Adding an Automatic Schedule for Synthetic Full Backup to a Backup Set or Subclient

You can add an automatic synthetic full backup schedule to a specific backup set or subclient.

About Automatic Synthetic Full Backup Schedules

• A full backup job and subsequent incremental backup jobs or differential backup jobs must exist before a synthetic full backup job can run. For information about how synthetic full backups are created, see Synthetic Full Backups.

• If an automatic synthetic full backup job fails, the next attempt happens after 24 hours.

• If a manual synthetic full backup job is run for subclients associated with an automatic schedule, the schedule is skipped and the next job runs based on the value in the Run Synthetic Full backups every X days option, the Run Synthetic Full - As needed for extended retention option, or the Run Synthetic Full - As needed to reclaim space option.

• An automatic synthetic full backup schedule can’t be configured to run on a specific day/time of the week/month/year, as the schedule is triggered instead based on the three criteria mentioned above. Therefore, if there is a need to run a synthetic full backup on a specific day/time of the week/month/year (for example, on the last day of every month), then you should run a fixed time synthetic full backup schedule (that is, Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or Yearly).

  Note

  In case of snap backups, if you are trying to consolidate the data on a given date of the month, then we recommend using a fixed time full snap backup schedule instead of fixed time synthetic full backup schedule. This will ensure that the backup copy that follows this snap backup contains all required data.

Procedure

1. From the CommCell Browser, expand Client Computers > client > agent.

2. Choose the entity where the automatic schedule will be created:

   • To add the automatic schedule to a backup set, right-click the backup_set, and then click All Tasks > Backup All Subclients.

   • To add the automatic schedule to a subclient, click the backup_set, right-click the subclient, and then click Backup.

   The Backup Options dialog appears.

3. On the Backup Options tab under Select Backup Type, select Synthetic Full.

   Note

   Beginning with SP16, synthetic full backups no longer depend on incremental backups, and the Run Incremental Backup > Before Synthetic Full/After Synthetic Full option no longer appears in the Backup Options window for new schedules and schedule policies. However, the option will appear for existing schedules and schedule policies (that is, created in SP15 or earlier) that use the option.

4. Under Job Initiation, select Schedule, and then click Configure.

   The Schedule Details dialog appears.

5. In the Schedule Name box, enter a unique name for the schedule.

6. On the Synthetic Full sub-tab, select one of the following options:

   • Run Synthetic Full - Every X days. Defines the number of days that should pass between automatic synthetic full backups.

   • Run Synthetic Full - As needed for extended retention. Defines the number of days that should pass between synthetic full backup jobs based on the storage policy’s extended retention rules defined by the user. If extended retention rules are not configured, then synthetic full backup jobs will run every 30 days.

     Note

     Even if extended retention rules are configured and set to retain full backups that are less than 7 days (for example, Hourly Full backups or Daily Full backups), the synthetic full backup jobs will run every 7 days, since the time period between two automatic synthetic fulls can't be less than 7 days.

     A storage policy’s extended retention rules may be defined in the following two settings in the CommCell Console:

     • Extended Retention Rules for Full Backups (CommCell Console > Storage Policy > Storage Policy Copy > Properties > Retention)

     • Automatically select Full Backups at frequency (CommCell Console > Storage Policy > Properties > Selective Copy)

   • Run Synthetic Full - As needed to reclaim space. Automatically triggers a synthetic full backup job in order to reclaim space from backed up media.

     Note

     The Synthetic Full Backup sub-tab is available after Synthetic Full is selected from the Backup Options tab.

7. Click OK.

   To view the jobs that are associated with the backup set or the subclient, see Viewing Job Schedules.