Backup of single, personal, home Windows-based PC with documents, pictures, etc.
I’ve been doing incremental backups for a long time and want to do the periodic full backup as suggested in best practices. Question is, how is this done? Do I create a new backup plan with a new backup prefix to force new storage? Edit the current backup plan somehow? Set some option?
Hi [reply=“BillA;d10157”],
I suppose you are currently doing backups to cloud storage in NBF format with the Simple (Forever Forward Incremental) schedule.
If your retention policy is configured to keep no more than 90-100 restore points, then you could keep the current configuration, because it helps you save on storage costs by having just one full backup.
But if you want to make your backups more reliable, then configuring a schedule with periodic full backups would be the best choice here. Even though you are going to pay more for the cloud storage because of additional full backups, there will be more independent generations of backups.
You can enable full backup schedule by switching to Advanced and defining the Full backup schedule:
[reply=“Andrew Anushin;11319”] Thanks for the response, info, and suggestions.
I decided to stay with a more manual scheme and just created and directed the current backup plan to a new (Google) cloud storage bucket. This of course forced a new full backup. I’ll keep the old backup set for a few months and then delete it.
[reply=“BillA;11320”] Alright, this approach is also good, as long as it works for you.
If you decide to review other options, please let us know. We are always happy to help.
[reply=“Andrew Anushin;11321”] Hello 
, what other options can work here?
can you share please? 
Hi [reply=“Mdarame;11327”],
To make the explanation short, you have 2 options:
- Simple schedule and retention (Forever forward incremental)
- Advanced schedule with periodic full backups and more retention options
Each of them can be used depending on your requirements and the environment. If I were to highlight the main purpose of both, then I would suggest this:
- Use Simple schedule and retention for the source data that doesn’t change very often, and you don’t need to keep it for too long. A good example here is an Image-Based backup - in most cases, you need daily image backups for only 1-2 months to protect the system and program files
- Use Advanced schedule and retention when the source data needs to be kept in the backup storage for long periods of time (6+ months), and especially when you are following compliance requirements (e.g., keeping the backup data for several years). This approach will consume more space on the storage by creating multiple full backups, but it makes these backups more reliable because of multiple independent backup generations (the Simple schedule has only one). Additionally, the retention options with Advanced schedule allow you to keep full backups for an extended period of time and utilize the Object Lock feature if the backup storage supports it
You can read more about these mechanisms by following the links below:
Forever Forward Incremental:
https://help.msp360.com/cloudberry-backup/backup/about-backups/ffi
GFS Policy:
https://help.msp360.com/cloudberry-backup/backup/about-backups/gfs
We also have a tool designed to help you visualize and understand different backup strategies and retention policies. You can find it by following this link:
https://help.msp360.com/cloudberry-backup/backup/about-backups/techref/simulator