Using CA ARCserve Central Protection Manager › How to Manage CA ARCserve D2D Policies › Create Policies › Manage Backup Settings › Specify Protection Settings

Specify Protection Settings

CA ARCserve Central Protection Manager lets you specify the protection settings for the data that you want to back up.

To specify protection settings

1. From the CA ARCserve Central Protection Manager home page, click Policies on the Navigation bar.

   The Policies screen opens.

2. Click New to create a new policy.

   The New Policy dialog opens, displaying the Protection Settings option of the Backup Settings tab.

3. Specify the Backup Destination.

   You can specify a local path (volume or folder), or remote shared folder (or mapped drive) for the backup location.

   1. If you specify to back up to your local path (volume or folder), the specified backup destination cannot be the same location as your backup source. If you inadvertently include the source in your destination, the backup job ignores this portion of the source and not include it in the backup.

      For example, if you are attempting to back up your entire local computer which consists of Volumes C, D, and E; and also specify Volume E as your destination, CA ARCserve D2D backs up only Volumes C and D to Volume E. Data from Volume E is not included in the backup. If you want to back up all local volumes, specify a remote location for your destination.

      Important! Verify that your specified destination volume does not contain system information or else it will not be protected (backed up) and your system will fail to recover after Bare Metal Recovery (BMR), if necessary.

      Note: Dynamic disks cannot be restored at disk level. If your data is backed up to a volume on a dynamic disk, you cannot restore this dynamic disk during BMR.

   2. If you choose to back up to a remote shared location, it is imperative that you specify a location path or browse to the location and provide user credentials (User name and Password) to access the remote computer.
   3. If the specified backup destination has changed since the last backup was performed, it is required that you select the backup type. These options are enabled when you change your backup destination. The available options are Full Backup and Incremental Backup.
      • Full Backup--Specifies that the next backup performed is a full backup. The new backup destination does not have any dependency on the old backup destination. If you continue with a full backup, the previous location is no longer needed for backups to continue. You can choose to keep the old backup for any restores or delete it if you do not want to perform any restores from there. It will not affect future backups.
      • Incremental Backup--Specifies that the next backup performed is an incremental backup. The next incremental backup to the new destination is performed without copying all the backups from the previous destination. However, the new location is dependent on the previous location because the changes include only the incremental data (not the full backup data). Do not delete the data from the previous location. If you change the backup destination to another folder, and attempt to perform an incremental backup and the former backup destination does not exist, the backup will fail.
4. Specify the Backup Source.

   You can specify to back up the entire computer or an individual volume on your computer.

   • Back up the entire machine--Specifies to back up the entire machine. All volumes on the machine are backed up.

     Note: If the full machine backup option is selected, CA ARCserve D2D automatically discovers all disks/volumes attached to current machine, and include them in the backup.

     For example, if a new disk is attached to the machine after the backup setting is configured, you will not need to change the backup settings and the data on the new disk will be protected automatically.

   • Select individual volumes to back up--This volume filtering capability lets you specify to back up only the selected volumes. However, if you specify a volume that does not exist in the remote CA ARCserve D2D server, the volume automatically skips during backup. For example, specify to back up volumes C, D, and E; and assign it to the CA ARCserve D2D server which only contains volumes C and D. The policy is assigned to volumes C and D to the CA ARCserve D2D server and volume E is skipped with a warning message saved in the Activity Log.

     You also have the option to Select/Unselect all listed volumes.

     Note: If some volumes are selected explicitly for backup, only the selected volumes are backed up.

     A notification message is displayed for the following condition:

     • BMR related--If system/boot volume is not selected for backup, a warning message is displayed to notify you that the backup cannot be used for BMR.
5. Specify the Retention Setting.

   You can set the retention policy that is based on the number of recovery points to retain (merges sessions) or based on the number of recovery sets to retain (deletes recovery sets and disables infinite incrementals).

   • Recovery Point – This is the recommended option. With this option selected, you can fully leverage the infinite incremental backup capabilities and save storage space.
   • Recovery Set – This option is generally used for large storage environments. With this option selected, you can create and manage backup sets that help you manage your backup window time more efficiently when you are protecting a large amount of data. You can use this option when backup time is a priority over space constraints.

