Acronis Backup & Recovery

Creating a backup plan

Before creating your first backup plan, please familiarize yourself with the basic concepts used in Acronis Backup & Recovery 10.

To create a backup plan, perform the following steps.

  General  

Plan name

[Optional] Enter a unique name for the backup plan. A conscious name lets you identify the plan among others.

Plan’s credentials

[Optional] The backup plan will run on behalf of the user who is creating the plan. You can change the plan account credentials if necessary. To access this option, select the Advanced view check box .

Comments

[Optional] Type a description of the backup plan. To access this option, select the Advanced view check box.

Label

[Optional] Type a text label for the machine you are going to back up. The label can be used to identify the machine in various scenarios. To access this option, select the Advanced view check box.

  What to backup  

Source type

Select the type of data to back up. The type of data depends on the agents installed on the machine.

Items to backup

Specify the data items to back up. A list of items to backup depends on the data type, specified previously.

Access credentials

[Optional] Provide credentials for the source data if the plan’s account does not have access permissions to the data. To access this option, select the Advanced view check box .

Exclusions

[Optional] Set up exclusions for the specific types of files you do not wish to back up. To access this option, select the Advanced view check box.

  Where to back up  

Archive

Specify path to the location, where the backup archive will be stored, and the archive name. It is advisable that the archive name be unique within the location. The default archive name is Archive(N) where N is the sequence number of the archive in the location you have selected.

Name backup files using the archive name, as in Acronis True Image Echo, rather than auto-generated names

Not available when backing up to a managed vault, tape, Acronis Secure Zone or Acronis Online Backup Storage.

[Optional] Select this check box if you want to use simplified file naming for the archive’s backups.

Access credentials

[Optional] Provide credentials for the location if the plan account does not have access permissions to the location. To access this option, select the Advanced view check box.

Archive comments

[Optional] Enter comments on the archive. To access this option, select the Advanced view check box.

  How to back up  

Backup scheme

Specify when and how often to back up your data; define for how long to keep the created backup archives in the selected location; set up schedule for the archive cleanup procedure. Use well-known optimized backup schemes, such as Grandfather-Father-Son and Tower of Hanoi; create a custom backup scheme, or back up data once.

  Archive validation  

When to validate

[Optional] Define when and how often to perform validation and whether to validate the entire archive or the latest backup in the archive.

  Backup options  

Settings

[Optional] Configure parameters of the backup operation, such as pre/post backup commands, maximum network bandwidth allocated for the backup stream or the backup archive compression level. If you do nothing in this section, the default values will be used.

After any of the settings is changed against the default value, a new line that displays the newly set value appears. The setting status changes from Default to Custom. Should you modify the setting again, the line will display the new value unless the new value is the default one. When the default value is set, the line disappears and so you always see only the settings that differ from the default values in this section of the Create backup plan page.

To reset all the settings to the default values, click Reset to default.

  Convert to VM  

Applies to: Disk/volume backup, backup of Entire virtual machines or Volumes of a virtual machine

Not available on machines running Linux

By setting up regular conversion, you obtain a copy of your server or workstation on a virtual machine which can be readily powered on in case the original machine fails. The conversion can be performed by the same agent that performs the backup or by an agent install
ed on another machine. If the latter is the case, you need to store the archive in a shared location, such as a network folder or a managed vault, so that the other machine can access the archive.

When to convert

[Optional] Specify whether to convert every full, every incremental or every differential backup or convert the last created backup on schedule. Specify the conversion schedule if required.

Host

Specify the machine that will perform the conversion. The machine has to have Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent for Windows, Agent for ESX/ESXi or Agent for Hyper-V installed.

Virtualization server

Here you select the resulting virtual machine type and location. Available options depend on the host you selected in the previous step.

Storage

Choose the storage on the virtualization server or the folder to place the virtual machine files in.

Resultant VMs

Specify the name of the virtual machine.

After you have performed all the required steps, click OK to create the backup plan.

After that, you might be prompted for the password.

The plan you have created will be accessible for examination and managing in the Backup plans and tasks view.