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Review the Backup Prerequisites and Considerations

Review the following backup considerations before you perform an Arcserve UDP Agent (Windows) backup:

Destination available free space
If your destination does not have sufficient free space, you can consider the following corrective actions:

Reduce the number of saved recovery points.

Increase the available free space at the backup destination.

Change the backup destination to a larger capacity.

Reduce the size of the backup source (maybe eliminate unnecessary volumes from the backup).
Increase the Compression setting of the backup.

Verify that you have proper licensing
When using Arcserve UDP Agent (Windows) to perform backups (especially for Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Exchange Server), it is important to verify that you have the proper licenses.
Arcserve UDP Agent (Windows) uses all the VSS writers during backup to ensure consistent backups. The only exceptions are Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange, and Hyper-V writers which are only included when they are properly licensed.

Backup disk size
A volume is skipped from a backup if it is on a disk larger than 2 TB and the compression option is disabled. However, there is no size limitation if compression is enabled (which is the default setting). As a result, if you want to back up source volumes larger than 2 TB, you must keep the compression option enabled.

Note: The 2 TB limitation only remains with the VHD format backup.

The minimum size for a block-level incremental (BLI) backup is 64K. For any file size less than 64K, Arcserve UDP Agent (Windows) will copy the entire file.

Verify that you are using a supported disk
Different types of disks are supported as Arcserve UDP Agent (Windows) backup source disks and destination disks.
For more information, see Disks Supported by Arcserve UDP Agent (Windows).

Selecting your backup frequency and retention count
If your scheduled backups are occurring more frequently than the amount of time it takes to generate a file system catalog for previous backup jobs, your recovery point retention count may be exceeded before the file system catalog being generated for the oldest session is completed. If this happens there may be a delay in the catalog generation for all pending recovery points. As a result, the retained recovery points could accumulate (beyond the specified maximum retention number), and you could see a lack of disk space at the destination, on the Status Summary. To avoid this problem, you can increase the schedule interval time for your incremental backups.

Backup destination folder manual operations
Manual operations (such as copy, cut, paste, or drag-and-drop) for the backup destination folder are not successful if a job is active or a user is browsing recovery points using the Arcserve UDP Recovery Point View. Verify that no active jobs are running or browsing of recovery points (using Arcserve UDP Recovery Point View) is being performed before attempting any of these manual operations.

Proper drivers installed
Verify that you have latest drivers or firmware installed for all the devices.

Verify that your machine is properly shutdown
Even when backup jobs are not running, Arcserve UDP Agent (Windows) is constantly monitoring changes that are related to the operating system and data. Any detected changes are then compiled and saved in a list to include as an Incremental Backup after the next machine start-up. If your machine was not properly shut down and all of the changed information was not saved, Arcserve UDP Agent (Windows) may perform a more lengthy Verify Backup for the next backup, even if a Verify Backup was not scheduled.

Arcserve UDP Agent (Windows) in a Microsoft Hyper-V Environment
Arcserve UDP Agent (Windows) provides both host-level and virtual machine (VM) level protection for Microsoft Hyper-V environments. For more information about situations that you can encounter and offer protection solutions using Arcserve UDP Agent (Windows), see Arcserve UDP Agent (Windows) in a Microsoft Hyper-V Environment.

How running backup jobs on a Hyper-V server affects the tasks that can be performed
When the Arcserve UDP Agent (Windows) backup job runs on a Hyper-V server, the status of the VMs is "Backing up" and the following tasks cannot be performed:

Power on
Power off
Save
Pause
Reset
Snapshot
Move
Rename
Enable replication

How changing the machine host name can affect saving your settings
When you enter a backup path, Arcserve UDP Agent (Windows) appends the host name to that path to use as the destination and this host name is also displayed in the settings dialog. When the name of the machine is changed, you must also change the destination path (backup, file copy, copy recovery point) by removing the old host name from the path before you attempt to save the settings.
For example: If your host name is "Host_A" and your backup destination is X:\ and you change your host name to "Host_B", any changes that are made to your backup settings are not saved unless you first change the backup destination from x:\Host_A to x:\ again.
If you do not change the backup destination host name and attempt to save the settings, Arcserve UDP Agent (Windows) thinks the backup destination "x:\Host_A" is already in use by Host_A and that Host_A is another machine and does not accept any changes to the settings.

How changing your backup destination can affect saved recovery points
When you continue performing Incremental Backups to the changed destination and the specified number of saved recovery points is reached, Arcserve UDP Agent (Windows) merges the earliest backup sessions to the first destination to maintain the specified number of recovery points. As this merging process repeats, the number of recovery points that are saved to the first destination decreases, and at the same time the number of recovery points for the changed destination increases. Eventually, there are no recovery points for the first destination and all of the sessions are merged to the changed destination.

How changing backup destinations can affect continued backups
If you configure and perform a Full Backup (and maybe some Incremental Backups) to a destination and then you decide to change your backups to a different destination, you can reconfigure your backup settings and continue performing Incremental Backups to the new destination without any problems.
If you later decide to change your backup destination again, you can simply reconfigure your backup settings again and continue performing Incremental Backups to the new destination without any problems.
For example:

If you have a machine and it is configured to back up to Folder A on your local or remote volume, and after you perform a Full Backup and some Incremental backups, your destination is getting full and you want to change to a different destination (Folder B). You can reconfigure the backup settings to the Folder B destination and Arcserve UDP Agent (Windows) continues performing Incremental backups to that new destination. As a result, you have your Full Backup and some Incremental Backups on the original Folder A destination, and you have some Incremental Backups on the new Folder B destination.
If after performing some Incremental Backups to Folder B, you decide to reconfigure to another new destination (Folder C), Arcserve UDP Agent (Windows) will continue performing Incremental Backups to the Folder C destination because the link to the original Full Backup location (Folder A) has been maintained.

