Table of contents
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Backup Cycle
- 3. Backup When parameters
- 3.1. Backup Cycle Panel
- 3.2. Backup Week/Month Panel
Introduction
- This page allows the user to control when backup runs should be performed and the backup levels for the backup run.
- All parameters in this page must be specified for the backup set before activating (scheduling) backup runs.
- Amanda's backup scheduler tries to maintain consistent backup window across all backup runs by controlling the amount of size of backup image for each backup run.
- Amanda also simplifies the configuration of backup run schedule and specification of backup level.
- Amanda does not require Administrators to specify the backup levels for each backup run.
User must click "Save" button to save all changes before moving to the next page. The next page after configuring the Backup When parameters could be verification of server and client configuration or activating the backup.
Backup Cycle
- Backup Cycle determines the time during which at least one full backup of each directory in the backup set is performed.
- Amanda tries to perform full backups of the directories as many times as possible within the backup cycle to reduce the backup recovery time.
- User can specify backup cycle in days or months.
Backup When parameters
- ZMC Backup When page is divided into two panels shown below.
Backup Cycle Panel
- Time Range
- The drop down box allows user to choose between Days and Months for the Backup Cycle paramter.
- When the user selects 'Month' option, the ZMC right hand side panel changes to reflect the longer period.
- Full Backup Cycle
- The number of days or months for the backup set during which at least one full backup for all directories is performed.
- Backup Time
- The time of the day when backup run starts. Specifying the parameter does not schedule the backup run. User will have to explicitly activate the backup in Backup Activate page.
- Directories per run or Tapes per run
- The number of media volumes (tapes or virtual tapes in case of disk based backup) that can be used for each backup run.
- Tapes in Rotation or Directories in rotation
- This parameter specifies the retention policy for the backup images. The tapes or virtual tapes will be re-used after the value specified is used. For example: If the tapes in rotation is 7, Tapes per run is 1 and backups are run daily, the first tape will be re-used on the 8th day. In this case, backup retention policy is 7 days.
Backup Week/Month Panel
- The right hand panel allows user to control on what days backups are run. If the backup cycle is specified in Days, user can choose which days of week, backups are run.
- Fig 1. shows the GUI for Week(Days) option in the Right Hand Panel.
- Fig 2. shows the GUI for (Dates of)Month option in the Right Hand Panel.
- Selecting a box means that on the checked Day/Date the Backup will be run.
Example 1 Week(Days): Suppose Mondays and Fridays are heavy work schedule days on which days the user does not want any Backup to run. Then tick Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. If the user has specified a 10 day Backup cycle, and the user is starting the process on a Monday, no backup will happen that day. Full/ incremental backups will happen on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays,Saturdays and Sundays. This will repeat for the entire cycle.
Example 2(Dates of)Month: For another Backup Set, where the user has selected slowly changing data, the user has specified a 3 month Backup Cycle. The user wants the backups to run on 1st, 10th and 20th of each month irrespective of what day of the week they fall on. Just tick the dates 1st, 10th and 20th in the Month panel.