Define backup policies

Backup policies define schedules for jobs, when and how often to run a job, and how long to retain the data. A backup policy also allows you define whether its schedule runs within a window or continuously. Where applicable, backup policies allow you to define the rules for determining whether or not a data protected by a policy meets your requirements. If data is being protected according to your needs, then it is considered to be in compliance.

A backup template includes one or more of the following types of policies:

• Production to snapshot: This policy defines when and how often production data is captured and how many snapshots are retained. Snapshots are meant for short term retention. For more information, see Production to snapshot policies.

• OnVault: These policies allow you to send captured images to object storage. For an overview of OnVault policies, see OnVault policies. Backup and DR Service provides two types of OnVault policies:

  • Snapshot to OnVault: This policy lets you replicate data captured in a snapshot Pool to object storage defined by a Backup and DR OnVault storage pool. See OnVault policies. VMware VMs directly to object storage defined by an OnVault Storage Pool. See OnVault policies for details.
  • OnVault to OnVault: This policy enables the replicate data from the Direct to OnVault storage object to other another OnVault destination. For more information, see OnVault to OnVault policy.

• Production to mirror: This policy defines how data will be replicated to a Mirror Pool (a snapshot pool on a remote backup/recovery appliance). Data in the Mirror Pool is meant for instant recovery in a disaster recovery scenario.

The backup plan enforces a specific policy development sequence when you define the policies associated with a policy template. Certain policies are unavailable based on the type of policy template you develop. In addition, the types of policy templates and the minimum and maximum settings of policies are specific to the backup/recovery appliance on which they reside. Policy templates are applied to applications in the App Manager.

Advanced Policy Settings

Policies contain a series of advanced settings for all applications supported by a backup/recovery appliance using this policy. When creating a policy you can define the policy advanced settings that are most appropriate for all applications to which the policy's template is applied. Advanced settings for policies are detailed in Configure advanced policy settings.

Advanced settings defined in a policy can be overridden for specific applications if the policy template Allow Overrides on Policy Settings parameter has been set to Yes.

Note: The time window used by all policies is in UTC time zone. For example, to set the start time for a policy window as 15:00, in a timezone that is UTC+1, then set the policy start time to 14:00.

Create a production to snapshot policy

Production to snapshot policies define how to capture application production data as a snapshot. Snapshots are the fast virtualization step that protects your data at a specific moment. For a set of best practices when developing a snapshot policy, see Production to snapshot policies.

Note: Templates that are used to back up Compute Engine instances only contain production to snapshot policies. You cannot use a template that has OnVault or StreamSnap policies with a Compute Engine instance.

Use these instructions to create a policy to capture snapshot images:

1. Click the Backup Plans tab and select Templates from the drop-down menu.

   The Templates page opens.

2. Click Create Templates.

   The Create Template page opens with the new (empty) backup template. See Create a new template for details on creating a backup template.

3. To create a production to snapshot policy, complete one of the following actions:

   • Click + (plus) in the arrow between Production and Snapshot in the backup plan policy map.
   • Click +Add to the right of snapshot in the Policies area.

   The production to snapshot policy configuration panel opens.

4. Enter a policy name in Policy Name. For policy name, enter an alphanumeric text string. Spaces, underscores (_), and dashes (-) are allowed in a name; but don't include special characters.

5. Specify the schedule type for the production to snapshot policy; Windowed or Continuous. The default is Windowed.

   • Windowed. This defines a discrete snapshot backup schedule adhering to a specific frequency and time window (for example, perform a backup every 30 minutes, daily from 09:00 to 17:00 UTC). You can instruct the backup/recovery appliance to run multiple backup jobs at a specified frequency interval or once during a specified time window.
   • Continuous. Defines a continuous snapshot backup schedule (for example, perform a backup job every eight hours, starting the first job at 01:00 UTC). In this policy schedule, jobs run continuously (24/7) at the specified time interval.

