Does anyone understand "synthetic" backups??

[Kevin_Nickson]

I'm hearing that synthetic backups "cache" static data for lack of a better term and basically perform a differential backup that appends to the synthetic backup.

My backups are running way beyond their time window and this method, if available, would help a great deal.

Thanks in advance for any information.

[Ken_Putnam]

See http://support.veritas.com/docs/284255

Basically, a Synthetic backup takes a Full or exising Synthetic and merges it with the results of an Incremental, resulting in what is, in effect, a new Full (while resetting the Archive Bit)

That is you do a full once, but every synthetic backup after that can be restored as if it was a full. No need to restore a Full followed by each succeeding INCR.Message was edited by:
Ken Putnam

[Kevin_Nickson]

Ken, that's amazing. It "seems" to be exactly what I was hoping for. Are there any known issues with using this feature?

Thanks for the quick reply.

[Kevin_Nickson]

OK, after initial investigation, my option to use synthetic backups is greyed out? I have to assume this is a licensing issue? If that's the case and I can get some testimonials from current users, I don't mind paying the price if it will shorten my backup window and continue to provide solid restores.

Thanks to anyone with advice.

[Hywel_Mallett]

You need the Advanced Disk-based Backup Option to use synthetic backups.
The cost of ADBO is quite low.

[David_Sanz]

That ADBO license has to be purchased once, and used with any number of servers within your environment.

But remember that this technology only applies to flat files, Windows or Linux (via RALUS). It does not support databases or even System State (that is, you can't do it in SQL or Exchange).

Regards

[Joe_Grisolia]

Kevin,

Additional information on how to set up a synthetic job is now available at

http://entsupport.symantec.com/docs/287083

-Joe