Image-Based Backup Plan

Image-based backup creates a complete backup of entire storage media by generating an image file containing all contents required to restore.

This chapter covers the following topics:

• Create Backup Plan
• Edit Backup Plan
• Delete Backup Plan.

Learn Backup Wizard steps:

• Select Backup Storage
• Plan Name
• Select Partitions
• Advanced Options
• Compression and Encryption Options
• Consistency Check and Restore Verification
• Schedule
  • Simple Schedule
  • Advanced Schedule
• Retention Policy, GFS and Object Lock
• Pre / Post Actions
• Notification
• Summary

Objects Excluded from Backup by Default

To reduce the backup size, the following objects are excluded by default from the backup:

Create Backup Plan

To create a new image-based backup plan, click the Image Based Backup icon in the horizontal menu bar. To use legacy image-based backup use Image-Based Backup option.

The Backup Wizard starts.

Select Backup Storage

1. Select a storage account for the backup plan from the list of available backup storage.
   • If no storage is available, click Add new Storage Account.

2. Once the backup storage is selected, click Next.

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Plan Name

Specify the name for the backup plan.

Click Next.

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Select Partitions

Select partitions to back up.

The following options are available:

• Back up only system-required partitions. Select this option to back up only partitions required for the proper functioning of the operating system.
• Back up all drives. Select this option to include all available drives in your backup

• Back up all fixed drives. Select this option to include all available fixed drives in your backup. All drives except for removable media will be backed up.

• Back up selected partitions only. Select this option to back up only specific partitions by your choice.

The selected partitions must include system volumes as they contain the information which is necessary for loading the operating system. Without backing up these volumes, you will not be able to restore your disk image properly.

Click Next.

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Advanced Options

Configure advanced options for the backup plan. Advanced option set depends on the selected backup storage.

The following options are available:

• Use synthetic full backup. Select this option for cloud storages to enable the synthetic full backup usage for the backup plan. If a long-term storage class is selected as the bsckup destination, this will result in high storage costs.
• Exclude files/folders. Select this checkbox to specify files and folders on selected drives to be excluded from the backup plan. Click the Edit files and folders list link to open the dialog box with the file tree.

Advanced Disk Options

Customize additional disk options. To open these settings, click Show Advanced Disk Options.

• Ignore bad sectors. Enable this option to skip any damaged sectors on backup source. Even in case the volume with bad sectors is restored, these sectors will become empty sectors, and you will not be able to read any files that were allocated in these sectors.
• Disable VSS, use direct access to NTFS volume. Select this checkbox to disable Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS). This option may be required when a disk is not used for writing operations and does not have sufficient space to create a VSS snapshot. Basically, this applies to system volumes
• Use system VSS provider. Select this checkbox to use the system default VSS provider. It is recommended to use it in case of the presence of any third-party VSS providers installed that may interfere with the proper processing of VSS snapshots made by Backup Agent
• Prefetch block count. Specify the maximum block number stored in memory for each disk volume (cache). Consider, by default you will see the recommended optimal value in this field. It is not recommended to change it. You can only use this field for testing purposes, if this is recommended by technical support.

A block is a minimum unit of information that can be processed at a time when preparing a backup.

Click Next.

Additional Advanced Options for Amazon S3

1. If your backup storage destination is Amazon S3, select the S3 storage class for the backup plan:

• Standard
• Intelligent-Tiering
• Standard-IA
• One Zone-IA
• Glacier Instant Retrieval
• Glacier Flexible Retrieval (formerly S3 Glacier)
• Glacier Deep Archive

Usage of different storage classes for different backups is the subject of optimizing your storage costs.

2. Select Use S3 Transfer Acceleration to accelerate file transfer for an extra fee. The target bucket must have this feature enabled. Select this checkbox if you want to use the data transfer acceleration service provided by Amazon. To learn more, refer to the Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration.

Additional Advanced Options for Microsoft Azure

If your backup storage destination is Microsoft Azure, and you have the General Purpose v2 Azure account, select the required storage class (access tier).

The following options are available:

• Hot tier. An online tier optimized for storing data that is accessed or modified frequently. The hot tier has the highest storage costs, but the lowest access costs.
• Cool tier. An online tier optimized for storing data that is infrequently accessed or modified. Data in the cool tier should be stored for a minimum of 30 days. The cool tier has lower storage costs and higher access costs compared to the hot tier.
• Cold tier.An online tier optimized for storing data that is rarely accessed or modified, but still requires fast retrieval. Data in the cold tier should be stored for a minimum of 90 days. The cold tier has lower storage costs and higher access costs compared to the cool tier.
• Archive tier. An offline tier optimized for storing data that is rarely accessed, and that has flexible latency requirements, on the order of hours. Data in the archive tier should be stored for a minimum of 180 days.

