Creating a Backup Policy
- Log in to the CBR console.
- Choose Policies in the navigation pane. In the upper right corner, click Create Policy. Figure 1 shows an example.
- Set the backup policy parameters.
Table 1 Parameter descriptions Parameter
Description
Example Value
Type
Policy type.
Backup
Policy Name
Backup policy name. You can enter a custom name or use the default name policy_xxxx.
Only letters, digits, underscores (_), and hyphens (-) are allowed. Maximum length: 64 characters
backup_policy
Status
Whether to enable the backup policy. Backup policies are enabled by default.
CBR only backs up servers and EVS disks to a vault and deletes expired backups after a backup policy is applied to the vault.
Enable
Backup Frequency
Frequency for executing a backup task. By default, backup tasks are executed automatically every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
- Weekly
You can specify which days of each week a backup task will be executed on. You can select multiple days.
- Day-based
You can specify how many days (1 to 30) you want to pass between each backup.
If you select Day-based, the first backup should be performed on the day the policy was created. But if the execution time on the day you create the backup policy has passed, the first backup will be executed in the next backup cycle.
You are advised to perform backups during off-peak hours or when there are no services running.
Every 1 day
Execution Time
Execution time of a backup task in a day. The default backup time is 22:00.
You can select multiple times, either on or off the hour, for backup. If you select a time that is not on the hour, you can customize the time (0 to 59 minutes). For example, you can select a time that is not on the hour, such as 00:10 or 01:10.
You are advised to perform backups during off-peak hours or when there are no services running.
The backup service experiences peak usage between 22:00 and 08:00, during which delays may occur. To ensure optimal performance, it is recommended that you evaluate your service types and stagger backups across discrete time periods.
NOTICE:- There may be a time difference between the scheduled backup time and the actual backup time.
- If you have a large amount of data to back up, you are advised to set a less frequent backup schedule. If a backup task takes longer than the backup interval, the system will skip the next backup execution time.
For example, suppose a disk is scheduled to be backed up at 00:00, 01:00, and 02:00. A backup task starts at 00:00, but because there is a lot of data that needs to be backed up, or a heap of backup tasks are executed at the same time, this backup task takes 90 minutes and completes at 01:30. The scheduled backup at 01:00 will be skipped. There will be only two backups generated, one at 00:00, and the other at 02:00.
- An execution time refers to the local time of a client, not the current time in your region's time zone.
00:00, 02:00
Full Backup
Whether to perform periodic full backups. By default, full backup is disabled.
- Enable
Enabling full backup improves data reliability, but full backups will use more storage.
Configure a full backup frequency. The value ranges from 0 to 100. 0 indicates that a full backup will be performed in every backup task.
- Disable
Incremental backups will be performed based on the backup policy.
NOTICE:- A full backup usually takes a long period of time. If a full backup of a resource is in progress, other policy or manual backups of this resource will not be performed. You are advised to back up data during off-peak hours.
- When retaining backups by quantity, the number of full backups configured must be less than the total number of backups the system is configured to retain, or the system will not perform any full backups.
7
Retention Rule
Rule that specifies how backups will be retained. By default, backups are retained for one month.
- Time period
You can choose to retain backups for one month, three months, six months, or one year, or for any desired number (2 to 99999) of days.
- Backup quantity
You can set the maximum number of backups to retain for each cloud server. Value range: 2 to 99999
- Advanced Options
You can also set long-term retention rules with advanced options. Long-term retention rules and quantity-based retention rules will be both applied.
- Day-Based: The most recent backup of each day is retained. Range: 0–100
- Weekly: The most recent backup of each week is retained. Range: 0–100
- Monthly: The most recent backup of each month is retained. Range: 0–100
- Yearly: The most recent backup of each year is retained. Range: 0–100
For example, if you select Day-Based, the system retains the most recent backup each day. If a disk is backed up multiple times in a day, only the most recent backup of that day is retained. If you set the value for Day-Based to 5, the system retains the most recent backup from each of the last five days that have backups generated. If there are more than five backups, the earliest backup will be deleted automatically. If Day-Based, Weekly, Monthly, and Yearly are all configured, the union backups will be selected for retention. For example, if Day-Based is set to 5 and Weekly to 1, five backups will be retained. The long-term retention rule and the quantity-based retention rule will both apply.
- Permanent NOTE:
- The system automatically deletes the earliest and any expired backups every other day to avoid exceeding the maximum number of backups to retain or retaining any backup longer than the maximum retention period.
- Retained backups may not be deleted immediately after the expiration time specified in the backup policy. There may be a delay. Generally, they are deleted in batches from 8:00 to 20:00 after the expiration time. For example, if a backup expired at 20:00 on November 23, 2024, it would have been deleted some time between 08:00 and 20:00 on November 24, 2024. This helps ensure backups are deleted during off-peak hours.
- Retention rules are only applied to backups generated automatically by a policy. They are not applied to backups generated manually. Manual backups must be deleted manually.
- If a backup is used to create an image, the backup will not be deleted by a retention rule. Instead, it will be forcibly retained. After the image created from the backup is deleted, the retention rule will be applied to the backup. If the backup expires or is not one of the most recent backups, it will be deleted automatically.
- A maximum of 10 backups can be retained for failed periodic backup tasks. They are retained for one month or can be deleted manually.
- A backup cannot be deleted before the subsequent backup task is complete.
Select Backup quantity and set it to keep 3 backups. In addition, select Advanced Options and set it to keep the most recent backup from each of the last two weeks. If today is the 30th of a month, the execution of this policy is shown in Figure 3.
- Dates with a time indicate the days when backups were generated.
- Dates with the time in gray are backups that have been deleted.
- Dates with the time in green are backups that are being retained.
If the weekly retention rule in advanced options is not configured, only the backups generated on the 25th, 26th, and 29th will be retained.
Figure 2 Retention rule with advanced options configured
Frequent backups, more retained backups, or a longer retention can improve data protection, but those backups will also take up more space. Configure an appropriate backup policy based on the data importance and service volume.
- Weekly
- Click Create Now. After the backup policy is created, you can see it in the backup policy list.