   Default: Retain Recovery Points

   Retain Recovery Points

   Select this option to specify the number of recovery points (full, incremental, and verify backup images) to retain.

   • Specify the number of recovery points to retain

     When the specified limit is exceeded; CA ARCserve D2D merges the earliest (oldest) incremental child backup into the parent backup to create a baseline image that includes the "parent plus oldest child" blocks. This cycle of merging the oldest child backup into the parent backup repeats for each subsequent backup, allowing you to perform infinite incremental backups, while maintaining the same retention count.

     Note: If your destination does not have sufficient free space, consider reducing the number of saved recovery points.

     Default: 31

     Minimum: 1

     Maximum: 1344

   • Run the merge job--Select one of the following options when to run the merge job:
     • As soon as possible--Select this option to run the merge job at any time.
     • Each day during the following time range-- Select this option to run the merge job in a specified time range. Setting a time range helps avoid the merge job from introducing too many I/O operations to the production server when the merge job runs for a long time.

       Note: When setting the time range to run the merge job, ensure that you specify a time range that will allow the related backup jobs to complete prior to the start of the merge.

   Retain Recovery Sets

   Select this option to specify the number of recovery sets to retain. With this setting, you can disable infinite incremental backups forever, without merging any sessions. Using recovery sets helps resolve the time that it takes to complete merge jobs.

   • Specify the number of recovery sets to retain

     Select this option to specify the number of recovery sets retained. A recovery set is a series of backups, starting with a full backup, and then a number of incremental, verify, or full backups.

     Example Set 1:

     • Full
     • Incremental
     • Incremental
     • Verify
     • Incremental

     Example Set 2:

     • Full
     • Incremental
     • Full
     • Incremental

     A full backup is required to start a new recovery set. The backup that starts the set is automatically converted to a full backup, even if no full backup is configured or scheduled to be performed at that time.

     Note: An incomplete recovery set is not counted when calculating an existing recovery set. A recovery set is considered complete only when the starting backup of the next recovery set is created.

     Default: 2

     Minimum: 1

     Maximum: 100

     Note: When you want to delete a recovery set to save backup storage space, reduce the number of retained sets and CA ARCserve D2D automatically deletes the oldest recovery set. Do not attempt to delete the recovery set manually.

     Example 1 - Recovery Set:

     • The backup start time is 6:00 AM, August 20, 2012.
     • An incremental backup runs every 12 hours.
     • A new recovery set starts at the last backup on Friday.
     • You want to retain three recovery sets.

     In this example, an incremental backup runs at 6:00 AM and 6:00 PM every day. The first recovery set is created when the first backup (must be a full backup) is taken. Then the first full backup is marked as the starting backup of the recovery set. When the backup scheduled at 6:00 PM on Friday is run, it converts to a full backup and the backup is marked as the starting backup of the recovery set.

     Example 2 - Recovery Set:

     • Specify the number of recovery sets to retain as 1.

     Note: CA ARCserve D2D always keeps two sets so that one complete set is kept before starting the next recovery set.

     Example 3 - Recovery Set:

     • Specify the number of recovery sets to retain as 2.

     Note: CA ARCserve D2D deletes the first recovery set when the fourth recovery set is about to start. Performing this action ensures that when the first backup is deleted and the fourth is starting, you still have two recovery sets (recovery set 2 and recovery set 3) available on the disk.

     Even if you retain only one recovery set, you will need space for at least two full backups.

   • Start a new recovery set on every:
     • Selected day of the week--Specifies the day of the week that is selected to start a new recovery set.
     • Selected day of the month--Specifies the day of the month that is selected to start a new recovery set. Specify 1 through 30 or if a month has 28, 29, 30, or 31 days, you can specify the last day of the month as the day to create the recovery set.
   • Start of a new recovery set with:
     • First backup on the selected day--Specifies the day of the week that is selected to start a new recovery set.
     • Last backup on the selected day--Indicates that you want to start a new recovery set with the last scheduled backup on the specified day. If the last backup is selected to start the set and for any reason the last backup did not run, then the next scheduled backup will start the set by converting it to a full backup. If the next backup is run ad-hoc (for example an emergency situation requires a quick incremental backup), you can decide if you want to run a full backup to start the recovery set or run an incremental backup so that the next backup starts the recovery set.

