Using Synthetic Full Backup › Submit a Synthetic Full Backup Job

Submit a Synthetic Full Backup Job

The Enable Synthetic Full Backup option lets you submit scheduled backups of source groups and computers. With synthetic full backups, you can submit Normal backups with staging and deduplication backups that consist of your first (parent) full backup and all subsequent incremental backups combined into one session.

Note: Synthetic full backup only supports the Windows Client Agent at r16 or higher. Synthetic full backup is not supported for Windows Client Agents at a version prior to r16, Database Agents, or application agents. If you submit a synthetic full backup job to back up r16 or higher Windows Client Agents, Windows Client Agents prior to r16, Database Agents, or application agents together in one job, it only synthesizes the r16 or higher Windows Client Agent. For the agents and application agents that do not support synthetic full backup, the traditional backup method will be used instead.

Example: How Synthetic Full Backup Works

A synthetic full backup (SFB) lets you synthesize a previous full session and its subsequent incremental sessions to a full session for Windows Client Agents.

Note: To perform synthetic full backup jobs, you must install and license Arcserve Backup Agent for Open Files on the computers that you want to back up. If you do not install and license the agent, Arcserve Backup converts synthetic full backups to regular backups, and produces a warning message in the Activity Log.

• Submit a SFB enabled backup job.
• When the job launches, the first execution will be a real full backup and subsequent backups will be incremental backups. The full session will be the first parent full session, and subsequent incremental backups execute according to the incremental backup policy you have defined.
• When the last incremental backup job executes, it queries Client Agent for all changed and unchanged files. After the last incremental backup, the Data Synthetic job is created.
• The Data Synthetic job assembles the last full session (parent session) and subsequent incremental sessions into one SFB session.
• The new SFB session becomes the parent full session for the next SFB job (unless a real full backup session is executed after the SFB session).

To submit a synthetic full backup job

1. Open the Backup Manager and click the Start tab.
2. Select either Normal backup or Deduplication backup, and Enable Synthetic Full Backup.

   Note: When you select Normal backup and Enable Synthetic Full Backup, Enable Staging is selected by default; if you disable the Enable Staging option, you cannot select the Enable Synthetic Full Backup option.

3. Select the Source, Schedule, Policies, and Destination tabs to specify the options that you require for the job. If you selected a staging job, you must also specify staging location.
4. Click the Options toolbar button to specify global options that you require for the job. For more information, see Global Backup Options.
5. Click the Submit toolbar button to submit your job.

   The Security and Agent Information dialog opens.

6. Edit or confirm the security and agent information for your job, and click OK.
7. When the Submit Job dialog opens, select Run Now to run the job immediately, or select Run On and select a date and time when you want the job to run.

   Note: For more information about the Run Now option, see Job Queue Tab.

8. Enter a description for your job.
9. If you selected multiple sources to back up and want to set the priority in which the job sessions initiate, click Source Priority. Use the Top, Up, Down, and Bottom buttons to change the order in which the jobs are processed. When you finish setting priorities, click OK.
10. To save the job as a Arcserve Backup job script, click the Save Job button.
11. To save the job template, click the Save Template button.
12. To preflight check the job, click the Preflight Check button. If the preflight check failed, click the Cancel button to modify the job settings.
13. On the Submit Job dialog, click OK.

    The job is submitted.

Note: For information about how to use disk staging (D2D2T) and tape staging (D2T2T) to manage your backup operations, see How Backup to Disk to Tape Works.