Creating a Backup Policy

Constraints

• You can apply backup policies to server backup vaults, SFS Turbo backup vaults, and disk backup vaults.
• A backup policy must be enabled before it can be used for periodic backups.
• A user can create a maximum of 32 backup policies in each region.
• When both a backup time and a replication time are configured, ensure that replication starts after backup is complete. Otherwise, replication may fail.
• When expired backups are deleted, automatic backups will be deleted, but manual backups will not.
• Only servers in the Running or Stopped state and disks in the Available or In-use state can be backed up.
• CBR by default performs a full backup for a resource in the initial backup and incremental backups in subsequent backups.
• The minimum interval between two full backups is one day.
• In CloudPond scenarios, backups in vaults are retained only by quantity. A maximum of seven backups can be retained.

Procedure

1. Log in to the CBR console. Click in the upper left corner and select a region.
2. Choose Policies in the navigation pane and click the Backup Policies tab. In the upper right corner, click Create Policy.
   Figure 1 Creating a backup policy

   

3. Set the backup policy parameters. Table 1 describes the parameters.

   Table 1 Backup policy parameters

   Parameter	Description	Example Value
   Type	Select a policy type. In this example, select the backup policy.	Backup policy
   Policy Name	Backup policy name. You can enter a custom name or use the default name policy_xxxx. The name can contain 1 to 64 characters. Only letters, digits, underscores (_), and hyphens (-) are allowed.	backup_policy
   Status	Whether to enable the backup policy. By default, this function is enabled. CBR backs up resources to vaults and deletes expired backups only after a backup policy is enabled and applied to the vaults.	Enabled
   Backup Frequency	Select a backup frequency. By default, the backup task is executed automatically every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Weekly Specifies on which days of each week the backup task will be executed. You can select multiple days. Day-based Specifies the interval (every 1 to 30 days) for executing the backup task. If you select day-based backup, the first backup is supposed to be executed on the day when the backup policy is created. If the creation time of the backup policy is later than the latest execution time, the initial backup will be performed in the next backup cycle. It is recommended that backups be performed during off-peak hours or when no services are running.	Every day
   Execution Time	Time when the backup is executed. The default backup time is 22:00. Backups can be scheduled at the beginning of each hour, and you can select multiple hours. It is recommended that backups be performed during off-peak hours or when no services are running. The backup service experiences peak usage from 22:00 to 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. NOTE: There may be a time difference between the scheduled backup time and the actual backup time. If a large amount of data needs to be backed up, you are advised to make backup less frequent to prevent the system from skipping any execution time. For example, a disk is scheduled to be backed up at 00:00, 01:00, and 02:00. A backup task starts at 00:00. Because a large amount of incremental data needs to be backed up or a heap of backup tasks are executed at the same time, this backup task takes 90 minutes to complete at 01:30. CBR performs the next backup at 02:00. In this case, only two backups are generated in total, one at 00:00, and the other at 02:00. The backup time refers to the client's local time, not the time zone of the region.	00:00, 02:00
   Full Backup	Whether to perform periodic full backups. This function is disabled by default. Enable Enabling full backup improves your data reliability, but full backups will take more storage space. Configure a full backup frequency. The value ranges from 0 to 100. A value of 0 means that a full backup will be performed in every backup task. Do not enable CBR will perform incremental backups after the first backup. NOTE: 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 can back up data during off-peak hours. When backups are kept by quantity, full backups can be performed only when the configured full backup frequency is less than the number of retained backups. If full backup is not enabled, to ensure data security, a full backup is performed after 365 incremental backups, by default.	7
   Retention Rule	The rule that specifies how backups will be retained. By default, backups are retained for one month. A maximum of 10 backups are retained for failed periodic backup tasks. They are retained for one month and can be deleted manually. Backup quantity You can set the maximum number of backups to retain for each resource. The value ranges from 2 to 99,999. Advanced settings for quantity-based retention 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: 0–100. The latest backup of every day is retained. Weekly: 0–100. The latest backup of every week is retained. Monthly: 0–100. The latest backup of every month is retained. Yearly: 0–100. The latest backup of every year is retained. A resource may be backed up multiple times in a day. If day-based backup is configured, only the most recent backup of that day is retained. If you set Day-based to 5, the most recent backup of each of the last five days will be retained. A total of five backups are retained. If there are more than five backup replicas, the system automatically deletes the earliest backup replicas. When multiple backup schedules (daily, weekly, monthly, yearly) are enabled, the system retains the combined union of all backups. 