Creating a standard backup policy

A policy can back up an entire computer or selected files, applications, and databases. However, it will not back up those files and directories that you specifically exclude from backup. You can create multiple policies. There are some files that Server Vaulting automatically excludes from backup, and some items that it does not support. In general, you tailor individual policies to the data they back up. Standard backup policies are used for general use, such as protecting a computer, including your documents, and the computer's Windows System State. Specific policies exist to backup data from Microsoft Exchange servers or SQL databases.

You determine what policies to create based on the required backup schedules and ease of restore. A backup policy specifies the options for backup:

• What data you back up. You specify the data at the system, volume, directory, and file levels. You can also define advanced rules including wildcard character matching to select your data.
• When you back up the data. For example, you can set the schedule to back up the data continuously (Windows only) or at specific days and times. If you set a schedule that starts and stops at specific times, you can specify whether to let the backup run until it completes, saving all changed data, even if the scheduled time is over.
• If you are using an appliance as well as the vault, when you want to replicate data from the appliance to the vault.

As a user for your company account, you can view backup status and details for policies.

This article guides you through the process of creating a standard backup policy.

Prerequisites

Before backing up you must have completed the registration and installation process.

Note:
When you create policies, confirm the clock time and time zone designation on the Agent machine. If the time or time zone is incorrect, in rare cases it can cause restorations from the initial backup to fail.

You must also be logged into the LiveVault portal. See, Accessing and navigating the LiveVault portal, if you require further information.

Creating a standard backup policy

Creating a LiveVault backup policy involves two main steps:

• Selecting a server with data to backup
• Creating a backup policy to define what and when to back up

These two steps are described below.

Selecting a server with data to backup

The left hand box on the home page shows a list of computers (servers) which have the LiveVault agent installed.

1. Left click on the computer name and icon to administer an individual machine. This is the machine with data to be backed up.

The New Computer Wizard window appears.

Note:
If a backup policy has been installed previously on this computer (server), then the New Computer Wizard will not open and you should skip steps 2 and 3 of this procedure and move to "Creating a standard backup policy" below.

Note:
You are given the option to change the computer name, but Cloud Direct recommends you retain the default which is populated from your local computer name.

2. Select the required subscription option.

Note:
If you are unsure which option to select please contact the Cloud Direct Technical Support team.

3. Click Save.

The LiveVault Portal then communicates with the agent installed on the server.

Creating a backup policy

Before selecting and backing up your data, you must create a policy. Cloud Direct recommends breaking up, or segmenting, your backup selection into logical chunks, each backed up by its own separate policy (For example, Exchange, or 15GB of image files, would each have their own policy). This aids administering or running your backup process, and also makes backup and restore more reliable.

To create a new standard backup policy,

1. Click Add new Standard Policy.
2. The name field displays New Backup Policy. Rename this to something meaningful for future reference (E.g. Head Office Data Backup).

3. Click Change Name to complete the change of name.

Selecting files to backup

To select files to protect with this policy, use the folder structure tree in the left hand pane to navigate through folders on the computer.

4. Click on the desired folder name to bring up its file contents in the central window.
5. View and individually select, or deselect, files by using the tick boxes next to the individual files or folders in the central pane. Build a custom, item-by-item, backup selection to protect only the desired files by ticking only the files you want to backup.

6. Click on the computer name in the left hand pane to return to the overview level

Note:
You can select a whole drive for backup, but Cloud Direct do not recommend backing up the whole drive if it contains a large amount of data (50GB+).

Scheduling backups

To schedule backups of selected data,

7. Click the Schedule tab.

The scheduling page opens

8. Click on the drop-down list to see available backup schedule options.

9. Select the required backup schedule option.

Configuring additional options

Once you have completed your scheduling you can move onto configuring additional options

10. Click the Options tab.

The option page opens.

11. Configure the following options as required.
    1. Use the Retention Policy drop-down menu to select the appropriate retention policy for your selected data
    2. The options, Program to run before each backup and Program to run after each backup, may be used if you are confident with the program function and understand how it may affect your server and backups. Otherwise please leave this blank, or contact the Cloud Direct Support Team if you are unsure.
    3. Ticking the Disable this policy checkbox will disable the policy and cease file backup.
12. Click Next to process your changes.

Confirming the policy

The Review backup configuration page opens.

13. Check the summary of the policy which you have created, including the details of your retention. If you wish to make any changes click the Previous button and make required changes.
14. Click Done.

You can now view a summary of all your policies as well as details of how they are configured and when they last ran. Existing policies may be edited, or new policies created, by following the procedural steps shown above.