6. Configure the policy frequency settings per the selected schedule type as outlined in the following table.

   Policy setting	Description
   Windowed
   On These Days	Configures the frequency of the policy by defining an interval at which snapshot images are captured. Based on this interval setting, the snapshot job runs once every specified number of days, weeks, months, or years. Click the link of this parameter and modify the run interval. The schedule is displayed in a calendar view. From this view, you can specify Days, Weeks, Months, or Years. The calendar view changes accordingly based on your selection.
   Except	Defines an exception to the Run schedule. You can specify an Except value of daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly. For example, to skip the daily snapshot schedule every Friday, select weekly and select Friday. Click the link to the right of this parameter and modify the exception. The schedule is displayed in a calendar view. From this view you can specify Days, Weeks, Months, or Years. The calendar view changes accordingly based on your selection.
   Within This Window	Defines a start and end time window for capturing snapshot images.
   Run Once Per Window	Specifies that the frequency duration for capturing snapshot images is once during the specified Run Between time window.
   Every	Specifies a repeat frequency duration (minutes or hours) for capturing snapshot images during the specified Run Between time window. For example, every two hours.
   Continuous
   Run Every	Specifies the time period in which to repeat the snapshot image capture.
   Start First Job At	Specific the time of day at which to run the first job in the continuous cycle of snapshot image captures.
   Both Windowed and Continuous
   Retain For	Specifies the length of time that you intend to retain the snapshot image. For example, retain the image for two days.

7. (Optional), change the application priority from the Priority drop-down list. The default job priority is Medium, but you can change the priority to High or Low.

   The backup plan scheduler identifies when one or more policies applied to applications are to run, and then initiates a job that places the policy into a queue when the scheduled start time occurs. For each policy type there is a pacing mechanism to ensure that the system is not overwhelmed with running jobs. This pacing mechanism uses job slots to achieve this steady state, which means that even if a job is supposed to start at a particular time it executes only occur when a job slot is available.

   If multiple applications are scheduled to run at the same time with the same job priority, the selection of the application to run is randomized to ensure fairness across all of the applications of the same priority.

8. Click Advanced Policy Settings.

   The Policy Settings dialog opens.

   The backup plan supports Advanced Settings for a snapshot policy; advanced settings may be useful or required in certain circumstances. For details, see Configure advanced policy settings for a backup plan policy.

   After you configure your advanced policy settings, click Save Changes.

9. Click Add Policy. You return to the Templates page.

10. Click Save Template.

Create a snapshot to OnVault policy

The snapshot to OnVault policy lets you send snapshot data to one or more OnVault pools. A schedule within the policy is used to send the most recent snapshot taken by the policy template's snapshot policy to the OnVault pool. After the initial full backup, snapshot to OnVault policies follow an incremental-forever model where only the changes to the data are captured and sent to the OnVault pool. For a set of best practices when developing a OnVault policy, see OnVault policies.

Note: Templates that are used to backup Compute Engine instances should only contain production to snapshot policies. You cannot use a template that has OnVault or StreamSnap policies with a Compute Engine instance.

Send data to multiple OnVault pools

You can send snapshot data to multiple OnVault pools when you want to do the following:

• Use a local object storage for short or medium term data retention and send the data to Cloud Storage for long term data retention.
• Use multiple on-premise and Cloud Storage targets for resilience.

When two or more snapshot to OnVault policies with different target pools are defined for a template, the OnVault icon shows a shadow to indicate there are multiple target pools for this template. It also shows a number corresponding to the number of different target pools to which data is sent.

Note: Before creating a snapshot to OnVault policy, you must first create a snapshot policy as described in the [Create production to snapshot policy][8] section. You are not be able to save the snapshot to OnVault template without a snapshot policy in the template.

Use these instructions to create a snapshot to OnVault policy:

1. Click the Backup Plans tab and select Templates from the drop-down menu.

   The Templates page opens.

2. Select a template that includes a snapshot policy.

   The Templates page opens with the selected backup template.

3. To create a snapshot to OnVault policy, perform one of the following actions:

   • Click +(Plus) in the arrow between snapshot and OnVault in the backup plan policy map.
   • Click +Add to the right of OnVault in the Policies area of the Templates window.

   The snapshot to OnVault policy configuration panel opens.

4. In Policy Name, enter a descriptive name. For policy name, enter an alphanumeric text string. Spaces, underscores (_), and dashes (-) are allowed in a name; but you cannot include special characters.

