 »

Sorry, about the first question, what would a Ghost backup be?
kataflan22
Posts: 10
Joined: 24 Jan 2023, 18:54

VERIFICATION OF FILES

Post by kataflan22 »

Hello good afternoon all right?

We use cobian in several Virtual Machines, and we generate backups for it every day, and we send them to a server via FTP separately just for storing the files, but there are more than 600 folders that I have to check every day manually by entering one by one to see if the backup was made correctly, is there any script or event that I can configure in cobian or create where it can list me only which ones did not give an error? Without being sent by email, I would not like to receive it by email, it had to be a script or event that created a txt and told me which ones did not, please help me with this question
Post Reply