Veritas™ System Recovery 18 Service Pack 3 Management Solution Administrator's Guide

To edit a backup policy

1. On the Veritas System Recovery 18 Management Solution Manage Tasks tab, in the left pane, click Backup Policies.
2. In the middle panel, select a backup policy name.
3. On the table's toolbar, click Edit.
4. In the displayed pane, use the available options and backup properties to make any changes that you want to the policy.

   Backup Policy Schedule tab options for a recovery point set

   Schedule	Lets you select the days and a start time for when the backup should run.
   Start time (24 hour format)	Lets you customize the start time of the backup .
   Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat	Lets you customize the days of the week for the backup to run. The default is to run the backup Monday through Friday.
   Run more than once per day	Lets you run the backup more than once a day to protect the data that you edit or change frequently.
   Time between backups	Lets you specify the maximum time that should occur between backups.
   Number of times	Lets you specify the number of times per day that the backup should run.
   Automatically optimize	Lets you select how often optimization should occur for the backup destination to manage the used disk space. You can choose from the following options: Never Indicates that no deletion of incremental recovery points is performed. Every four hours Indicates that a deletion of incremental recovery points that are four hours old (or older) is performed every four hours. Also, after the first incremental of the day is taken, all incremental files from two days previous are consolidated to a single file. Every twelve hours Indicates that a deletion of incremental recovery points that are 12 hours old (or older) is performed every 12 hours. Also, after the first incremental of the day is taken, all incremental files from two days previous are consolidated to a single file.
   Distribute strategy randomly across (minutes)	Indicates that the policy is distributed randomly across a specified number of minutes (0-1440) to all the computers that are assigned to the policy. This option applies if you save recovery points to a network destination. For example, suppose you want to distribute a backup policy in 60 minutes to 120 computers. Each of the 120 computers would randomly choose a time within the 60 minutes, before or after the scheduled start time, to start the backup. This option helps to run not the policy at the same start time for all computers, which can cause a denial of service condition on the network, the recovery point destination, or both.
   Start a new recovery point set	Lets you select how frequently a new recovery point set should be started. Your options for starting new recovery point set (base) include the following: Weekly Creates a new recovery point set on the first scheduled or manual backup of the week. Monthly Creates a new recovery point set on the first scheduled or manual backup of the month. Quarterly Creates a new recovery point set on the first scheduled or manual backup every three months from the date when you selected this option. Yearly Creates a new recovery point set on the first scheduled or manual backup of the year, once a year, on the date that you selected for this option. Custom Lets you set specific weekly or monthly options for starting a new recovery point set.
   Custom	Lets you customize the start time, and the days of the week or month to run the backup. Note: If you choose to archive recovery points, consider creating recovery point sets more frequently to keep the size of your recovery point sets smaller.

   Backup Policy Triggers tab options for a recovery point set

   Any application is installed	Indicates that an incremental recovery point is created at the time users begin to install a software application on their computer.
   Specified applications are launched	Indicates that an incremental recovery point is created at the time users run a specified software application on their computer.
   Any user logs on to the computer	Indicates that an incremental recovery point is created when users log on to Windows on their computer.
   Any user logs off from the computer	Indicates that an incremental recovery point is created at the moment users log off from Windows on their computer (but does not turn off Windows).
   Data added to the drive exceeds	Indicates that an incremental recovery point is created when the added data on a drive exceeds an amount (in megabytes) that you specify.

   Backup Policy Schedule options for an independent recovery point

   Automatically create a recovery point	Lets you specify a weekly or monthly backup schedule. The scheduling options include the following: Weekly Creates a new, independent recovery point on each day of the week that you check, and at the specified time. When you create independent recovery points one or more times per week, large amounts of disk storage space may be required. Monthly Creates a new, independent recovery point on each day of the month that you check, and at the specified time. No Schedule Saves all of the backup policy settings except a schedule. You can later deploy the backup policy at your convenience by assigning a schedule to the policy. You can also create a single independent recovery point once, with no schedule. See Creating an independent backup task.
   Start time (24 hour format)	Lets you customize the start time of the backup .
   Days of the week	Lets you customize the days of the week for the backup policy to run.
   Days of the month	Lets you customize the days of the month for the backup policy to run.
   Distribute strategy randomly across (minutes)	Indicates that the policy is distributed randomly across a specified number of minutes (0-1440) to all the computers that are assigned to the policy. This option applies if you save recovery points to a network destination. For example, suppose you want to distribute a backup policy in 60 minutes to 120 computers. Each of the 120 computers would randomly choose a time within the 60 minutes, before or after the scheduled start time, to start the backup. This option helps to not run the policy at the same start time for all computers, which can cause a denial of service condition on the network, the recovery point destination, or both.

   Backup Destination options

   Enter a folder relative to the managed computers	Indicates the location where you want to store the recovery points, relative to the managed computers.
   Browse	Lets you browse only a local destination that you want to use, relative to the managed computers. You must have create, read, and write privileges at the specified location. Note: You cannot browse and select an OpenStorage destination, FTP destination, or network destination. If there is insufficient space at the destination where the recovery point is stored, the policy fails and an error is reported on the Veritas System Recovery 18 Management Solution Home tab.
   User name	Lets you specify the user name to a destination folder that is located in a network path or OpenStorage destination. See Providing the OpenStorage destination path. See OpenStorage destination options for backups.
   Password	Lets you specify the password to a destination that is located in a network path or OpenStorage destination. See Providing the OpenStorage destination path. See OpenStorage destination options for backups.
   Confirm password	Lets you retype the password for confirmation.

