Best practices for Backup Exec 12.5 synthetic backup

Best practices include tips and recommendations to help you use the synthetic backup feature effectively. For more information about the synthetic backup feature, see theBackup Exec for Windows Servers Administrator's Guide.

The following best practices are for using the synthetic backup feature:

• Use synthetic backups to back up file system resources. Do not include database backups in synthetic backups. Synthetic backup jobs are not created if the backup selection list contains any resources that are not supported.

  Note:
  Synthetic backup is not supported for a remote resource that is in a different time zone than the media server.

• Do not select the option Use the Microsoft Change Journal if available if a volume contains hard links, or if you enable Single Instance Storage. Backup Exec detects that these files have been modified and performs backups without using the Change Journal. In this situation, backups for which the Change Journal option is enabled can require more time.

• Copy the example policy for a synthetic backup that Backup Exec provides, and then customize it. The example policy contains the default settings for synthetic backup. For more information on how to use the example policy, see the Backup Exec 12.5 for Windows Servers Administrators Guide. Search for the topic named Creating a synthetic backup by copying the example policy for synthetic backup.

  Note:
  To display the example policy for synthetic backup, a backup-to-disk folder must already exist, and the Advanced Disk-based Backup Option must be licensed. If a backup-to-disk folder does not exist, you can create one, and then re-create the example policies. The example policy for synthetic backup appears in the Policies pane in the Job Setup view.

• Use the Policy Wizard to create a policy that contains all of the required templates for the synthetic backup feature.

• Ensure that a backup-to-disk folder is the destination device for the incremental backup jobs if you create a synthetic backup policy. Otherwise, Backup Exec does not let you save the policy.

• Use the template rules to ensure that the baseline backup job and the recurring incremental jobs do not run at the same time. You can select the following template rule to ensure that the baseline backup and the recurring incremental backups do not run at the same time:

  If start times conflict, <Template A> will start and upon completion, starts <Template B>.

• To automatically back up data to disk and then copy it to tape, add a Duplicate Backup Set template to the synthetic backup policy. The Duplicate Backup Set template provides automatic duplication of backup sets.

• If you use an encryption key in a synthetic backup policy, use the same encryption key for all of the associated templates. Do not change the encryption key after you create the policy.

• Create a full backup template for the baseline backup. This configuration is useful if the baseline backup uses a different destination device or runs on a different schedule than the recurring incremental backups.