5. For scheduling, configure the policy frequency and schedule as outlined in the following table.

   Policy Setting	Description
   Windowed
   On These Days	Configures the frequency of the policy by defining an interval at which images are captured. Based on this interval setting, the job runs once every specified number of days, weeks, months, or years. Click the link to the right of this parameter and modify the Run interval. The schedule is displayed in a calendar view. From this view you can specify Days, Weeks, Months, or Years. The calendar view changes accordingly based on your selection.
   Except	Defines an exception to the Run schedule. You can specify an Except value of daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly. For example, to skip the daily schedule every Friday, select weekly and select Friday. Click the link to the right of this parameter and modify the exception. The schedule is displayed in a calendar view. From this view you can specify Days, Weeks, Months, or Years. The calendar view changes accordingly based on your selection.
   Within this window	Defines a start and end time window for capturing images.
   Run once per window	Specifies that the frequency duration for capturing images is once during the specified Run Between time window.
   Every	Specifies a repeat frequency duration (minutes or hours) for capturing images during the specified Run Between time window. For example, every two hours.
   Continuous
   Run Every	Specifies the time period in which to repeat the snapshot image capture.
   Start First Job At	Specific the time of day at which to run the first job in the continuous cycle of snapshot image captures.
   Both Windowed and Continuous
   Retain For	Specifies the length of time that you intend to retain the snapshot image. For example, retain the image for two days.

6. From the Priority drop-down list, you can optionally change the application priority. The default job priority is Medium, but you can change the priority to High or Low.

   The backup plan scheduler identifies when one or more policies applied to applications are to run, and then initiates a job that places the policy into a queue when the scheduled start time occurs. For each policy type there is a pacing mechanism to ensure that the system is not overwhelmed with running jobs. This pacing mechanism uses job slots to achieve this steady state, which means that even if a job is supposed to start at a particular time it executes only occur when a job slot is available.

   If multiple applications are scheduled to run at the same time with the same job priority, the selection of the application to run is randomized to ensure fairness across all of the applications of the same priority.

7. From the Target Pool drop-down list, select the OnVault pool to which the snapshot data should be sent.

8. Click Add Policy. You return to the Templates window. Repeat the process to create another snapshot to OnVault policy with a different Target Pool.

9. Click Save Template.

Create a direct to OnVault policy

The direct to OnVault policy lets you send VMs in your production environment to storage defined by the OnVault pool. A schedule within the policy is used to send the most recent production data to an object store. After the initial full backup snapshot to OnVault policies follow Backup and DR's incremental-forever model where only the changes to the data are captured and sent to the object store.

Note: The direct to OnVault policy type can only be used to backup VMware VMs. It cannot be used with other application types.

Use these instructions to create a direct to OnVault policy:

1. Click the Backup Plans tab and select Templates from the drop-down menu.

   The Templates page opens.

2. Select a template that includes an OnVault policy.

   The Templates page opens with the selected backup template.

3. Click +Add next to Direct to OnVault in the Policies area of the Templates page.

4. Enter a policy name in Policy Name. For policy name, enter an alphanumeric text string. Spaces, underscores (_), and dashes (-) are allowed in a name; but don't include special characters.

5. Configure the policy frequency schedule as outlined in the following table.

   Policy Setting	Description
   Windowed
   On These Days	Configures the frequency of the policy by defining an interval at which images are captured. Based on this interval setting, the job runs once every specified number of days, weeks, months, or years. Click the link of this parameter and modify the Run interval. The schedule is displayed in a calendar view. From this view you can specify Days, Weeks, Months, or Years. The calendar view changes accordingly based on your selection.
   Except	Defines an exception to the Run schedule. You can specify an Except value of daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly. For example, to skip the daily schedule every Friday, select weekly and select Friday. Click the link to the right of this parameter and modify the exception. The schedule is displayed in a calendar view. From this view you can specify Days, Weeks, Months, or Years. The calendar view changes accordingly based on your selection.
   Within This Window	Defines a start and end time window for capturing images.
   Run Once Per Window	Specifies that the frequency duration for capturing images is once during the specified Run Between time window.
   Every	Specifies a repeat frequency duration (minutes or hours) for capturing images during the specified Run Between time window. For example, every two hours.
   Continuous
   Run Every	Specifies the time period in which to repeat the image capture.
   Start First Job At	Specific the time of day at which to run the first job in the continuous cycle of image captures.
   Both Windowed and Continuous
   Retain For	Specifies the length of time that you intend to retain the image. For example, retain the image for two days.

6. (Optional) change the application priority from the Priority drop-down list. The default job priority is Medium, but you can change the priority to High or Low.

