Consolidate Backup Images

The ImageManager consolidation service lets you periodically merge incremental backup image files into a consolidated file. Doing this reduces the time to restore and lets you reduce the size of the file chain necessary to restore a system. Fewer files means fewer opportunities for file failure.

ImageManager provides the following types of consolidated files:

• Daily Consolidated Files: At the end of each day, ImageManager rolls up all incremental backup image files created during that day into a single point-in-time incremental image file. Daily consolidated files include a -cd in the file name. For example:

D_VOL-b001-i005-cd.spi

• Weekly Consolidated Files: At the end of each week, ImageManager can roll-up all Daily Consolidated files created during that week into a single point-in-time incremental image file. Weekly consolidated files include a -cw in the file name. For example:

D_VOL-b001-i026-cw.spi

• Monthly Consolidated Files: At the end of each month, ImageManager rolls up all Weekly Consolidated files created during that month into a single point-in-time incremental image file. Monthly consolidated files include a -cm in the file name. For example:

D_VOL-b001-i097-cm.spi

• Rolling Consolidated Files: ImageManager rolls up multiple monthly consolidated files to further reduce the amount of storage space used. This creates a rolling consolidated monthly image file that consists of the specified number of -cm image files. Rolling consolidated files include a -cr in the file name. For example:

D_VOL-b001-i097-cd-cm-cr.spi

• Note: To use rolling consolidation you must use ImageManager 6 (or later) and ShadowProtect 5 (or later). You are NOT required to create a new backup chain. The rolling consolidation feature of ShadowProtect 5 works with ShadowProtect 4 image chains.