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 both apply. Time period Backups can be retained for one month, three months, six months, one year, or a user-defined period between 2 and 99,999 days. Advanced settings for time-based retention If you select weekly or daily backup, you can also set advanced settings for time-based retention. The original retention rule and advanced retention settings will both apply. Monthly-retention options in advanced settings for monthly and yearly backup rules are available only when the backup cycle is configured as daily or Monday through Sunday. For backups subject to multiple retention rules, the longest retention period applies. Weekly retention rule: You can set an extended retention period for daily backups created on any day from Monday to Sunday. The extension can range from 1 to 5,200 weeks, with a default of 5 weeks. The weekly backup policy determines which day can be selected for retention settings. For example, if weekly backups are scheduled only on Sunday, then you can only select Sunday in the advanced retention policy. Monthly retention rule: Week-based: You can set an extended retention period for monthly backups created on a specific weekday in a given week of a month. You can select the first through fourth week, or the last week of the month. The choice of weekday is restricted by the weekly backup policy. The retention period ranges from 1 to 1,200 months. The default value is 2 months. Month-based: You can set an extended retention period for backups created on a specific day of each month. The selectable dates include days 1–28 and the last day of the month. The retention period ranges from 1 to 1,200 months. The default value is 2 months. Skip: The advanced retention rule for monthly backups will not be configured. Yearly retention rule: Week-based: You can set an extended retention period for backups created on a weekday within a particular week of a selected month. You can select the first through fourth week, or the last week of the month. The choice of weekday is restricted by the weekly backup policy. The retention period ranges from 1 to 100 years. Month-based: You can set an extended retention period for backups created on a specific day within a chosen month each year. The selectable dates include days 1–28 and the last day of the month. The retention period ranges from 1 to 100 years. Skip: The advanced retention rule for yearly backups will not be configured. Permanent You can retain backups permanently. NOTE: The system automatically deletes the earliest and expired backups every other day. This prevents exceeding the maximum number of backups to retain or retaining any backup longer than the maximum retention period. Expired backups are not deleted immediately upon expiration. Instead, they are deleted in batches between 08:00 and 20:00. For example, if a backup expired at 20:00 on November 23, 2024, it was deleted between 08:00 and 20:00 on November 24, 2024. In this way, backup data can be deleted during off-peak hours. The retention rules apply only to auto-generated backups; manual ones must be deleted manually. If a backup is used to create an image, the backup will not be deleted by the retention rule. Instead, it will be forcibly retained. If you delete the image created from the backup, the backup will be retained based on the original retention rule applied. (If the backup expires or is not within the most recent backups specified in the retention rule, CBR will automatically delete the backup.) If a backup has been created and the next backup task is in progress, CBR will not allow you to delete the most recent backup. You can delete the backup only after the ongoing backup task is complete.	Select Backup quantity and set to keep 3 backups. Under Advanced Options, select Configure now and set to keep the most recent backup from each of the last two weeks. If today is the 30th of a month, see the execution of this policy in Figure 3. Dates with a time indicate the days that have backups generated Dates with the time in gray indicate that the backups have been deleted. Dates with the time in green indicate that the backups are retained. If the weekly retention rule in advanced options is not configured, only the backups generated on the 25th, 26th, and 29th are retained.

   Figure 2 Quantity-based retention rule with advanced options configured
   
   Figure 3 The execution of the retention rule
   
   

   More frequent backups create more backups or extend their retention, offering better data protection at the cost of increased storage usage. Set an appropriate backup frequency as needed.

4. Click Create Now. After the backup policy is created, you can view it in the backup policy list.
5. Locate the desired vault and choose More > Apply Backup Policy in the Operation column to apply the policy to the vault. You can then view the applied policy on the vault details page, and data will be periodically backed up to the vault based on the policy.

Example

At 10:00 a.m. on Monday, a user sets a backup policy for their vault to instruct CBR to execute a backup task at 02:00 a.m. every day and retain a maximum of three backups. As of 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, three backups will be retained, which are generated on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. The backups generated at 02:00 a.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday have been automatically deleted.