If you configure and perform a Full Backup (and maybe some Incremental Backups) to a destination and then you decide to change your backups to a different destination, you can copy or move the contents from the original destination to the new destination, and then reconfigure your backup settings and continue performing Incremental Backups to the new destination without any problems.
However, if you have Full Backups in one location and Incremental Backups in a second location and then move the contents from the second location to a third location and attempt to continue performing Incremental Backups, then these backups fail because the link to the first location has been lost.
For example:

If you have a machine and it is configured to back up to Folder A on your local or remote volume, and after you perform a Full Backup and some Incremental Backups, your destination is getting full and you want to change to a different destination (Folder B). You can move the contents of Folder A to Folder B and reconfigure the backup settings to the new Folder B destination. The Arcserve UDP Agent (Windows) continues performing Incremental Backups to that new Folder B destination. As a result, you have your Full Backup and Incremental Backups all on the new Folder B destination.
However, if your first destination is in Folder A (which now contains a Full Backup and some Incremental Backups) and you change the destination to Folder B using Arcserve UDP Agent (Windows) backup settings and continue to perform Incremental Backups, in this scenario, Folder B now only contains Incremental Backups. Then, if you move the contents from Folder B to another new destination in Folder C (moving only the Incremental Backups from Folder B without a Full Backup included), in this scenario, if you continue to perform Incremental Backups to Folder C, these Incremental Backups fails because the link to the original Full Backup location (Folder A) has been lost.

How your Retention Settings can affect your merge performance
If you configure the backup format to Advanced, the merge performance is improved significantly.
How volume defragmentation can affect continued backups
Volume defragmentation by Windows native tool affects the size of the block-level backups because Arcserve UDP Agent (Windows) will continue to incrementally back up all changed blocks. This means that blocks that shifted during defragmentation will also be included in the backup, even if no data has changed in the files. As a result, the backup size may increase. This is expected behavior. If you do not want the increased backup size and the added backup time is a problem, you can exclude volumes from defragmentation or stop any schedules for defragmentation.
How to configure backups of replicated volumes
If you are backing up volumes that were replicated using Arcserve Replication and High Availability, you should verify that the spool has been created on a separate volume and configure your backup settings to exclude the spool volume. This helps to avoid the backing up of unnecessary temp spool data.
Restrictions for a Microsoft SQL Server Backup
Due to Microsoft SQL Server VSS writer restrictions, some Microsoft SQL Server databases with a special status are automatically skipped and not backed up.
The Microsoft SQL server database includes:

Database with 'Restoring' status. This status indicates that the database may be the log shipping secondary database, the mirror database, or the database waiting for more backed-up data to be restored.
Database with 'Offline' status. This status indicates that the database is not available for general use.
If your database is configured in one volume and the logs are configured in another volume and you select only one volume to back up, the Microsoft SQL application backup is skipped for that particular database.
If you install Microsoft SQL Server after Arcserve UDP Agent (Windows) has been installed, and no backup has been performed yet, the Microsoft SQL Server may not be detected. As a result if you unselect a volume that has that application installed you may not get a warning notification that you are missing that application from the backup. This condition will be automatically remedied after you stop and start the Arcserve UDP Agent Services or perform the next backup.

Restrictions for a Microsoft Exchange Server Backup

If your database is configured in one volume and the logs are configured in another volume and you select only one volume to back up, the Microsoft Exchange application backup is skipped for that particular database.
Any database in a dismounted state is skipped from Microsoft Exchange application backup.
If you install Microsoft Exchange after Arcserve UDP Agent (Windows) has been installed, and no backup has been performed yet, the Microsoft Exchange server may not be detected. As a result if you unselect a volume that has that application installed you may not get a warning notification that you are missing that application from the backup. This condition will be automatically remedied after you stop and start the D2D services or perform the next backup.

Restrictions for VSS Writers
Arcserve UDP Agent (Windows) uses all the VSS writers during backup to ensure consistent backups. The only exceptions are Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange, and Hyper-V writers which are only included when they are properly licensed.
VHD Restrictions for Compression and Encryption
If both compression and encryption are disabled, then Arcserve UDP Agent (Windows) can only back up the files in .VHD format. The Arcserve UDP Agent (Windows) cannot back up the files to .VHDX format.
Active Directory Backup Prerequisites
An Active Directory restore requires an agent-based backup.
Oracle Backup Prerequisites
For more information, see the following topic:
Review the prerequisites to back up an Oracle database.
Microsoft Clustered Nodes and Shared Disks Backup Prerequisites
For more information, see the following topic:
Review the Prerequisites to Back Up Microsoft Clustered Nodes and Shared Disks.
How Arcserve UDP Agent (Windows) and the Backup Process Works
(Optional) Understand how the restore process works. For more information, see the following topics:

Review the Compatibility Matrix that provides the supported operating systems, databases, and browsers.