Specify the Schedule

Creating Plans to Protect Data › How to Create a Host-Based Virtual Machine Backup Plan › Create a Host-Based Backup Plan › Specify the Schedule

Specify the Schedule

The Schedule page lets you define a schedule for Backup, Merge, and Throttle functions to repeat at specific intervals. After you define a schedule, the jobs run automatically per the schedule. You can add multiple schedules and provide retention settings.

A Backup Schedule refers to regular schedule that is repeated multiple times daily based on the number of hours or minutes you select. Besides the regular schedule, a backup schedule also provides options to add daily, weekly, and monthly schedules.

Note: For more information on scheduling and retention settings, see Understanding Advanced Scheduling and Retention.

Follow these steps:

(Optional) Select the option to manage recovery points. This option is visible only if you have selected Local or shared folder as your backup destination.

Retain by Recovery Points

The backup data is stored as recovery points.

Retain by Recovery Sets

The backup data is stored as recovery sets.
Add backup, merge, and throttle schedules.

Add Backup Schedule
1. Click Add and select Add Backup Schedule.
  The New Backup Schedule dialog opens.
2. Select one of the following options:
  
  Custom
  
  Specifies the backup schedule that repeats multiple times a day.
  
  Daily
  
  Specifies the backup schedule that occurs once a day. By default, all the days of the week are selected for Daily backup. If you do not want to run the backup job on a specific day, clear the checkbox for that day of the week.
  
  Weekly
  
  Specifies the backup schedule that occurs once a week.
  
  Monthly
  
  Specifies the backup schedule that occurs once a month.
3. Select the backup type.
  
  Full
  
  Determines the backup schedule for Full Backups. As scheduled, Arcserve UDP performs a full backup of all used blocks from the source machine. A full backup typically consumes time depending on the backup size.
  
  Verify
  
  Determines the backup schedule for Verify Backups.
  
  As scheduled, Arcserve UDP verifies that the protected data is valid and complete by performing a confidence check of the stored backup image to the original backup source. If necessary, the image is resynchronized. A Verify Backup looks at the most recent backup of each individual block and compares the content and information to the source. This comparison verifies that the latest backed up blocks represent the corresponding information at the source. If the backup image for any block does not match the source (possibly because of changes in the system since the last backup), Arcserve UDP refreshes (resynchronizes) the backup of the block that does not match. You can also use a Verify Backup (very infrequently) to get the guarantee of full backup without using the space required for a full backup.
  
  Advantages: Produces a small backup image when compared to full backup because only the changed blocks (blocks that do not match the last backup) are backed up.
  
  Disadvantages: Backup time is long because all source blocks are compared with the blocks of the last backup.
  
  Incremental
  
  Determines the backup schedule for Incremental Backups.
  
  As scheduled, Arcserve UDP incrementally backs up only those blocks that have changed since the last successful backup. The advantages of Incremental Backups are that it is a fast backup and it produces a small backup image. This is the most optimal way to perform backups and you should use this by default.
4. Specify the backup start time.
5. (Optional) Select the Repeat check box and specify the repeat schedule.
6. Click Save.
  The Backup Schedule is specified and it is displayed on the Schedule page.
Add Merge Schedule
1. Click Add and select Add Merge Schedule.
2. The Add New Merge Schedule dialog opens.
3. Specify the start time to start the merge job.
4. Specify Until to specify an end time for the merge job.
5. Click Save.
  The Merge Schedule is specified and it is displayed on the Schedule page.
Add Throttle Schedule
1. Click Add and select Add Throttle Schedule.
2. The Add New Throttle Schedule dialog opens.
3. Specify the throughput limit in MB per minute unit.
4. Specify the start time to start the backup throughput job.
5. Specify Until to specify an end time for the throughput job.
6. Click Save.
  The Throughput Schedule is specified and it is displayed on the Schedule page.
Specify the start time for the scheduled backup.
Specify the recovery points retention settings for Custom, Daily, Weekly, and Monthly schedule.
These options are enabled if you have added the corresponding backup schedule. If you modify the retention settings on this page, the changes are reflected on the Backup Schedule dialog.
Specify the catalog details.

Catalogs let you generate the Exchange Granular Restore catalog and the File System catalog. The Exchange Granular Restore catalog is required to restore Exchange mailboxes, mailbox folders, and individual mail objects. The File System catalog is required to perform faster and easier search. The catalogs are enabled depending on the type of backup that you have specified.
(Optional) Select one of the backup options in Recovery Point Check.

This option lets you detect data corruption issues by verifying the file system of the volumes. When the backup job completes, Arcserve UDP mounts the recovery point and runs the chkdsk Windows command. If the chkdsk command detects an error, the next backup job is converted to a Verify backup job. This option is applicable for both VMware and Hyper-V virtual machines with the Windows guest OS. Review the following considerations before enabling this option:
- The following types of volume are not supported and they are skipped by Recovery Point Check:
  - The volume whose file system type is not NTFS
  - The volume whose type is striped with parity
  - The volume that is in that storage pool
- The chkdsk command cannot detect all file system problems. The recovery point check may pass but the recovery point can still be corrupted.
- Depending on the size of the file system of the guest OS, the chkdsk command may take a longer time to run. The chkdsk uses a large amount of RAM on the Backup Proxy server and affects the performance of the proxy server. This result in the backup job taking a longer time to complete. In the worst case, the resources (CPU or memory) of the Backup Proxy server may get exhausted and the server may become non-responsive, especially when there are numerous concurrent backup jobs. As a best practice, disable this option unless it is necessary or you have a powerful Backup Proxy server. Alternatively, you can distribute the load to multiple proxy servers by creating multiple plans and specifying different proxy serves in each of the plan.
- If the backup is crash consistent, there are high chances that chkdsk will detect problems (due to the nature of a crash consistent backup). As a best practice, do not enable this option for a crash consistent backup.
- If you want to enable the Recovery Point Check option but you do not want the next backup job to be converted to a Verify backup job, create a DWORD value named CheckRecoveryPointIgnoreError in the registry of the proxy server and set the DWORD value to 1. Create the DWORD value at the following location:
```
KEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Arcserve\Unified Data Protection\Engine\AFBackupDll
```
  The DWORD is applicable for all the backup jobs that are running on the current proxy server. If you want to control the behavior of a specific virtual machine, you can set the value at the following location:
```
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Arcserve\Unified Data Protection\Engine\AFBackupDll\<VM GUID>.
```
  Note: If you add the registry key in both the VM and proxy level registry, then the setting in the VM level registry will have the priority over the setting in the Proxy level registry.

The schedule is specified.