Backup selection based on date accessed/modified

[Wayne_McKay]

I want to simplify our backup process by selecting all server volumes and disks in the 'selection' tree, but only backup data that has been modified or accessed in the past 12 months (we're able to do a full backup each night). We have a lot of data that has not been touched in years, but I don't want the headache of identifying and deselecting these directories & files individually (management want the data kept on the servers!).
I don't really want to start suing incremental backups (unless I have to).

I'm new to this product, can it be done?

Thanks

[Deepali_Badave]

Hello,

A Full backup backs up all of specified files regardless of the datetime stamp.

Advantage: Quickest restore times because it is the most current data.
Disadvantage: Takes the most amount of time and media space of all backups because it is backing up all data regardless of the datetime stamp.

A Differential Incremental backup backs up only the selected files that had their datetime stamp change since the full backup or last differential incremental backup. This results in a backup of all files that are new or changed since the last full backup or last differential incremental backup.

Advantage: Least amount of backup time and media space required of all the backup methods.
Disadvantage: Restore of the full backup and all differential incremental backups are required to get back to the most current data. Restores can take a long time depending on how many differential incremental backups need to be restored.

A Cumulative Incremental backup backs up only the selected files that had their datetime stamp change since the last full backup. This results in a backup of all new or changed files since the last full backup only.

Advantage: Restores are quicker because the full backup and the last cumulative incremental backup need to be restored to get to the most current data.
Disadvantage: Amount of time for the backup and media space required increases with each cumulative incremental backup that is run.


Warning:
If files are copied from another computer or another drive they will retain the current datetime stamp and will not be backed up with a cumulative incremental or differential incremental backup until the files are modified.

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[Wayne_McKay]

Thanks for the reply.

I understand the differences, however the problem we have is that the amount of data we store is almost at the limit of our backup capacity. With incremental and decremental backups, at some point you need to do a full backup (probably weekly). We could just opt for a larger capacity backup solution, however because we archive our monthly backup tapes we have already captured 'old' data. If we choose just to backup data less than 12 months old we would probably cut our backup capacity by 60%.

Thanks.

[ray_littlefie1]

Wayne- the feature you are looking for can be found by clicing the "Advanced" button when viewing the properties of the selection list.
Using tthe advanced selection list GUI, choose the option 'Files not accessed in 365 days'.

Then right-click on the backup job and choose "Test Run". This will simulate the backup, and will let you know how much data will be backed up without actually performing the backup- You can then tweak the 365 day value if necessary.

Another similar feature you may like to know about is the Archive backup- where you could define a backup job to backup data older than 365 days (for example) and then delete it from the disk- just FYI :)

[ray_littlefie1]

Oops! Ignore my last post- I told you wrong.

The advanced features will alllow you to specify a date range of files to be backe dup, but you cannot set it once to a value of last 365 days.

sorry for the misinformation :)

[Renuka_-]

Hello Wayne,
You could run a synthetic backup to reduce the size of backups. please refer to the admin guide for the details on synthetic backups.
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[ray_littlefie1]

Wayne- not sure if you have given up, but this came to me out of the blue- and it may solve your problem.

If you want to create a backup of only items within the last XX days of the time of the backup, you need to do the following.

1.)Create a selection list of the server volume and directories you wish to back up.
2.)Choose text mode, and click insert to insert a new line.
3.) choose the same selection as in step 1. only choose the Exclude type radio button and click the box 'files not accessed in XXX days' where XXX=365 in your case.

You end up with a 2nd line that will say volume\directory\*.* /EXCLUDE /ACCESSDAYS:365 which means it will exclude files not accessed in 365 days, or in other words only files within the last 365 days.

try a test job and see if this is what you wanted.

[Wayne_McKay]

Sorry, i've been out of the office.

I'll give this a go - thanks.

[Renuka_-]

Hello WAyne,
Thank you for the update, we await the results of the manipulations.
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