To learn more about the difference between Azure storage tiers, refer to the Azure Blob Storage - Hot, cool,cold, and archive storage tiers article at docs.microsoft.com.

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Compression and Encryption Options

Compression

Managed Backup offers compression to reduce the storage space required for your backup and to speed up the upload process to the target storage.

Encryption

You can protect your backup by encrypting its contents. Managed Backup supports AES encryption with key sizes of 128, 192, and 256 bits. A larger key size provides stronger encryption but may increase the time required for processing your backup. For more details on AES encryption, refer to the Advanced Encryption Standard.

If you choose to save your backup plan configuration to the destination storage, be aware that the encryption password is not stored in the configuration file for security reasons. Ensure that you save this password securely, as it will be required to restore the backup's contents.

Amazon S3-Specific Settings

• Use the Amazon S3 Service master key. Select this option for Amazon S3 decrypts data for anyone who is granted permissions to access this backup content on the cloud
• Use the Amazon Key Management Service master key. Select this option for Amazon S3 decrypts data for anyone who has the permissions to access this object in the cloud along with permissions to use a specified master key.

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Consistency Check and Restore Verification

Specify if a full consistency check is required for this backup plan.

Restore verification is an auxiliary restore plan that retrieves only necessary backup parts from backup storage, mounts a Hyper-V virtual machine on the fly, then performs a system logon.

Select the restore verification running options:

• Do not Run Restore Verification. Select this option to run restore verification manually
• Run for Full only. Select this option to run restore verification for full backups only. You can manage a schedule for full and incremental backups on the Schedule step of the Backup Wizard
• Run for Incremental only. Select this option to run restore verification for incremental backups only. You can manage a schedule for full and incremental backups on the Schedule step of the Backup Wizard
• Run for Full and Incremental. Select this option to run restore verification for both backup types

You can configure advanced settings for restore verification:

Click Next.

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Schedule

Specify the backup plan schedule settings.

The following options are available:

• Select the No schedule option to run the backup plan manually.
• Select the Simple (Forever Forward) option to apply the Forever Forward Incremental (FFI) schedule.
• Select the Advanced (GFS, Object Lock) option to apply the recurring schedule and, if necessary, use Grandfather-Father-Son and Object Lock (Immutability).
• To set the time limit for plan execution, select the Stop the plan if it runs for checkbox, then specify the backup plan duration limit.
• To run the backup plan after the computer is on in case the backup plan run has been missed, select the Run missed scheduled backup immediately when computer starts up checkbox.

Click Next.

Simple Schedule

Select the Simple (Forever Forward) option to use the Forever Forward Incremental (FFI). This schedule offers one full backup followed by a limited number of incrementals. Once the limit is exceeded, a new full backup is created using in-cloud copying (synthetic full backup. Once you select this option, specify the FFI schedule for the backup plan. You can select the Daily or Monthly schedule type, depending on how often the incremental backups will be performed.

This schedule is unavailable if the selected storage account does not support synthetic full backups.

Advanced Schedule

Select the Advanced (GFS, Object Lock) option to set up a flexible, recurring schedule with generations. Every generation contains one full backup followed by incrementals.

The advanced schedule allows configuring a flexible schedule according to your requirements. To use this schedule you should add schedules for full and incremental backup runs:

• To create incremental backups by schedule, select the Recurring (Incremental) checkbox, then configure the schedule for incremental backups on a daily or monthly basis.
• To create full backups by schedule, select the Execute full backup (Synthetic full if possible) checkbox, then configure the schedule for full backups on a daily or monthly basis.

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Retention Policy, GFS and Object Lock

Specify the retention policy settings for the backup plan. The retention policy depends on the schedule selected on the previous step.

Retention Policy with Simple Schedule

If you selected the Simple (Forever Forward Incremental) schedule, the Retention Policy step offers the following settings:

• Keep backup for. Select this option to limit the number of restore points. The Keep backup for value defines the period Restore Points with the Forever Forward Incremental schedule are kept. If their retention period expires, these restore points are merged into a full backup (with Forever Forward Incremental only one full backup is kept on the backup storage).

• Intelligent Retention: Each time the backup plan is executed, the backup storage parameters are analyzed automatically, setting the retention period based on storage provider data deletion conditions. This feature is enabled by default.

