How hard can it be to create a backup plan and make it work?
I have been trying unsuccessfully to create a backup plan that creates a FULL back up on Saturday 2:45 AM, skips Sundays and then creates 5 incremental backups before the next full.
Last Saturday, full ran; Monday incremental ran. Then Tuesday failed by timeout because I have set a notification when space is < 100 GB (which was 220 GB and do not understand – either – why it stopped) and the backup timed out. So, I decided not to mess up with the schema and ran the backup manually expecting a new incremental to be ran.
Instead a new full is created. Why?
If there is anyone that can shed some light I will really appreciate it.
Naming question:
What you see is normal and is what you can expect in the future.
full_b3_s1_v1= (B3) a full backup and this is the 3rd full your task has created. B1 and B2 were created in the past and you may have them or deleted them.
inc_b3_s2_v1= the b3 (as above) and the s2 means the first inc on this backup.
You can expect
full_b3_s1_v1
inc_b3_s2_v1
inc_b3_s3_v1
inc_b3_s4_v1
inc_b3_s5_v1
inc_b3_s6_v1
The next weeks set of 6 backups will read
full_b4_s1_v1
inc_b4_s2_v1
inc_b4_s3_v1
inc_b4_s4_v1
inc_b4_s5_v1
inc_b4_s6_v1
Each time a new set of backups being on Saturday, the B# will increase
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Your design questions:
TrueImage was not designed to do what you want to do but with a little advance planning, you should be able to do what you want. To do so,
1. Create a new backup plan on Friday. Sometime after 2:45am and prior to Saturday 2:45am. You want the first backup created by the new task to be the first Saturday full backup.
2. For scheduling, use the weekly plan. Select all 6 days except do not select Sunday.
3. You wrote: "I have set a notification when space is < 100 GB "
Do not use the space notification as part of your task.
Instead, set up your task based on example 11-Inc using link #2 below and this uses automatic cleanup rather than space limitations.
Look at your storage folder and determine your backup file space requirements for one week. Then look at how much storage space you have available and determine how many weeks of backups you can safety store.
Each weeks backup is one chain or reference as "one recent version chains". In my example, I have it set to retain 4 weeks or 4 recent version chains.
Lets assume you have storage space for 5 weeks of backups. Due to the program needing work space while the creation of the new and then the deletion of the oldest, you must allow the program temporary room for one additional backup. So, if you have storage space for 5 weeks of backups, you would need to set the number to keep as 4 because of the program space requirements.
In order to make it work on your schedule of a full each Saturday, if the computer is down or shutoff during a scheduled backup period, you would need to run the missing backup manually in order to keep on schedule. So, the key would be to look at the storage folder during Friday and make sure you have your 6 backups for that weekly chain of Saturday thru Friday backups. If less than the full plus 5 incremental, then run the task manually again to get your quota of 6 backups.
I have found that using disk space limitations or using elapsed days are not dependable settings. Instead, I have found the program seems to work very well in just keeping x number of backup chains. I have also found that editing an ongoing task will usually cause the task to become confused so my rule for success is "no editing" on an ongoing task. If task needs editing, create a new task and point it to a new and empty sub-folder.
The only way you can keep your program on track for a backup each Saturday is to make sure that the program has created the required 5 incremental--either via a schedule or additional manual backups.
Note, if for any reason, the program sees the storage folder as empty, the next backup will be a full regardless of schedule.
For retention of how many weeks or chains or recent version chains you wish to store, once that number is reached, the program will regularly create the next new full and then delete the oldest chain of 6 backups so you will always retain (revolving) the x (4 in the example) number of weeks you have set into the option settings as illustrated below .
extract from link #2 below showing illustration 11-Inc
You would need to change the exampmle of 6 incremental to 5 incremental.
Change the 4 weeks (recent version chains) to the your own figure based on your space limitations.
A different option would be to supplement TrueImage with the Chain2Gen (C2G) helper program. Adding this enables you to set an option to have a full backup each Saturday morning--even if inc do not number 5. Link #1 below would give you access to Chain2Gen information and downloads.
Note: I am inactive so I may not respond to any folloowup questions you may have.
Hello all,
thank you for your posts Pedro Hermida,
and many thanks to GroverH for incredibly detailed answers.
I can add here only this link to our web help, that you may refer to for better understanding of backup file naming in True Image 2013 by Acronis.
Thank you.