Before creating a policy with the synthetic template it must meet the following minimum requirements.


1. Purchase and install Advanced Disk Based Option (ADBO)
 


2. The Synthetic Backup policy must include a "Backup template" using the "Incremental-Using archive bit" backup method

3. The Synthetic Backup policy must also have the Collect additional information for synthetic backup option selected.

The following error will be displayed if the above mentioned  information is skipped during the synthetic backup policy creation:

 


The following steps will help you create a Synthetic Backup policy comprising of the following backup Templates:

1. FULL Priming Backup (Supported on Tape/B2D)
2. Incremental daily backup (Supported on B2D only)
3. Synthetic backup (Supported on Tape/B2D)


Step1:

Creating Full Priming Backup:

a. Go to Tools | Wizards | Policy wizard or simply click the Policy tab

 


b. In the backup policy template click New template

 

In the backup policy Template Selection select Backup template.

 

c. In the backup template, name the template as Full Priming Backup

 

(Note:This template backup needs to be run only once).


d. Schedule the backup template job as per your requirement

 

e. Under the General tab, make sure Collect additional information for synthetic backup option is selected as shown in the figure below

 

f. The first backup template is ready as shown below:

 



Step2:

Creating Incremental Backup:

a. Once again, in the backup policy Template Selection select Backup template

b. Name the template as Incremental Backup

 

c. Under Device and Media selection select B2D as shown below:

 

d. Under the General tab, make sure Collect additional information for synthetic backup option is selected as shown in the figure below:

 

e. Schedule the backup template as per the requirement


f. The Incremental Backup Template is also ready.



Step3:

Synthetic Full  Backup:

a. Go to Tools | Wizards | Policy wizard or simply click on the Policy tab

b. In the backup policy Template Selection select Synthetic Backup Template as shown in the figure below.

 


c. In the Synthetic Backup Template, under Device and Media select the preferred device. Under General, select the Preferred source device where the Full backup and Incremental Backups have been stored. If it is on the particular B2D, then select the specific B2D folder, or simply select All devices. This would include tape device and B2Ds as well.

 

d. Schedule the synthetic backup template job as per your requirement. In this example it has been set to Run only according to rules for this template as shown in the figure below:

 


e. Finally, all three templates are ready as seen in the figure below.

 



Before running or scheduling the POLICY backup you have to create template rules so that each template runs according to its rules. Rules are nothing but the order in which they will be running. If two backup job timings co-incide with each other, which template should take precedence over another is also guided by these rules. Rules also provide the option for  running the specific backups such as Priming full backup (Synthetic) only once.


Setting the rules for Full-Backup-Template:
 


Similarly you can set the "rules" (optional)  for Incremental and Synthetic Backup so that their backup job timings do not conflict during weekly or monthly backup rotation.


Advantage of Synthetic Full Backup:

Synthetic backup is also known as catalog driven backup because it maintains the table of catalog information and updates it with the help of the Collect additional information for synthetic backup feature, constantly depending upon the file appended, modified, or deleted. Due to this intelligence, it does not include the file which is deliberately deleted by the user and is no longer required during restore. In this condition, any NORMAL FULL backup job would restore the "Deleted File" whether you want it or not. But in the case of Synthetic Full backup, it excludes such files and does not include it in the final catalog information for the Synthetic Full Backup, which not only makes the restore job faster, but also compact.