   The backup plan scheduler identifies when one or more policies applied to applications are to run, and then initiates a job that places the policy into a queue when the scheduled start time occurs. For each policy type there is a pacing mechanism to ensure that the system is not overwhelmed with running jobs. This pacing mechanism uses job slots to achieve this steady state, which means that even if a job is supposed to start at a particular time it executes only occur when a job slot is available.

   If multiple applications are scheduled to run at the same time with the same job priority, the selection of the application to run is randomized to ensure fairness across all of the applications of the same priority.

7. Click Advanced Policy Settings to set advanced settings for the applications captured by this policy. See Configure advanced policy settings for a backup plan policy for details.

8. Click Update Policy. You return to the Templates page.

9. Click Save Template.

Create an OnVault replication policy

The OnVault replication policy lets you replicate data from the direct to OnVault pool to a second OnVault destination. A schedule within the policy is used to send incremental changes from one OnVault pool to another. It allows for the data to be available across multiple geographical locations for resiliency hosted by various vendors and clouds. Data replication from one OnVault pool to another is supported only when the data was first captured using direct to OnVault.

Use these instructions to create an OnVault replication policy:

1. Click the Backup Plans tab and select Templates from the drop-down menu.

   The Templates page opens.

2. Click Edit from the drop-down menu.

3. Click +(Plus) between Production and OnVault, then configure a Direct to OnVault policy using instructions in Create a direct to OnVault policy.

4. Next, click the +(Plus) next to OnVault.

   The OnVault replication configuration panel opens.

5. Enter a policy name in Policy Name. For policy name, enter an alphanumeric text string. Spaces, underscores (_), and dashes (-) are allowed in a name; but don't include special characters.

6. Configure the policy frequency schedule as outlined in the following table.

   Policy Setting	Description
   Windowed
   On These Days	Configures the frequency of the policy by defining an interval at which images are captured. Based on this interval setting, the job runs once every specified number of days, weeks, months, or years. Click the link of this parameter and modify the Run interval. The schedule is displayed in a calendar view. From this view you can specify Days, Weeks, Months, or Years. The calendar view changes accordingly based on your selection.
   Except	Defines an exception to the Run schedule. You can specify an Except value of daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly. For example, to skip the daily schedule every Friday, select weekly and select Friday. Click the link of this parameter and modify the exception. The schedule is displayed in a calendar view. From this view you can specify Days, Weeks, Months, or Years. The calendar view changes accordingly based on your selection.
   Within This Window	Defines a start and end time window for capturing images.
   Run Once Per Window	Specifies that the frequency duration for capturing images is once during the specified Run Between time window.
   Every	Specifies a repeat frequency duration (minutes or hours) for capturing images during the specified Run Between time window. For example, every two hours.
   Continuous
   Run Every	Specifies the time period in which to repeat the snapshot image capture.
   Start First Job At	Specific the time of day at which to run the first job in the continuous cycle of snapshot image captures.
   Both Windowed and Continuous
   Retain For	Specifies the length of time that you intend to retain the snapshot image. For example, retain the image for two days.

7. (Optional) change the application priority from the Priority drop-down list. The default job priority is Medium, but you can change the priority to High or Low.

   The backup plan scheduler identifies when one or more policies applied to applications are to run, and then initiates a job that places the policy into a queue when the scheduled start time occurs. For each policy type there is a pacing mechanism to ensure that the system is not overwhelmed with running jobs. This pacing mechanism uses job slots to achieve this steady state, which means that even if a job is supposed to start at a particular time it executes only occur when a job slot is available.

   If multiple applications are scheduled to run at the same time with the same job priority, the selection of the application to run is randomized to ensure fairness across all of the applications of the same priority.

8. From the Target Pool drop-down, select the second OnVault pool to which data is replicated.

9. Click Advanced Policy Settings to set advanced settings for the applications captured by this policy. See Configure advanced policy settings for a backup plan policy for details.

10. Click Update Policy. You return to the Templates page.

11. Click Save Template.

Create a production to mirror policy

Production to mirror policies are used to replicate snapshots of your production data to the mirror (snapshot pool) of a second backup/recovery appliance. These policy types protect your application or VM data against a site failure by having a full copy of that data mirrored to a remote production site. Applications are kept up-to-date and can be restarted at the remote site by accessing data from the remote DR copy.

