Updated on 2025-08-05 GMT+08:00

Creating a Backup Policy

A backup policy allows CBR to automatically back up vaults at specified times or intervals. Periodic backups can be used to restore data quickly against data corruption or loss.

You can use the default backup policy or create a custom one to enable periodic data backups for resources.

You can classify service systems based on their importance and the potential impact of their interruption on company operations. You are advised to configure different data backup policies for different types of service systems. For more details, see Creating Backup Policies Based on Service Tiering.

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.

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 maximum of 32 backup policies can be created in each account.
  • When both a backup time and a replication time are configured, ensure that replication starts after backup is complete. Or, 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.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the CBR console.

    1. Log in to the management console.
    2. Click in the upper left corner and select a region.
    3. Click and choose Storage > Cloud Backup and Recovery.

  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.

    A name must contain 1 to 64 characters including digits, letters, underscores (_), or hyphens (-).

    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 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 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 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 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 and completes 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 execution times refer to the local times of clients, not the time zone and times 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 use more storage space.

      Configure a full backup frequency. The value ranges from 0 to 100. Value 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.

      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 can back up data during off-peak hours.
      • When backups are kept by quantity, full backups can be performed only when the full backup frequency configured 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

    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, 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 resource. The value ranges from 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: 0–100
      • Weekly: 0–100
      • Monthly: 0–100
      • Yearly: 0–100

      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. If day-based, weekly, monthly, and yearly retention rules are all configured, all the rules will apply and the union set of backups will be retained. 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.

    • Permanent
      NOTE:
      • The system automatically deletes the earliest and 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.
      • Expired backups are not deleted right after they are expired. They will be deleted during 08:00 to 20:00 in batches. For example, if a backup expired at 20:00 on November 23, 2024, it was deleted during 08:00 to 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, but not manual backups. Manual backups need to 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.)
      • A maximum of 10 failed periodic backups are retained. They are retained for one month and can be deleted manually.
      • If a backup has been generated and the next backup task is in progress, CBR will not allow you to delete the most recent backup generated. 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 Retention rule with advanced options configured
    Figure 3 The execution of the retention rule

    More frequent backups create more backups or retain backups for a longer time, protecting data to a greater extent but occupying more storage space. 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. Then you can view the applied policy on the vault details page. After the policy is applied, 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.