       Note: The last backup may not be the last backup of the day when you run an ad-hoc backup.

6. Specify the type of Compression.

   Select this option to specify the type of compression that you want to use for backups.

   Compression decreases your disk space usage, but also has an inverse impact on your backup speed due to the increased CPU usage.

   The available compression options are as follows:

   • No Compression

     No compression is performed. This option has the lowest CPU usage (fastest speed), but also has the highest disk space usage for your backup image.

   • Standard Compression

     Some compression is performed. This option provides a good balance between CPU usage and disk space usage. This is the default setting.

   • Maximum Compression

     Maximum compression is performed. This option provides the highest CPU usage (lowest speed), but also has the lowest disk space usage for your backup image.

   Be aware of the following scenarios:

   • If your backup image contains data that cannot be compressed, such as JPG images, ZIP files, and so on, additional storage space needs to be allocated to handle such data. If you specify compression options and the backup source contains data that cannot be compressed, you will notice an overall increase in disk space usage.
   • If you change the compression level from no compression to standard or maximum compression; or, if you change the compression level from standard or maximum compression to no compression, the first backup performed after the compression level change will be full backup. After the full backup completes, all future backups (Full, Incremental, or Verify) will be performed as scheduled.
   • If your destination does not have sufficient free space, consider increasing the Compression setting of the backup.
7. Specify the Encryption settings.
   1. Select the type of encryption algorithm that you want to use for backups.

      Data encryption is the translation of data into a form that is unintelligible without a deciphering mechanism. CA ARCserve D2D data protection uses secure, AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) encryption algorithms to achieve maximum security and privacy of your specified data.

      The available format options are No Encryption, AES-128, AES-192, and AES-256. (To disable encryption, select No Encryption).

      • A full backup and all its related incremental and verify backups must use same encryption algorithm.
      • If the encryption algorithm for an incremental or verify backup is changed, a full backup must be performed. This means after changing encryption algorithm, the first backup will be full, despite the original backup type.

        For example, if you change the algorithm format and submit a customized incremental or verify backup manually, it automatically converts to a full backup.

   2. When an encryption algorithm is selected, provide (and confirm) an encryption password.
      • The encryption password is limited to a maximum of 23 characters.
      • A full backup and all its related incremental and verify backups must use same password to encrypt data.
      • If the encryption password for an incremental or verify backup is changed, a full backup must be performed. This means after changing encryption password, the first backup will be full, despite the original backup type.

        For example, if you change the encryption password and submit a customized incremental or verify backup manually, it automatically converts to a full backup.

   3. CA ARCserve D2D provides encryption password management so that you do not need to remember encryption passwords.
      • Password will also be encrypted.
      • Password will be remembered and not required if you restore to the same machine.
      • Password is required if you restore to a different machine.
      • Password is not required if you are attempting to export a recovery point that contains encrypted data and the recovery point belongs to backups performed on the current machine.
      • Password is always required if you are attempting to recover encrypted data from an exported recovery point.
      • Password is not required to browse to an encrypted recovery point.
      • Password is required to perform a BMR.
   4. When encryption is enabled the activity log will be updated.
      • A message will be recorded in the activity log to describe the selected encryption algorithm for every backup.
      • A message will be recorded in the activity log to indicate why an incremental or verify backup was converted to a full backup (password change or algorithm change).

   Note: Encryption settings do not have to remain the same for your backups. You can change these settings at any time, including after several backups of the same data.

8. Specify the Throttle Backup.

   You can specify the maximum speed (MB/min) at which backups will be written. You can throttle the backup speed to reduce CPU or network utilization. However, by limiting the backup speed, it will have an adverse affect on the backup window. As you lower the maximum backup speed it will increase the amount of time of perform the backup.

   Note: By default, the Throttle Backup option is not enabled and backup speed is not being controlled.

9. Click Save.

The protection settings are saved.