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Druva Documentation

Manage backup policies for NAS shares

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About backup policies for NAS shares

Backup policies are rules that define the type of data to back up and the schedule for automatic backups. You can create a backup policy and apply it to one or more backup sets. After you configure the NAS shares for backup, the data from the shares is backed up according to the schedule set in the backup policy. 

A backup policy for a NAS share defines the following:

  • Files and folders included or excluded from backup.
  • When a backup job is triggered.
  • Schedule of backup from a NAS share.
  • Bandwidth to be used by the NAS proxy to back up the share.
  • Retention period of historical snapshots.

Note: Phoenix creates a default backup policy for your setup. The default backup policy is configured to back up all file types. You can assign the default backup policy to one or more backup sets. You can also update or delete this backup policy.

Best practices for creating a backup policy

  • You can create as many backup policies as you want, depending on the number of NAS shares on your NAS device and the frequency at which data changes on the NAS shares. For example, for NAS shares that change frequently, you can create a backup policy, and define a schedule for a weekly backup for a longer duration, along with short-burst backups every second day.
  • Druva recommends that you create separate policies for SMB and NFS shares.
  • The backup policy defines the backup schedules of NAS shares. The schedule that you set must be according to the volume and frequency of data change on the NAS shares. The schedule must also take into account the availability of bandwidth for data transmission to Phoenix cloud. If you expect a large dataset during backups, you can schedule backups to run during off-peak hours (such as weekends or after a workday). 
  • You can consider the criticality of data and the frequency at which the data changes and is restored while configuring the retention policy. The important factors to consider while configuring retention are:
    • Legal requirements
    • Storage costs
    • Type of data 

Note: The backup schedule that you define in a backup policy also depends on your organization's policies. 

Add a backup policy

This section provides instructions to create a backup policy for NAS shares.

Before adding a backup policy for NAS shares, ensure you have read:

Add a backup policy

Add a backup policy from the Backup Policies page

  1. Log in to the Phoenix Management Console.

  2. Click the drop-down next to All Organizations and select the organization that has the NAS device.

  3. On the menu bar click Protect > NAS.

  4. In the navigation pane on the left, click Backup Policies.

  5. In the right pane, click Create Backup Policy.

    Create Backup Policy - Backup Policy screen.png
Add a backup policy while creating a backup set for a NAS share

  1. Log in to the Phoenix Management Console.

  2. Click the drop-down next to All Organizations and select the organization that has the NAS device.

  3. On the menu bar click Protect > NAS.

  4. In the device-specific navigation pane on the left, select the NAS device from the DEVICE drop-down list.

  5. The right pane lists all the NAS shares on the selected NAS device.

  6. Select a share and then click Create Backup Set.

  7. In the Create Backup Set dialog box, in the Backup Settings section, click New Backup Policy.

    Create Backup Set - New Backup Policy.png

Creating a backup policy

Step 1: General information

In the Overview section, enter the following details, and then click Next.

New Backup Policy NAS - General.png

Field Description
Name Name of the backup policy that is being created
Description Enter a short description of the backup policy

Step 2: Backup Schedule information

In the Backup Schedule section, enter the following details:

New Backup Policy NAS - Schedule.png

Field Description
Backup Frequency Select the days on which you want the backups to run
Start at (Server Time zone) Enter a short description of the backup policy
Backup Window(Hrs)

The duration after which you want backup operations to stop.

For example, if you set Start at to 9 AM and you set the Backup Window to 2 hours, backups of your NAS shares start at 9 AM and stop at 11 AM, even if they do not complete.
Max. Bandwidth (Mbps)

The maximum bandwidth that the NAS proxy can consume while backing up data to Phoenix.  

A scheduled backup job consumes the assigned bandwidth. A manually triggered backup job consumes the available bandwidth on your network.

Add Schedule: Use it to create more schedules. Click Add Schedule as many times as the number of schedules you want to create. 

Ignore backup window for the first backup: Ignore the backup window for the first backup job. You can disable this option to enforce the backup window for the first backup job. The first backup can exceed the backup window because it needs to scan a large number of files. We recommend keeping this option enabled to ensure that the first backup is successful.

