How to combine full backups with incremental backups

Hi together

I hope I don't ask something, which is treated here somewhere else, but I didn't find it (english is not my mother language...)

I just need to know, how to proceed to schedule a full back up i.e every week on Sunday and every weekday an incremental BU. That means, that the last full BU is max 1 week old. The incremental BU of the weekday should be automatic overwritten, so I should have on my disc only:

BU.tib Full (Sunday)
BU1.tib Incr (Monady)
BU2.tib Incr (Tuesday)
....
BU6.tib Inc (Saturday)

Which file names to choose for this result?

Thanks and regs

Heinz

 

You could do this manually but if you want the process automated this is what ATI can do. Create a Backup Location (see user guide) with a limit of 1 full file. Create task to make backup to the Backup Location. Specify inc backup; specify a new full after 6 incs.

ATI should delete the prior Full once 6 incs are made and the next full is created. The orphaned incs remain behind and are overwritten as new incs are made -- I don't know why ATI doesn't cleanup the orphaned incs but it doesn't. IF you specified a Backup Location limit of two full files, then when the 3rd full is made, ATI would automatically consolidate the oldest full and its incs into one file, then delete it the next time the limit is reached.

 

Hi there

This works with ATI 10, but I have AT Entreprise Server...

Heinz

 

Then just create each backup as a separate task and specify the name for the full and each incremental such as:
Sunday-full
Monday-incr
Tuesday-incr
etc.
Of course, you would use names that you like in your language.

Each day of the week, the file will be overwritten with the new full or incremental. On Sunday, the full backup is overwritten, so the incrementals become useless. You could run a batch file to delete them on Sunday.

You could also use this as a more complex arrangement with Sunday-full-week1, Monday-incr-week1, etc. and then Sunday-full-week2, Monday-incr-week2, etc. scheduling the backups to run every other week.

You might want to keep some older full backups as disaster recovery in the event of a failure that slowly corrupts files before you realize the problem. In English, we call these "aged" backups.

 

Thanks! I will try my best, I have no experiance with batch files..

Heinz

 

Hello HeLy,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Remote Server Backup Software.

We are sorry for delayed response.

Your initial schedule can be created by setting two tasks: one to create a full backup every Sunday, and another to create an incremental backup on other days of the week. When scheduling incremental task, choose the same base archive name as in the full one.

To ensure that in any case you have at least one valid full backup (for example, a full backup is in progress, and it fails for some reason), the following batch files can be used with the full backup task:

File to be used as pre command (pre.bat) contents:

REM Renaming the existing full backup. Example: REN D:\MyBackupFolder\MyBackup.tib MyBackup(temp).tib
REN [drive:][path]FullBackupName TemporarilyName

File to be used as post command (post.bat) contents:

REM Deleting the temporatily file. Example: DEL D:\MyBackupFolder\MyBackup(temp).tib
DEL [drive:][path]TemporarilyName

The files can be created in any text editor (notepad, for example) and saved with .bat extension. The "REM" strings can be omitted in both files (they serve as comments only).

Thank you.
--
Marat Setdikov

 

Manual tasks with Backup Location quota: Full and Incremental tasks

Interesting.

I'm setting up ATI for a friend's laptop. He travels, and it's never certain he'll have the laptop on at any given time or day, so scheduled tasks aren't really a good solution. Using "Management Tools" I've created a Backup Location as a folder on an external hard drive, and gave that Backup Location just a maximum size quota. I then created two Tasks, each to be launched manually: one to create a Full Backup; one to create Incremental Backup.

I'll instruct him to run the Full Backup task every week or so, and run the Incremental Backup task more frequently. How will ATI deal with consolidating or deleting the oldest full or incremental images when the total hits the quota of the Backup Location? I guess ideally it makes sense for it to delete/consolidate the incrementals and retain as many full images as possible, but I don't know if that's how ATI will do it. Any idea what ATI will do with this setup?

 

My system creates a full backup on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 03h00, and incrementals on every other day. As an extra safety measure, I also keep the previous backup just in case something goes wrong with a current backup task (this has never happened, but you can't be too careful with precious data), so the previous backup is renamed before the new tasks begin.

Full image of data only (not system) is 95GB, so I use a separate 400GB disk for archives only. All PC system drives are imaged weekly onto a separate drive and then copied to a network folder.

There are two tasks:
1. Full backups, scheduled for M, W, F at 03h00. The backup archive filename is Data.tib
2. Incremental backups, scheduled for T, Th, S and Sun at 03h00. The backup archive filename is the same, ie Data.tib

A simple batch file is set to run as a pre command for full backups only:

{set the drive/directory where your TIB archives are kept}
erase *.full_tib
erase *.incr_tib
ren Data.tib Previous_Data.full_tib
ren Data2.tib Previous_Data2.incr_tib
erase U:\Data\Data*.tib

This ensures I always have a full backup and the previous backups, just in case.