A Production to Mirror policy is used in tandem with a resource profile that defines the replication destination as another backup/recovery appliance. Both the Production to Mirror policy and the resource profile are applied to applications in the App Manager.

The Streamsnap Replication replicates a point-in-time snapshot of the original application. See Create a streamsnap replication production to mirror policy for more information.

For a set of best practices when developing a production to mirror policy, see Production to mirror policies.

Create a streamsnap replication production to mirror policy

Use these instructions to create a streamsnap production to mirror replication policy:

Note: Before creating a streamsnap replication policy, you must first create a snapshot policy as described in Create production to snapshot policy. Production to Mirror policies that use the streamsnap replication option are tied to a specific snapshot policy. They inherit the schedule and frequency settings, as well as the advanced settings, of the associated snapshot policy. You are prevented from saving the streamsnap replication policy without an associated base snapshot policy.

1. Click the Backup Plans tab and select Templates from the drop-down menu.

   The Templates page opens.

2. Select a template that includes a snapshot policy and select Edit from the drop-down menu.

   The Templates page opens with the selected backup template.

3. To create a streamsnap replication policy, perform one of the following actions:

   • Click + (plus) between Production and Mirror in the backup plan policy map.
   • Click +Add next Mirror in the Policies area of the Templates window.

   The Production to Mirror policy configuration panel appears in the Template window.

4. Select the type of replication as streamsnap from Replication Type.

5. Enter a policy name in Policy Name. For policy name, enter an alphanumeric text string. Spaces, underscores (_), and dashes (-) are allowed in a name; but don't include special characters.

6. Base snapshot Policy specifies a previously created snapshot policy in the template for use as the base snapshot policy for streamsnap replication. A streamsnap replication policy is always tied to a specific snapshot policy, and uses the schedule and frequency settings of this snapshot policy. If more that one snapshot policy exists in the template, select the snapshot policy to use with the streamsnap policy.

7. (Optional) change the application priority from the Priority drop-down list. The default job priority for streamsnap replication is medium, but you can change the priority to high or low.

   The backup plan scheduler identifies when one or more policies applied to applications are to run, and then initiates a job that places the policy into a queue when the scheduled start time occurs. For snapshot policy type, there is a pacing mechanism to ensure that the system is not overwhelmed with running jobs. This pacing mechanism uses job slots to achieve this steady state, which means that even if a job is supposed to start at a particular time it executes only occur when a job slot is available.

   If multiple applications are scheduled to run at the same time with the same job priority, the selection of the application to run is randomized to ensure fairness across all of the applications of the same priority.

   Note: You can modify the priority of a streamsnap replication when a job based on the policy template is running.

8. To apply remote snapshot image retention in a streamsnap policy, choose from the following Retention Options:

   • Only Keep the Most Recent Remote Image: This retains only the latest remote streamsnap image (default setting).
   • Use Retention Specified in snapshot Policy: This uses the same retention as the local (base) snapshot policy associated with this streamsnap policy.
   • Retain For: This retains the remote snapshot image for a specific period of time (minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, or years). You define the time period to retain the image by making a choice from the drop-down list and then entering a specific value.

   Backup/recovery appliances performing streamsnap retention retains multiple point-in-time images at the remote site, with retention behavior being driven by this setting. When retaining snapshot images at the remote backup/recovery appliance, a new snapshot image is created at the remote appliance with a specific retention expiration date. Remote snapshot images support all of the same operations available with a local snapshot image.

9. By default, compression for streamsnap replication is enabled. Compression increases efficiency of the streamsnap replication to the remote backup/recovery appliance when transferring data over the network (for example, when replicating images and videos). When compression is enabled, all packets are compressed. The target backup/recovery appliance decompresses the packets before writing to the staging disk.

   If compression is not needed for streamsnap replication to the second backup/recovery appliance, click Advanced Policy Settings to access the Policy Settings dialog. Change the compress streamsnap replication advanced setting to Do not compress, then click Save Changes.

   Note: Enabling compression may not always provide the best results. Compression uses additional CPU cycles but reduces network bandwidth consumption. If the available network bandwidth is better than the system resources such as CPUs, it is advised to disable compression.

10. Click Update Policy. You return to the Templates window.

11. Click Save Template.

What's next

• Get an overview of backup plan
• Create a backup template
• Create a backup policy
• Create a resource profile
• Configure advanced policy settings of an application backed up by the policy
• Apply a backup plan to an application