How to get: 2 full backups with 6 incrementals each

Discussion in 'Acronis True Image Product Line' started by lowtek, Dec 4, 2008.

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  1. lowtek

    lowtek Registered Member

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    How can I configure Acronis True Image Home 2009 to do backups to a network drive (i.e. \\server\share\subdir) and keep:

    • Full backup 1
      • Incremental
      • Incremental
      • Incremental
      • Incremental
      • Incremental
      • Incremental
    • Full backup 2
      • Incremental
      • Incremental
      • Incremental
      • Incremental
      • Incremental
      • Incremental

    Basically, my goals are:

    • Have daily backups going back 2 weeks in time.
    • Do the incrementals daily, but do a full backup once a week.
    • Have at least 2 full backups in case one of the full backups gets corrupted.

    I don't mind the 'consolidation' feature and I'm assuming that my network drive has enough disk space for temporary files. If this can't be done with True Image 2009, I'm also curious if this can be done with True Image 11.

    Thanks.
     
    Last edited: Dec 5, 2008
  2. lowtek

    lowtek Registered Member

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    After reading more documentation and threads, I think it may be impossible to do this with True Image 2009 and the problem is that my original request is unreasonable. (Scroll down if you just want to see the final novel solution)

    The problem is: what happens on the first day of the 3rd week? You'd want this to happen:

    • A new incremental based on Full backup 2 is made.
    • The oldest incremental on Full backup 2 is consolidated into Full backup 2.
    • Somehow the data in Full backup 2 would be read and written as a new incremental on the Full backup 1 chain. (This is insane and I doubt anyone would find it reasonable to implement this in a backup product)
    • The oldest incremental on Full backup 1 is consolidated into Full backup 1.
    This is an unreasonable ask of a backup product, so I don't think it's possible to get any product to do this.

    There is another way that a backup product could implement the 'rolling 2 weeks', and it would work like this on the first day of the 3rd week:

    • The whole Full backup 1 chain is deleted.
    • A new full backup is done and written as Full backup 1. The next days after this just do incrementals on this full backup.
    The problem with this sequence is that at this point you'd only have backups for the last 7 or 8 days, not 14 days, thus this is undesirable from the user's point of view.


    The novel solution: This is a more reasonable request of a backup program:

    • Day 0: Make full backup 1
    • Day 1: Make full backup 2
    • Day 2: Make incremental on full backup 1
    • Day 3: Make incremental on full backup 2
    • ...
    • Day 14: Make incremental on full backup 1, then consolidate the oldest incremental on full backup 1.
    • Day 15: Make incremental on full backup 2, then consolidate the oldest incremental on full backup 2.
    • ... Repeat the last two steps forever
    Good: we now have backups for any day in the last 2 weeks and we have more than one full backup, so even if an entire full backup chain is lost, we only lose 1 extra day.
    Bad: This takes up more disk space and does more I/O than the original idea because both backup chains are "interleaved".

    This seems kind of messy, but I believe that it is possible to configure True Image 2009 to do this with just two incremental backup tasks.

    Personally, I think this is a pretty clever solution/workaround/compromise! :D

    I'd be curious to know what people think (reasonable? unreasonable? good idea? bad idea? not necessary? unimplementable?).

    Thanks.
     
  3. shieber

    shieber Registered Member

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    hy did the chicken jump through hoops to cross the road? ;)
     
  4. supdeco1

    supdeco1 Registered Member

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    May 17, 2008
    Posts:
    64
    Hello

    The best way is full backup each day.
    Backup were done each night, and that is no important if it takes 2/3/7 hours to do, or if it takes place...

    When a crash is arrived, it's not the moment to look after several backup or pray if the incremental backup works....

    You need to have just one completed backup... that's reduce also the probability not to recover data to have just one support and not several.

    If your incremental doesn't work any more, you lost many data days....
    if you have a trouble with a full each backup, you just lost one day...

    I have had this year two server crashs and this method is the best to bakcup and recover all data...
     
  5. paracanary

    paracanary Registered Member

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    Posts:
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    Use pre.bat as described in this post

    https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=196503&highlight=pre.bat

    It works perfectly in ti 2009 and avoids all that consolidation garbage.

    example run before backup process -- pre.bat x:\Vista 6 2 where x:\Vista is your backup folder. 6 is the no of incrementals and 2 is the number of full backups and incrementals stored in the subdirectory "set"
     
    Last edited: Dec 5, 2008
  6. jehosophat

    jehosophat Registered Member

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    Location:
    UK
    I agree 100%. Full daily backup its the only way to go.
     
  7. lowtek

    lowtek Registered Member

    Joined:
    Dec 4, 2008
    Posts:
    3
    Thanks everyone for the replies. I hear what you're saying and I'll dig into the pre.bat method some more.
     
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