Has worked for years without a hitch.

As an aside, to ensure further protection, a scheduled task copies the last full backup to a PC in a secure fireproof room -- I'd hate to lose everything if the regular backup PC were stolen or destroyed. Once a month I also put all system and data archives onto 160GB 2.5-inch drives and lock them in a cupboard. Disks are so cheap these days, so it's worth investing in enough storage. As anyone who has ever lost data knows, you can't be too careful.

 

Normally, after a backup is made to a Backup Location, ATI tests for limits and if a limit is exceeded, then consolidates the oldest backup set into one file, if the limits are still exceeeded, then deletion ofhte oldest comes next.

If you aren't running incs/diffs, then the consoldiation step is skipped.
Hope that helps.

 

If that's the case, then ATI should still manage the backups and limits in the Backup Location folder, eveny though we'll run the Tasks manually.

Thanks.

 

Manage Backup Location: retain multiple Full Backups with recent Incremental Backups

I set up ATI 11 for a friend's XP laptop. He travels, and it's never certain he'll have the laptop on at any given time or day, so scheduled tasks aren't really a good solution.

Using "Management Tools" I created two Tasks, each to be launched manually:

one to create a Full Backup;
one to create Incremental Backup.

I also created a batch file for each to directly launch the Task, with a shortcut to each batch file to make it simply for my friend. Thanks to shieber and k0lo for the information on how to do this!

I created a Backup Location as a folder on an external hard drive, and gave that Backup Location just a maximum size quota of 100 GB.

I want him to run the Full Backup task every week or so, and run the Incremental Backup task more frequently. I believe ATI is supposed to automatically consolidate or deleting the oldest full or incremental images when the total hits the quota of the Backup Location.

Ideally I'd like ATI to delete/consolidate the incrementals and retain as many full images as possible, but I don't know how to achieve that.

I ran the Full Backup task, which created the file MyBackup.tib (about 14 GB).
Later I ran the Incremental Backup task twice, which created files MyBackup2.tib and MyBackup3.tib.
Then later I ran the Full Backup task again: ATI deleted the original full backup archive and created the new file MyBackup1.tib.


This did not achieve what I want. I want to be able to run the Full Backup task every week or two, and to retain several older Full Backup archives for safety reasons. (Perhaps a system problem occurs, but the user doesn't notice it immediately until after a backup has been made. Keeping some older Full Backups allows you to roll back to an older state if necessary.)

How do I configure ATI and the Backup Location to:

• retain multiple Full Backups
• let the Incremental Backup Task always create incrementals based on the most recent image
• let ATI manage the Backup Location by deleting or consolidating incrementals based on older Full images (older than the most recent Full Backup)?

(I retain multiple full backups on my own system and run incrementals when I choose, because I'm doing it all manually. The point of this exercise is to make the process as simple as possible for my non-technical friend, which is why I created a Backup Location since ATI is supposed to then manage that.)

 

Hello tuttle,

Please have a look at this post and see if it solves the problem.

Thank you.
--
Marat Setdikov

 

Marat:

Thank you for the reply. I read that post. What is the key point? Are you saying that my problem is because I selected the location and clicked the button to tell ATI to automatically name the backup file?

I don't use Scheduled Tasks. I created two Tasks, but each will be launched manually.

Are you saying that I should only select the Backup Location from the drives tree, and not do anything with the "Folders:" field so that a filename is not specified? Is that the secret to getting this to work?

 

Hello tuttle,

We are sorry for delayed response.

Please notice that you need to select Acronis Backup Location you created from the top of the selection screen, and not from the directory tree (as shown on the screenshot). When Acronis Backup Location is selected, the "Folder" string will be automatically filled with "No file name is required in this area" message.

Thank you.
--
Marat Setdikov

 

What are the first 2 lines erasing?
Nevermind, I got it

 

OK, I'm really sleep deprived due to the birth of our twins.
I am setting up a schedule using the template above.
If the files are renamed then what is the purpose of the "erase U:\Data\Data*.tib" line?

 

Hello vukodlak75,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

We are sorry for delayed response.

I would guess it deletes the second incremental backup which is created on Sunday. Notice that it's not strictly necessary, as even if that file is left in the folder, it would be overwritten next Sunday anyway. It does, however, keep the folder size as small as possible.

Thank you.
--
Marat Setdikov