About the synthetic backup feature

The synthetic backup feature eliminates the need to perform recurring full backups for supported remote resources. A policy created for the synthetic backup feature enables the synthetic backup to be assembled from a full backup (called a baseline) and subsequent incremental backups that are also contained in the policy.

The resulting synthetic backup then becomes the new baseline, so only incremental backups are required until the next synthetic backup is created. The synthetic backup is as current as the last incremental backup that it contains.

The components of the policy for synthetic backup are as follows:

Baseline backup. The first backup to run that is associated with the synthetic backup. The baseline backup runs one time only, and backs up all of the files on the selected resources when it runs.
Recurring incremental backups. Subsequent backups that back up files that are changed after the baseline backup.
Recurring synthetic backups. The process that combines the data from the baseline backup and the incremental backups to form a synthesized full backup of the selected resources. This synthesized full backup becomes a new baseline backup, which can then be combined with subsequent incremental backup sets to form the next synthesized full backup.

The baseline backup runs from the synthetic backup policy.

Figure: Baseline backup

Incremental backups run from the synthetic backup policy.

Figure: Incremental backup

The synthetic backup runs from the policy and is assembled from the baseline and incremental backups.

Figure: Synthetic backup

Synthetic backup can only be created within a policy. You can use the Policy Wizard to create a policy that will contain the necessary job templates for the synthetic backup feature, or you can copy the example policy for synthetic backup and then modify it to suit your specific needs, or you can manually create a policy, and then add the necessary job templates.

For all of the associated backup templates in a policy, you can also use a Duplicate Backup Set template to create a multi-stage backup strategy for backing up data to disk and then copying it to tape.