Settings › Manage Backup Settings › Specify the Protection Settings

Specify the Protection Settings

Protection settings for the information to be backed up helps ensure that the backup data is reliably protected (copied and saved) against any form of data loss.

Note: To view a video related to these Backup Settings, see Manage Backup Settings.

Specify the protection settings

1. From the CA ARCserve D2D On Demand home page (or CA ARCserve D2D On Demand Monitor), select Settings from the taskbar and then select the Backup Settings tab. When the Backup Settings dialog opens, select Protection.

   The Backup Settings Protection dialog opens.

   

2. Specify the Backup Destination.

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

   Click the green arrow icon button to verify the connection to the specified location.

   • If you entered a local path for the destination, this button is disabled.
   • If you enter a network path and click this button, you are prompted to provide the username and password.
   • If you are already connected to this path successfully, and click the arrow button you can change the username and password used to connect.
   • If you do not click the arrow button, the destination path is checked and if needed, you are prompted for the username and password.
   1. If you want 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 does not include it in the backup.

      For example, if you are attempting to back up your entire local machine which consists of Volumes C, D, and E; and also specify Volume E as your destination, CA ARCserve D2D On Demand will only back up Volumes C and D to Volume E. Data from Volume E will not be included in the backup. If you want to back up all local volumes, you must 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 are restored at disk level only. If your data is backed up to a volume on a dynamic disk, you will not be able to restore this dynamic disk during BMR.

   2. If you want to back up to a remote shared location, you must specify a location path or browse to the location. You will also have to provide user credentials (User name and Password) to access the remote machine.
   3. If the backup destination has changed since the last backup was performed, you must select the backup type; Full Backup and Incremental Backup. These options are only enabled when you change your backup destination.

      Full Backup

      The next backup performed will be 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 select 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

      The next backup performed will be an Incremental Backup. The next incremental backup to the new destination is performed without copying all the backups from the previous destination. However, for this option, the new location is dependent on the previous location because the changes will include just 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.

3. Specify the Backup Source.

   You can back up the entire machine or selected volumes.

   Back up the entire machine

   Lets you back up the entire machine. All volumes on the machine will be backed up.

   Note: If you select the full machine backup option, CA ARCserve D2D On Demand 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. 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. If a new disk/volume is attached to the machine, you must manually change the volume selection list to protect the data on the new disk/volume.

   When you select this option, a listing of all available volumes will be displayed, with the corresponding volume information and notification messages.

   

   • Name – volume drive letter, mount point, volume GUID (Globally Unique Identifier) name.
   • Layout – simple, spanned, mirror, stripped, RAID5 (backup of a RAID 5 volume on Microsoft Dynamic Disks is not supported; but backup of hardware RAID is supported).
   • Type – basic, dynamic
   • File system – NTFS, FAT, FAT32 (backup of FAT and FAT32 is not supported)
   • Contents – Application (SQL/Exchange), System, Boot, Page file, Active, Removable Device, VHD, 2TB Disk
   • Total size – capacity of the volume
   • Used Space – space occupied by files/folders and volume data.

   The notification messages will be displayed for any of the following conditions:

   • Local volume related

     If the specified backup destination is located on the local volume, a warning message is displayed to notify you that this volume will not be backed up.

   • BMR related

     If system/boot volume is not selected for backup, a warning message is displayed to notify you that the backup will not be usable for BMR.

   • Application related

     If the application data files are located on a volume that is not selected for backup, the application name and database name are displayed for reference.

4. Specify the Recovery Points.

   Specifies the number of recovery points (backup images) retained.

   When the specified limit is exceeded, the earliest (oldest) incremental child backup is merged into the parent backup to create a new baseline image consisting of 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, you may consider reducing the number of saved recovery points

   By default the retention count is set to 31 recovery points.

   Note: The maximum number of recovery points is 1344.

5. Specify the type of Compression.

   Specifies the type of compression to be used for backups.

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

   The available options are:

   • No Compression

     No compression will be 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 will be performed. This option provides a good balance between CPU usage and disk space usage. This is the default setting.

   • Maximum Compression

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

   Notes:

   • If your backup image contains uncompressible data (such as JPG images, ZIP files, and so on), you may need to allocate additional storage space to handle such data. As a result, if you select any compression option and have uncompressible data in your backup, it may result in an increase in disk space usage.
   • If you change the compression level from No Compression to either Standard Compression or Maximum Compression, or if you change from either Standard Compression or Maximum Compression to No Compression, the first backup performed after this compression level change will automatically be a Full Backup. After the Full Backup is performed, all future backups (Full, Incremental, or Verify) will be performed as scheduled.
   • If your destination does not have sufficient free space, you may consider increasing the Compression setting of the backup.
6. Specify the Encryption settings.
   1. Select the type of encryption algorithm to be used for backups.

      Data encryption is the translation of data into a form that is unintelligible without a deciphering mechanism. CA ARCserve D2D On Demand 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 will automatically be converted to a full backup.

   2. When an encryption algorithm is selected, you must 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 the 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 will automatically be converted to a full backup.

   3. CA ARCserve D2D On Demand 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.

7. 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 effect on the backup window. As you lower the maximum backup speed it will increase the amount of time of perform the backup. For a backup job, the Job Monitor on the CA ARCserve D2D On Demand homepage will display the average Read and Write speed of the job in progress and the configured throttle speed limit.

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

8. Calculate the Estimated Backup Size.

   Displays the estimated usage of the destination volume.

   For more information about using these estimated backup calculations, see Estimate Future Backup Space Requirements.

   • Estimated Values

     You can use estimated values to calculate the approximate overall backup size based on the number of recovery points.

     • Space Saved After Compression.

       This value indicates how much disk space is saved after compression.

       For example, if the data size of a volume is 1000 MB, and after backup the compressed data size is 800 MB, then the Space Saved After Compression is estimated to be 200 MB (20%).

     • Change Rate

       This value indicates the typical data size of an incremental backup.

       For example, if an incremental backup data size is 100 MB, and the full backup data size is 1000 MB, the change rate is estimated to be 10%.

   • Pie Chart

     With the Estimated Values defined, CA ARCserve D2D On Demand calculates and displays the estimated backup size required based on the configuration of the backup destination and the recovery points. The pie chart also displays the amount of used space and free space.

   • Estimated Backup Size

     Displays the estimated values for Total Source Size, Compressed Full Backup Size, Compressed Incremental Backup Size, and Estimated Total Backup Size.

9. Click Save Settings.

   Your backup protection settings are saved.