I have a workaround solution for this. Our road warriors use always-on vpn that also provides them connectivity to the
ABB server. But they are often on slow or expensive mobile data plans and need to control the backup process. But as you know there is no "backup now" button on ABB client.
Solution:
Maybe you didn't know but latest missed scheduled backup tasks execute as soon as it is possbile (computer turned on, network connectivity between client and server established). This means that if we can control client network connectivity to server, we can control backup execution.
One option is to mess with hosts file on client by adding ABB server fqdn pointing to localhost. The other is by inserting wrong route to the ip of the ABB server. I guess there are others, use you imagination.
But how can we allow regular users (non-admins) to mess with hosts file or routes? Quite simply:
- create a new application event log source (example: New-EventLog -LogName Application -Source ABBBackupEnabler)
- create two scheduled tasks (BackupON, BackupOFF) that are tied to two specific application log events (source, ID) and execute the scripts/commands that mess with route or hosts file
- create two shortcuts on users desktops (BackupON, BackupOFF) that generate the needed events (example: C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -Command "Write-EventLog -LogName Application -Source ABBBackupEnabler -EntryType Information -Message '"Enable ABB Backup"' -EventId 1")