Retention Policy with Advanced Schedule / No Schedule

If you selected the Advanced (GFS, Object Lock) schedule or to run backup manually without the schedule, the Retention Policy step offers the following settings:

• Do not purge (Keep backup forever). Select this option to keep all your backup runs.
• Keep backup for. Select this option to limit the period while backup contents are kept in the backup storage, then specify the period.

To apply the GFS retention policy for the backup plan, select the Enable GFS checkbox, then customize the GFS retention policy by enabling the required keeping periods (weekly, monthly and yearly purge delays).

If backup data is required to be locked, enable the Object Lock (Immutability) checkbox. Before enabling Object Lock, you need to allow this feature for the backup destination.

Click Next.

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Pre / Post Actions

Customize actions before and/or after the backup plan run.

Custom Scripts

You can execute custom scripts before or after running the backup plan.

• To specify the script execution before the backup plan starts, select the Pre-backup action checkbox, then specify the path to the script in the field below. To open a standard Windows dialog box, click the ... button
• Select the pre-backup script execution options:
  • Exit backup plan if pre-backup action failed. Select this option to cancel the backup plan in case the specified script fails
  • Continue backup plan if pre-backup action failed. Select this option to run the backup plan regardless of the specified script execution results
• To specify the script execution after the backup plan terminates, select the Post-backup action checkbox, then specify the path to the script in the field below. To open a standard Windows dialog box, click the ... button
• Select the post-backup script execution options:
  • Execute post-backup action only if backup plan has been successfully completed. Select this option to execute the post-backup script only in case of a backup plan success
  • Execute post-backup action regardless of the backup result. Select this option to execute the post-backup script in any case

c:\scripts\prebackup-script.bat

cmd.exe /F:ON

cmd.exe /F:ON /C

PowerShell.exe Start-Process cmd.exe exit

Backup Plan Chains

In case you need to run another backup or restore plan once the backup plan is finished, use the Backup Chain feature. To create a backup chain, select the Backup chain checkbox, then select a backup or restore plan to be chained.

• Execute the specified backup plan only if backup plan has been successfully completed. Select this option to execute the chained backup plan only in case of a backup plan success
• Execute the specified backup plan regardless of the backup result. Select this option to execute the chained backup plan in any case
• In case you chained a backup plan, you can enable the full backup for it regardless of the contents in the backup storage. To do this, select the Force full backup for the chained plan.

Click Next.

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Notification and Logging

Specify notification settings.

• To receive the notification after the backup plan completion, select the I want to receive notification email when backup completes checkbox.
  • Select When backup fails option if you want to receive the notification message only in case of the backup plan failure
  • Select In all cases option if you want to receive the notification message in any case.
• In the fields Username, Email, Email subject specify the notification email details. You can specify one or more email recipients. Separate them by semicolon or comma, the recipient name (one for all of them). The email subject can also contain any of the following variables:
• %COMPUTER_NAME% Indicates the name of a computer on which the routine was running
• %RESULT% Indicates whether the routine was finished successfully or failed

• %PLAN_NAME% Indicates the backup plan's name.
• If you want to use own SMTP server for notification emails, select the I want to use my SMTP server for email notifications checkbox, then specify the settings for the SMTP server
• If you want the backup plan record to be added to Windows Event Log, select on Add entry to Windows Event Log when backup completes checkbox
  • Select When backup fails option if you want to receive the notification message only in case of the backup plan failure
  • Select In all cases option if you want the entry to be put in Windows Event Log in any case.

Click Next.

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Summary

Review the configuration of the backup plan.

Click Next to proceed to the last wizard page.

Select the Run backup now checkbox to run the backup plan immediately.

If you want to run the backup plan later, leave the Run backup now checkbox unselected, then click Finish.

Edit a Backup Plan

To edit the backup plan, proceed as follows:

1. Switch to the Backup Plans tab.
2. Open the backup plan you want to edit by expanding it, then click Edit.
3. Proceed through the Backup Wizard steps to adjust settings as needed.
4. If the plan is currently running, you'll need to select one of the following options:
   • Apply changes after the backup plan completes
   • Stop the plan and apply changes.
5. After choosing the desired option for the running backup plan, finish the plan.

Delete a Backup Plan

To delete the backup plan, proceed as follows:

1. Switch to the Backup Plans tab.
2. Open the plan to delete, expand it, then click Delete.
3. Click Yes to confirm the backup plan deletion.