Creating a synthetic backup by adding templates to a policy

Creating a new policy for a synthetic backup involves choosing a name and description for the policy, adding the necessary job templates for synthetic backup to the policy, and setting up relationships between the templates. After you set up all of the templates for a synthetic backup in a policy, you can combine the policy with a selection list to create jobs.

Before creating a synthetic backup, review the requirements and the list of items you can back up with synthetic backup.

See Requirements for synthetic backup.

See What you can back up with synthetic backup.

To create a synthetic backup by adding templates to a policy

  1. On the navigation bar, click Job Setup.

  2. On the task pane, under Policy Tasks, click New policy.

  3. Type a policy name and description for this synthetic backup policy, and then click New Template.

    The Template Selection dialog box appears.

  4. Select Backup Template, and then click OK.

  5. On the Properties pane, under Settings, click General, and specify either of the following backup methods for the baseline.

    • Select Full - Back up files - Using archive bit (reset archive bit) to add an optional baseline full backup template.

    • Select Incremental - Back up changed files since last full or incremental - Using archive bit (reset archive bit) to add a recurring, incremental backup template.

  6. Select the Collect additional information for synthetic backup and for true image restore option.

  7. (Optional) Select the Use the Microsoft Change Journal if available option.

    See Using the Windows NTFS Change Journal to determine changed files.

    If you selected an incremental backup method, then under Destination, click Device and Media and select a backup-to-disk folder as the destination device.

  8. On the Properties pane, under Settings, click Network and Security.

    In a policy that contains a synthetic backup, if an encryption key is used, all of the associated templates must use the same encryption key. The encryption key should not be changed after the policy has been created. The encryption key that is selected in the associated templates is automatically applied to the synthetic backup template.

    See About encryption.

    If the Central Admin Server Option (CASO) is installed, an option displays to allow managed media servers to use any network interface to access remote agents.

    See Enabling managed media servers to use any available network interface card .

  9. Under Frequency, click Schedule and set the scheduling options you want to use.

    See Setting the schedule for a template.

    If you added the optional full backup template for the baseline backup in step 5, you must configure it to be the first backup template to run.

    The baseline backup only needs to run once. You can run additional baseline backups whenever you prefer, although the backup window is reduced by running a synthetic backup instead of a full backup.

    If you added an incremental backup template, you must configure it to be a recurring job so that the first instance can become the baseline backup.

  10. Select other options as appropriate, and then click OK.

    See Adding a backup template to a policy.

    In a policy that contains a synthetic backup, backup templates that create incremental backup jobs must have backup-to-disk folders as destination devices.

  11. Do one of the following:

    • If you added the optional full backup template for the baseline backup in step 5, then continue with the next step to create a backup template for an incremental backup job.

    • If you added a recurring incremental backup template, go to step 18 to add the synthetic backup template

  12. On the New Policy dialog box, click New Template, and then on the Template Selection dialog box, select Backup Template again, and then click OK.

  13. On the Properties pane, under Settings, click General, and select the backup method Incremental - Back up changed files since last full or incremental - Using archive bit (reset archive bit).

  14. Select the Collect additional information for synthetic backup and for true image restore option.

  15. (Optional) Select the option Use the Microsoft Change Journal if available.

    See Using the Windows NTFS Change Journal to determine changed files.

  16. Under Frequency, click Schedule and set the scheduling options you want to use.

    See Setting the schedule for a template.

  17. Select other options as appropriate, and then click OK.

    See Adding a backup template to a policy.

    In a policy that contains a synthetic backup, backup templates that create incremental backup jobs must have backup-to-disk folders as destination devices.

  18. On the New Policy dialog box, click New Template, select Synthetic Backup Template, and then click OK.

  19. On the Properties pane, under Destination, select Device and Media, and complete the appropriate options.

    See Device and media options for backup jobs and templates.

  20. On the Properties pane, under Settings, click General, and complete the appropriate options as follows:

    Template name

    Type the name for this job template.

    Backup set description

    Type a description of the information you are backing up.

    Preferred source device

    Select the device used as the destination device for the original backup job.

  21. On the Properties pane, under Settings, click Advanced, and complete the appropriate options as follows:

    Verify after job completes

    Select this option to have Backup Exec automatically perform a verify operation to make sure the media can be read after the backup has been completed. Verifying all backups is recommended.

    Compression type

    Select one of the following:

    • None. Select this option to copy the data to the media in its original form. If the data was backed up using software compression, then it is copied in its software compression form. Using some form of data compression can help expedite backups and preserve storage media space.

      Hardware data compression should not be used in environments where devices that support hardware compression are used interchangeably with devices that do not have that functionality.

      For example, if a drive that does not support hardware compression is added to a cascaded drive pool that includes drives supporting the feature, hardware compression is automatically disabled. You can manually re-enable hardware compression on the drives that support it, but this results in media inconsistency. If the drive that supports hardware compression fails, the compressed media cannot be restored with the non-compression drive

    • Hardware [if available, otherwise none]. Select this option to use hardware data compression (if the storage device supports it). If the drive does not feature data compression, the data is backed up uncompressed.

  22. If you want Backup Exec to notify someone when the backup job completes, on the Properties pane, under Settings, click Notification.

    See Assigning notification recipients for completed jobs.

  23. Do one or both of the following:

(Recommended) Create template rules to run job templates for synthetic backup

  1. Review the documentation about template rules.

    See Setting template rules.

  2. On the New Policy dialog box, under Template rules, click New Rule.

  3. On the Template Rule Properties dialog box, click the template rules drop down list, and then do one of the following:

    • If you created a backup template for a full backup job to run as the baseline backup, select Run <Template A> only once. Click the Template A is: drop down list and select the name of the template that you want to run as the baseline backup, and then click OK.

    • If you created a backup template for a recurring incremental backup job to run as the baseline backup, go to step 5.

  4. Click New Rule again to add another rule.

  5. On the Template Rule Properties dialog box, click the template rules drop down list, and then select <Template A> must complete at least once before any other templates will be allowed to start.

  6. Click the Template A is: drop down list, select the template name of the baseline backup, and then click OK.

  7. Click New Rule again to add another rule.

  8. On the Template Rule Properties dialog box, click the template rules drop down list, and then select If start times conflict, <Template A> will start and upon completion, starts <Template B>.

  9. Click the Template A is: list, and then select the template name of the incremental backup.

  10. Click the Template B is: list, and then select the template name of the synthetic backup, and then click OK.

  11. On the New Policy dialog box, click OK.

    The policy is displayed on the Job Setup view, in the Policies pane.

    After you create a policy and set up templates in it, you should combine the policy with a selection list to create jobs. When a policy is combined with a selection list, Backup Exec creates jobs based on the settings in the templates.

More Information

Creating jobs using policies

About the synthetic backup feature

What you can back up with synthetic backup

Requirements for synthetic backup

Best practices for synthetic backup