Creating an advanced backup policy

Make sure that you have already created a basic backup policy.

On the Veritas System Recovery 21 Management Solution Manage tab, in the left pane, click Backup Policies.

In the left pane, click the folder Backup Policies.

In the middle pane, select the name of a backup policy.

Click Edit on the toolbar.

In the displayed panel, click Advanced Options.

On the Advanced Options panel, in the Compression list, set the compression level for the recovery points.

| None | Indicates that compression is not used on the recovery point. |

| | You can choose this option if storage space is not an issue. If the recovery point is saved to a busy network drive, high compression may be faster than no compression because less data needs to be written across the network |

| Standard (recommended) | Lets you use low compression for a 40 percent average data compression ratio on recovery points. This setting is the default. |

| Medium | Lets you use medium compression for a 45 percent average data compression ratio on recovery points. |

| High | Lets you use high compression for a 50 percent average data compression ratio on recovery points. This setting is usually the slowest method. |

| | When a high compression recovery point is created, CPU usage may be higher than normal. Other processes on the computer may also be slower. To compensate, you can adjust the operation speed of the backup process. Speed adjustments may improve the performance of other resource-intensive applications that you run at the same time. |

On the Advanced Options panel, set the recovery point options, and then click Apply.

| Active backup policy | Activates the backup policy on the managed client computer. If you deselect this option, the backup policy is still sent to the managed client computer but it is not activated. |

| Limit the number of recovery point sets (bases) saved for this backup (Recovery point sets only) | Specifies the maximum number of recovery points or recovery point sets that are saved for each drive. |

| or | When this limit is reached, each successive recovery point or set is first created and stored. The oldest, previously created recovery point or set is then deleted (including all associated incrementals, if applicable) from the same storage location. |

| Limit the number of recovery points saved for this backup (Independent recovery points only) | Ensure that you have enough hard disk space to accommodate the number of recovery points or sets you specify, plus one additional recovery point or set. |

| | If you run out of hard disk space before the number is reached, the recurring recovery point process cannot complete successfully, and a current recovery point or set is not created |

| Verify recovery point after creation | Checks whether a recovery point or recovery point set is valid or corrupt immediately following its creation. |

| | For steps on how to verify the integrity of a recovery point long after it has been created, refer to the Veritas System Recovery product documentation. |

| | When you verify a recovery point, it can approximately double the time that is required to create the recovery point. |

| Disable SmartSector copying | Speeds up the copying process by copying only hard disk sectors with data. However, in some cases, it may be desirable to copy all sectors in their original layout, whether or not they contain data. |

| | If you want to copy both used and unused hard disk sectors, select Disable SmartSector Copying . |

| | When you select this option, it increases the process time, and usually results in a larger recovery point file size. |

| Ignore bad sectors during copy | Creates a recovery point even if bad sectors are on the hard drive. Although most drives do not have bad sectors, the potential for problems increases during the lifetime of the hard drive. |

| Perform full VSS backup | Lets you perform a full backup on the VSS storage and send a request for VSS to review its own transaction log. This option is used for VSS applications, such as Microsoft SQL. |

| | VSS determines what transactions are already committed to the database and then truncates those transactions. Among other things, truncated transaction logs help keep the file size manageable and limits the amount of hard drive space that the file uses. |

| | If you do not select this option, backups still occur on the VSS storage. However, VSS does not automatically truncate the transaction logs following a backup. |

| | Note: This option does not apply to Veritas System Recovery Linux Edition. |

| Divide into smaller files to simplify archiving | Splits a recovery point into two or more smaller files. This feature is useful if you create or export a recovery point that you want to copy to removable media later for safekeeping. The recovery point is split into smaller, more manageable files. You can then copy the files onto separate, removable media, such as a DVD or CD. |

| | If Veritas System Recovery creates an .sv2i file in addition to the .v2i files, you need to save the .sv2i file on the same media as the first .v2i file. |

| | If you create a recovery point of volumes with thousands of files on a computer that has low memory, splitting the recovery point into smaller segments can help speed the process. |

| | If a recovery point is divided into multiple files, the file names for subsequent files are appended with _S01, _S02, and so forth. For example, if the default file name were Dev-RBrough_C_Drive.v2i, the second file name would be Dev-RBrough_C_Drive_S01.v2i, and so on. |

| Include system and temporary files | Includes the indexing support for the operating system and temporary files when a recovery point is created on the client computer. |

| | Note: This option does not apply to Veritas System Recovery Linux Edition. |

If appropriate, click Command file settings , set the options you want, and then click Apply.

| Use command file package to deliver command files to the local machine | Indicates if you intend to deploy the Veritas System Recovery command file package that is stored on the Notification Server computer. |

| | See Deploying the command files package to client computers for use during a backup . |

| | When you deselect this option, you can specify a folder on a network share where the command files are stored for deployment. |

| Command files folder | Lets you specify the location of command files if you want them to be located in a place other than the default location. You can also specify a location on a per-job basis, as well as specify a location that can be shared among several computers. If you specify a network location, you are prompted for network credentials. |

| User name | Lets you specify the user name to a command file folder that is located in a network path. |

| Password | Lets you specify the password to a command file folder that is located in a network path. |

| Confirm password | Lets you retype the password to a command file folder that is located in a network path. |

| Run before snapshot creation | Lets you run a command file after a backup has started and before a recovery point is created. You can run a command during this stage to prepare for the recovery point creation process. For example, you can close any open applications that use the drive. |

| | Note: If you use this option, be sure that the command file has an error recovery mechanism built into it. If the computer has one or more services that must be stopped at this stage (such as stopping a non-VSS aware database or a resource-intensive application), and the command file does not contain any form of error recovery, one or more of the stopped services may not be restarted. An error in the command file can cause the recovery point creation process to stop immediately. No other command files can run. |

| Run after snapshot creation | Lets you run a command file after a snapshot is created. Running a command during this stage is a safe point for allowing services to resume normal activity on the drive while continuing the recovery point creation. |

| | Because the snapshot takes only a few seconds to create, the database is in the backup state momentarily. A minimal number of log files are created. |

| Run after recovery point creation | Lets you run a command file after the recovery point file is created. You can run a command during this stage to act on the recovery point itself. For example, you can copy it to an offline location. |

| Timeout (applies to each stage) | Lets you specify the amount of time (in seconds) that a command file is allowed to run. |

In the displayed pane, near the upper-right corner, make sure On is selected from the list to enable the software delivery policy.

Set the deployment options.

| Program name | Identifies the name of the program that you want to run. |

| Enable Verbose Reporting of Status Events | Sends the plug-in status events to the Notification Server computer. |

| Applied to | Identifies the resource target to which you want the software task applied. |

| Package multicast | Lets you uncheck (default) this option if you want to enable package multicast when the Symantec Management Agent's multicast option is disabled. |

| Schedule | Runs the software task either at a specific start time, or at specified start, end, and duration times. |

| | You can specify as many schedules as you need. You can also have any number of schedules active at once. |

Click Save changes.

In the middle pane, click Apply on the toolbar.

Select the targets to which you want the policy to be applied, and then click OK.