Online Backup

Ken, welcome to these User Forums.

There isn't very much detailed documentation available to describe how online backup works other than the information provided in the ATIH 2018 User Guide sections related to backups to the Acronis Cloud.

My understanding is that ATI makes an initial full backup image to the Cloud then after that, it uses a delta comparison method to determine what has changed with regard to the initial backup.

The key point with regard to Cloud backups is that they have to be capable of recovering your system using the different recovery points shown in the ATI main GUI, which includes after any Cloud cleanup actions have been taken.

Unless there have been very significant changes to the backup source there shouldn't be a need to create a new full backup to the Cloud.  If you did want to do so, then you would probably want to create a new backup task using a different name for this to start the new full backup.

Steve,  Thanks for your reply.

Given that the backup is a continuous incremental backup why would there be any Acronis Cloud Cleanup criteria?  It seems that one would need all the increments to reconstruct the data.

Ken, this is where Cloud backups are not the same as true incremental ones.  I would say that they work more as a form of hybrid differential backup than as an incremental backup, even though in the ATI GUI Activity page they are shown as Incremental in the Method column

I have seen evidence of some cleanup taking place for my own Cloud backup as per the screen shot below, though the amount of data cleaned was very small in comparison to the total size

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Steve,  I am going to leave the Acronis Cloud Cleanup at the default of 20 recent file versions.  I'll watch my results over time to see what is happening to my cloud storage.

I like the ATI approach to online backup.  Much of my data is music or photos that I add to and almost never delete.  I also have records and files that are changed and reorganized often, so these backups might need occasional attention.

Thanks for your insights.

Steve,  I had tried to chat with Acronis about online backup before I started using the forum, but was disconnected.  To my surprise I received an email today answering my question.  

Acronis' answer was:

Cloud backup will be always incremental version by default, once the initial full backup is created the next backup will be incremental version.
You can set the version while setting up the backup, may refer to the following web help:
https://www.acronis.com/en-us/support/documentation/ATI2018/index.html#38820.html

The cloud backup will be always incremental followed by full version.

I wrote back asking for confirmation.  

This is important to me because I will have folders containing about 100GB.  I use a cable line that has a upload speed of about 4GB/hr.  So, a full backup takes a long time, and doing a full backup every 6th time would require me to replan my backups.

Ken, I have been doing a Cloud backup since beginning of last December (as per the screen image I posted earlier) and only the very first backup is shown as Full, all the further backups since that time (now nearly 4 full months) have all been shown as Incremental.

My own upload speed is only 5Mbps (with VirginMedia in the UK), and take between 2.5 to over 10 hours to run depending on the degree of change captured.  I am backing up a dual-boot laptop with a Windows 10 Insiders build as one of the 2 Windows OS's, where this has been updated to new builds at least once or twice a week recently!  Even after a new OS build update I am only seeing Incremental update for the Cloud backup.

Steve,  I just tried a test were I added and deleted files with a backup after each action.

I did 22 backups and there were no full backups.  

I have been using ATI Cloud backups for many years, and it only does differential backups. Backup times are relative short except when there is a new build of Windows or I install a large program (some video editing programs with all there add on get to absurd sizes).

How clean-up works is unclear; I suspect that feature has not always been available. A new full backup is probably created on the server before old material is deleted. Presumably the new compilation full backup is rigorously tested before the old one is deleted.

Ian

For anyone who finds this discussion:

We've published a detailed article on how to manage backup size in Acronis Cloud (several ways described)  

62010: Acronis True Image: how to delete backups in Acronis Cloud and free up Cloud storage space

To confirm: Cloud backups are created in the Always incremental mode (the first backup if Full and all subsequent backups are always incremental). As the data in Cloud are stored in chunks, it's possible to delete incremental slices without the need to remove the whole chain (like with local backups).