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:

The baseline backup runs from the synthetic backup policy.

Figure: Baseline backup

Baseline backup

Incremental backups run from the synthetic backup policy.

Figure: Incremental backup

Incremental backup

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

Figure: Synthetic backup

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.

More Information

About duplicate backup set templates

Best practices for synthetic backup

Creating a synthetic backup

Collecting additional information for synthetic backup and true image restore