The Remove icon is displayed when you have added more than one schedule. 
Remove schedule.png

In the Advanced Settings section, enter the following details, and click Next.
Enable Smart Scan.png

Field Description
Enable Smart Scan

For NAS share backups, you can enable Smart Scan if you have a lot of files that haven’t changed recently. Skipping these files makes incremental backups faster. 

Smart Scan Settings

You can select the following settings if Smart Scan is enabled. Smart scans follow the backup schedule for the policy.
Skip Scanning ACLs or permissions for unmodified files Select this option to skip scanning the Access Control Lists or permissions of files that have not changed recently.
Only scan files created/modified in the last X months Only scan files that were created or modified in the last <number of > months. You can enter 3, 6, 9, or 12 months for the duration. All files that are older than the specified duration are skipped from Smart Scans.
Full Scan Schedule

Even if you enable smart scan, you can still run a full scan. You can choose to run a full scan every 24 weeks or less. We recommend that you run a full scan every four weeks. Also, specify the preferred day, time, duration, and bandwidth.

Note: If you change the Backup Content setting under the backup set, the subsequent scan is a full scan.

Step 3: Retention information

 In the Retention tab, enter the duration for which the daily, monthly, weekly and yearly snapshots should be retained and click Next.

New Backup Policy NAS - Retention.png

Notes: Any changes that you make to the existing retention policies will be applied to all the new as well as the existing snapshots.

Enable Long Term Retention (LTR) 

For backup sets that need to be retained for a year or longer, you can enable Long Term Retention. Snapshots older than 15 days are moved to the cold tier. Data stored in the cold tier incurs a 30% lower fee. For more information, see About Long Term Retention, and Enabling Long Term Retention.

Copy as NAS share backup policy

  1. Login to the Phoenix Management Console

  2. On the menu bar click the drop-down next to All Organizations, and select the organization that has the NAS device.

  3. On the menu bar click Protect > NAS

  4. In the navigation pane on the left, click Backup Policies.

  5. In the right pane, select the backup policy that you want to copy to a new policy, and click Use as template.

    Use as template.png
  6. In the New Backup Policy dialog box, enter the following information:

    New Backup Policy.png
     
    Field Description
    New backup policy name The name for the new backup policy.
    Description (optional) An optional description of the new policy.

  7. Click Save.

Note: You can also copy a backup policy from the Manage > Backup Policies page.

Edit a backup policy

  1. Login to the Phoenix Management Console

  2. On the menu bar click All Organizations, and then select the organization that has the NAS device.

  3. On the menu bar click Protect > NAS

  4. In the navigation pane on the left, click Backup Policies.

  5. In the right pane, click the backup policy that needs to be edited.

  6. In the Summary tab, you can click Edit in the following sections :

    Editing a backup policy.png
     

    Overview section To edit the policy name and description.
    Backup Schedule section

    To edit the:

    • Backup Frequency
    • Start At
    • Backup Window
    • Max Bandwidth
    • Add Schedule
    • Select or deselect the Ignore backup window for the first backup
    • Enable/Disable Smart Scan and the other Smart Scan settings.

    For more details, see the Creating a backup policy.
    Retention section To edit the duration for which the Daily, Monthly, Weekly and Yearly snapshots should be retained.

     

  7. Once the edits are complete, click Save.

  1. Login to the Phoenix Management Console

  2. On the menu bar click the drop-down next to All Organizations, and select the organization that has the NAS device.

  3. On the menu bar click Protect > NAS

  4. In the navigation pane on the left, click Backup Policies.

  5. Click the policy that you want to delete.

  6. In the Backup Policies details page, click Delete.

    Delete a backup policy.png

  7. In the Delete Policy confirmation dialog box, click Continue.

Note: You cannot delete a policy associated with one or more backup sets. Associate backup sets with other policies before deleting the policy.

Delete a backup policy from Manage Backup Policies

  1. Log on to Phoenix Management Console.
  2. On the menu bar, click All Organizations, and select the required organization from the drop-down list.
  3. On the menu bar, click Manage > Backup Policies. 
  4. Click the backup policy that you want to remove.
  5. In the backup policy details page, click Delete.

Note: You cannot delete a policy associated with one or more backup sets. Associate backup sets with other policies before deleting the policy.