   Advanced recovery point options

   Active backup policy	Activates the backup policy on the managed client computer. If you deselect this option, the backup policy is still sent to the managed client computer but it is not activated.
   Limit the number of recovery point sets (bases) saved for this backup (Recovery point sets only) or Limit the number of recovery points saved for this backup (Independent recovery points only)	Specifies the maximum number of recovery points or recovery point sets that are saved for each drive. When this limit is reached, each successive recovery point or set is first created and stored. The oldest, previously created recovery point or set is then deleted (including all associated incrementals, if applicable) from the same storage location. Ensure that you have enough hard disk space to accommodate the number of recovery points or sets you specify, plus one additional recovery point or set. If you run out of hard disk space before the number is reached, the recurring recovery point process cannot complete successfully, and a current recovery point or set is not created
   Verify recovery point after creation	Checks whether a recovery point or recovery point set is valid or corrupt immediately following its creation. For steps on how to verify the integrity of a recovery point long after it has been created, refer to the Veritas System Recovery product documentation. When you verify a recovery point, it can approximately double the time that is required to create the recovery point.
   Disable SmartSector copying	Speeds up the copying process by copying only hard disk sectors with data. However, in some cases, it may be desirable to copy all sectors in their original layout, whether or not they contain data. If you want to copy both used and unused hard disk sectors, select Disable SmartSector Copying. When you select this option, it increases the process time, and usually results in a larger recovery point file size.
   Ignore bad sectors during copy	Creates a recovery point even if bad sectors are on the hard drive. Although most drives do not have bad sectors, the potential for problems increases during the lifetime of the hard drive.
   Perform full VSS backup	Lets you perform a full backup on the VSS storage and send a request for VSS to review its own transaction log. This option is used for VSS applications, such as Microsoft SQL. VSS determines what transactions are already committed to the database and then truncates those transactions. Among other things, truncated transaction logs help keep the file size manageable and limits the amount of hard drive space that the file uses. If you do not select this option, backups still occur on the VSS storage. However, VSS does not automatically truncate the transaction logs following a backup. Note: This option does not apply to Veritas System Recovery Linux Edition.
   Divide into smaller files to simplify archiving	Splits a recovery point into two or more smaller files. This feature is useful if you create or export a recovery point that you want to copy to removable media later for safekeeping. The recovery point is split into smaller, more manageable files. You can then copy the files onto separate, removable media, such as a DVD or CD. If Veritas System Recovery creates an .sv2i file in addition to the .v2i files, you need to save the .sv2i file on the same media as the first .v2i file. If you create a recovery point of volumes with thousands of files on a computer that has low memory, splitting the recovery point into smaller segments can help speed the process. If a recovery point is divided into multiple files, the file names for subsequent files are appended with _S01, _S02, and so forth. For example, if the default file name were Dev-RBrough_C_Drive.v2i, the second file name would be Dev-RBrough_C_Drive_S01.v2i, and so on.
   Include system and temporary files	Includes the indexing support for the operating system and temporary files when a recovery point is created on the client computer. Note: This option does not apply to Veritas System Recovery Linux Edition.

   Command File Settings options

   Use command file package to deliver command files to the local machine	Indicates if you intend to deploy the Veritas System Recovery command file package that is stored on the Notification Server computer. See Deploying the command files package to client computers for use during a backup. When you deselect this option, you can specify a folder on a network share where the command files are stored for deployment.
   Command files folder	Lets you specify the location of command files if you want them to be located in a place other than the default location. You can also specify a location on a per-job basis, as well as specify a location that can be shared among several computers. If you specify a network location, you are prompted for network credentials.
   User name	Lets you specify the user name to a command file folder that is located in a network path.
   Password	Lets you specify the password to a command file folder that is located in a network path.
   Confirm password	Lets you retype the password to a command file folder that is located in a network path.
   Run before snapshot creation	Lets you run a command file after a backup has started and before a recovery point is created. You can run a command during this stage to prepare for the recovery point creation process. For example, you can close any open applications that use the drive. Note: If you use this option, be sure that the command file has an error recovery mechanism built into it. If the computer has one or more services that must be stopped at this stage (such as stopping a non-VSS aware database or a resource-intensive application), and the command file does not contain any form of error recovery, one or more of the stopped services may not be restarted. An error in the command file can cause the recovery point creation process to stop immediately. No other command files can run.
   Run after snapshot creation	Lets you run a command file after a snapshot is created. Running a command during this stage is a safe point for allowing services to resume normal activity on the drive while continuing the recovery point creation. Because the snapshot takes only a few seconds to create, the database is in the backup state momentarily. A minimal number of log files are created.
   Run after recovery point creation	Lets you run a command file after the recovery point file is created. You can run a command during this stage to act on the recovery point itself. For example, you can copy it to an offline location.
   Timeout (applies to each stage)	Lets you specify the amount of time (in seconds) that a command file is allowed to run.

5. Click Save changes.