Custom backup scheme

  At a glance
  • Custom schedule and conditions for backups of each type
  • Custom schedule and retention rules 
  Parameters

Parameter

Meaning

Full backup

Specifies on what schedule and under which conditions to perform a full backup.

For example, the full backup can be set up to run every Sunday at 1:00 AM as soon as all users are logged off.

Incremental

Specifies on what schedule and under which conditions to perform an incremental backup.

If the archive contains no backups at the time of the task run, a full backup is created instead of the incremental backup.

Differential

Specifies on what schedule and under which conditions to perform a differential backup.

If the archive contains no full backups at the time of the task run, a full backup is created instead of the differential backup.

Clean up archive

Specifies how to get rid of old backups: either to apply retention rules regularly or clean up the archive during a backup when the destination location runs out of space.

By default, the retention rules are not specified, which means older backups will not be deleted automatically.

Using retention rules

Specify the retention rules and when to apply them.

This setting is recommended for backup destinations such as shared folders or centralized vaults.

When there is insufficient space while backing up

The archive will be cleaned up only during backup and only if there is not enough space to create a new backup. In this case, the program will act as follows:

  • Delete the oldest full backup with all dependent incremental/differential backups
  • If there is only one full backup left and a full backup is in progress, then delete the last full backup with all dependent incremental/differential backups
  • If there is only one full backup left, and an incremental or differential backup is in progress, an error occurs saying there is a lack of available space

This setting is recommended when backing up to a USB drive or Acronis Secure Zone. This setting is not applicable to managed vaults.

This setting enables deletion of the last backup in the archive, in case your storage device cannot accommodate more than one backup. However, you might end up with no backups if the program is not able to create the new backup for some reason.

Apply the rules

(only if the retention rules are set)

Specifies when to apply the retention rules.

For example, the cleanup procedure can be set up to run after each backup, and also on schedule.

This option is available only if you have set at least one retention rule in Retention rules.

Cleanup schedule

(only if On schedule is selected)

Specifies a schedule for archive cleanup.

For example, the cleanup can be scheduled to start on the last day of each month.

This option is available only if you selected On schedule in Apply the rules. 

  Examples  
  Weekly full backup

The following scheme yields a full backup performed every Friday night.

Full backup: Schedule: Weekly, every Friday, at 10:00 PM

Here, all parameters except Schedule in Full backup are left empty. All backups in the archive are kept indefinitely (no archive cleanup is performed). 

  Full and incremental backup plus cleanup

With the following scheme, the archive will consist of weekly full backups and daily incremental backups. We further require that a full backup begin only after all users have logged off.

Full backup: Schedule: Weekly, every Friday, at 10:00 PM

Full backup: Conditions: User is logged off

Incremental: Schedule: Weekly, every workday, at 9:00 PM

Also, let all backups older than one year be deleted from the archive, and let the cleanup be performed upon creating a new backup.

Retention rules: Delete backups older than 12 months

Apply the rules: After backing up

By default, a one-year-old full backup will not be deleted until all incremental backups that depend on it become subject to deletion too. For more information, see Retention rules. 

  Monthly full, weekly differential, and daily incremental backups plus cleanup

This example demonstrates the use of all options available in the Custom scheme.

Suppose that we need a scheme that will produce monthly full backups, weekly differential backups, and daily incremental backups. Then the backup schedule can look as follows.

Full backup: Schedule: Monthly, every Last Sunday of the month, at 9:00 PM

Incremental: Schedule: Weekly, every workday, at 7:00 PM

Differential: Schedule: Weekly, every Saturday, at 8:00 PM

Further, we want to add conditions that have to be satisfied for a backup task to start. This is set up in the Conditions fields for each backup type.

Full backup: Conditions: Location available

Incremental: Conditions: User is logged off

Differential: Conditions: User is idle

As a result, a full backup—originally scheduled at 9:00 PM—may actually start later: as soon as the backup location becomes available. Likewise, backup tasks for incremental and differential backups will wait until all users are logged off and users are idle, respectively.

Finally, we create retention rules for the archive: let us retain only backups that are no older than six months, and let the cleanup be performed after each backup task and also on the last day of every month.

Retention rules: Delete backups older than 6 months

Apply the rules: After backing up, On schedule

Cleanup schedule: Monthly, on the Last day of All months, at 10:00 PM

By default, a backup is not deleted as long as it has dependent backups that must be kept. For example, if a full backup has become subject to deletion, but there are incremental or differential backups that depend on it, the deletion is postponed until all the dependent backups can be deleted as well.

For more information, see Retention rules. 

  Resulting tasks

Any custom scheme always produces three backup tasks and—in case the retention rules are specified—a cleanup task. Each task is listed in the list of tasks either as Scheduled (if the schedule has been set up) or as Manual (if the schedule has not been set up).

You can manually run any backup task or cleanup task at any time, regardless of whether it has a schedule.

In the first of the previous examples, we set up a schedule only for full backups. However, the scheme will still result in three backup tasks, enabling you to manually start a backup of any type:

  • Full backup, runs every Friday at 10:00 PM
  • Incremental backup, runs manually
  • Differential backup, runs manually

You can run any of these backup tasks by selecting it from the list of tasks in the Backup plans and tasks section in the left pane.

If you have also specified the retention rules in your backup scheme, the scheme will result in four tasks: three backup tasks and one cleanup task.

Custom backup scheme