Nonstop backup question
What happens when the destination disk becomes full? It is not listed in any of the help documents.
Hello Andy,
the next backup will fail if there is no sufficient place.
Sorry to stumble in here.
I am only a user of Acronis and absolutely not an expert.
I have seen an option to get a warning if you do not have enough disk space left.
I would recommend reading the ATI 2019 User Guide: Acronis Nonstop Backup data storage
Acronis Nonstop Backup data storage can be created on local hard disk drives (both internal and external) or Acronis Cloud.
In many cases an external hard disk will be the best choice for Nonstop Backup data storage. You can use an external disk with any of the following interfaces: USB (including USB 3.0), eSATA, FireWire, and SCSI.
You can also use an NAS as the storage, but with one limitation - it must be accessible with the SMB protocol. It does not matter whether an NAS share you want to use for the storage is mapped as a local disk or not. If the share requires login, you will need to provide the correct user name and password. For more information see Authentication settings. Acronis True Image 2019 remembers the credentials and the subsequent connections to the share do not require login.
When an external hard disk or NAS is unavailable, the Nonstop Backup destination can be an internal disk, including a dynamic one. Please note that you cannot use a partition to be protected as a Nonstop Backup storage. If your computer has a single hard disk drive with a single partition, but you want to use Acronis Nonstop Backup anyway, you can create Acronis Secure Zone and use it as the Nonstop Backup data storage.
Before creating Acronis Nonstop Backup data storage, Acronis True Image 2019 checks whether the selected destination has enough free space. It multiplies the volume of data to be protected by 1.2 and compares the calculated value with the available space. If the free space on the destination satisfies this minimum storage size criterion, the destination can be used for storing Nonstop Backup data.
See also the ATI 2019 User Guide: Retention rules
Local backups
Acronis Nonstop Backup keeps all backups for the last 24 hours. The older backups will be consolidated in such a way that Nonstop Backup will keep daily backups for the last 30 days and weekly backups until all Nonstop Backup data destination space is used.
The consolidation will be performed every day between midnight and 01:00 AM. The first consolidation will take place after the Nonstop Backup has been working for at least 24 hours. For example, you have turned on the Nonstop Backup at 10:00 AM on July 12. In this case the first consolidation will be performed between 00:00 and 01:00 AM on July 14. Then the program will consolidate the data every day at the same time. If your computer is turned off between 00:00 and 01:00 AM, the consolidation will start when you turn the computer on. If you turn off Nonstop Backup for some time, the consolidation will start after you turn it on again.
Cloud backups
Acronis True Image 2019 keeps only the following backup versions:
- All versions for the last hour
- The first versions of every hour for the last 24 hours
- The first version of every day for the last week
- The first version of every week for the last month
- The first version of every month
All other versions are automatically deleted. The retention rules are pre-set and cannot be changed.
I have read the manual about nonstop backup. One thing that is missing is how to set it up. Could somebody provide tips on the process? Thank you.
BTW, I am using Acronis True Image 2018.
Richard, to setup a NonStop backup, you basically follow the same steps that you would for any other backup but then on the Scheduling page, you select the NonStop schedule option.
Hi Everyone,
Just want to have my math double checked. Following the scheme Steve quotes from the documentation. Does the overall, uncompressed, storage requirement balloon to 47:1? I'm adding up that a 100 MB file backed up using Nonstop Backup would max out at 4,700 MB before cleanup kicks in. Assuming the file size is constant:
- A backup every 10 minutes in the current hour (6) = 600
- 1 backup every hour for past 24 hours (24) = 2400 (not sure if this counts the current hour)
- 1 backup for every day of the past week (7) = 700
- 1 backup for every week of the past month (4) = 400
- 1 backup for every month of the past 6 months (6) = 600
- Total: 4,700 MB
Did I do that right? I'd bet some of these a bit fewer, as there would be overlap in the example above.
Just want to manage expectations before I start blowing up my remaining cloud allotment :/
Thanks,
Tom
Tom, I suspect that your calculations are based on your 100MB file is being fully backed up every time that NSB runs which is not correct.
The first time that NSB runs, it will create a full backup of the source data, after which, only changes to that source data are captured.
The documentation on NSB in recent versions of ATI is sadly lacking, so you need to go back to that for earlier versions to get a clearer picture of how NSB works!
KB 34219: True Image 2013 by Acronis: Nonstop Backup - about local backups.
KB 38933: True Image Lite 2013 by Acronis: Online Nonstop Backup - for cloud backups.
Where the key paragraph is:
Once you start Acronis Nonstop Backup, the program will perform an initial full backup of the data selected for protection. Acronis Nonstop Backup will then save changes in the protected files (including open ones), so that you will be able to recover your system to an exact point in time.
KB 13534: Acronis True Image Home 2011: Understanding Acronis Nonstop Backup - which goes into more detail of how NSB works.
The bottom line here is that provided your 100MB file is not being completely replaced every few minutes, then the growth in storage required by NSB should be much less than the values you calculated.