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Druva Documentation

Manage backup policies for NAS shares

Enterprise Workloads Editions: File:/tick.png Business File:/cross.png Enterprise File:/tick.png Elite

 

About backup policies for NAS shares

Backup policies are rules that define 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:

  • Backup schedule for the NAS share
  • Retention period of historical recovery points.
  • Pre-backup and post-backup scripts.

Note: Druva creates a default backup policy for your setup. 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 Druva 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. 

About retention

Retention defines the rules for retaining your backups (recovery point)  within the storage. Use the retention period to define the duration for which you want to retain your historical backups.

The objective of retention is to keep important data for future access, depending on how critical it is. Retention also ensures that backups that are no longer required are cleaned from your storage periodically, resulting in less storage utilization and costs.

The retention period would not be honored for the most recent recovery point when a server or VM or backup set is disabled. This allows you to restore the latest recovery point later if required.

Retention should consider the value of your data and the compliance requirements. The different types of data will be retained for different durations. For example, a bank's retention period for customers' financial records is different from facilities inventory records.

The main factors to consider while defining a retention period are:

  • Compliance requirements
  • Storage costs
  • Type of data

Retention period settings

Druva follows the Grandfather-Father-Son (GFS) retention model wherein, in case of an overlap, the retention setting of the longer period (Son-Father-Grandfather relation) is considered. The recovery point is expired as per the settings of the higher period.  For example, in case there is an overlap between the daily and weekly retention period, the weekly retention period is considered. So daily is the smallest unit and weekly overrides daily > monthly overrides weekly  > yearly overrides monthly. 

Also, Druva follows the Gregorian calendar for tracking days.

While backup schedules are configured on an hourly, daily, or weekly basis the last recovery point created by the backups on that particular day will be retained as per the retention setting.  

You can define the following durations to retain recovery points.

Retention Period Description
Daily recovery points

Druva retains all the recovery points that are created for the number of days specified in Daily recovery points.  

Druva considers midnight as the end of a day.

If you have configured Druva to back up your server multiple times within a day, Druva retains all the recovery points for the days specified.
Weekly recovery points (Son)

The number of weekly recovery points that Druva should retain. Druva treats the latest recovery point in the week as the weekly recovery point.

Druva considers midnight on Sunday as the end of the week.

Monthly recovery points (Father)

The number of monthly recovery points that Druva should retain. Druva treats the latest recovery point in the month as the monthly recovery point.

Druva considers midnight of the last day of a month as the end of the month.

Yearly recovery points (Grandfather)

The number of yearly recovery points that Druva should retain. Druva treats the latest recovery point in the year as the yearly recovery point.

Druva considers the midnight of the last day of the year as the end of the year.

The recovery point name displayed on the Management Console is recovery point creation time as per the server time zone, on which the backup occurred. Druva considers the time zone of the server for retaining the recovery points as per the retention setting.

Default retention period settings 

If you are registering the server under default organization, Druva provides a default backup policy with the following retention settings:

  • Daily recovery points: 14 days
  • Weekly revisions: 4 weeks
  • Monthly revisions: 3  months
  • Yearly revisions: 3  years

Note: The above default retention settings are applicable for Warm storage and Long Term Retention (LTR) tiers.

The following diagram illustrates the recovery points that will be available on a given day ( Feb 9 in this example) based on the retention settings you have configured. In this example the policy is created and backups start on Dec 30 of the previous year.

Retention for Enterprise workloads.png

On 9 Feb you will have 17 recovery points or recovery points to restore as described in the table. 

Note: Daily is the smallest unit and weekly overrides daily and monthly overrides weekly and yearly overrides monthly.

Recovery points resulting from

Description

Daily retention setting You will have 11 ( 14 daily less 2 weekly less 1 monthly)  recovery points (starting from 27 Jan) created due to the daily retention settings.
Weekly retention setting You will have 4 recovery points for 14 Jan, 21 Jan, 28 Jan and 4 Feb created due to the weekly settings.

The weekly recovery points that coincide with the daily recovery points (28 Jan and 4 Feb) will be considered and retained as per the weekly setting. So, even though the daily retention period expires for these dates the recovery points will be retained as per the weekly settings (4 weeks).
Monthly retention setting You will have 1 monthly recovery point of 31 Jan. This recovery point will be available for the next 3 months as it is a monthly retention point. So even though the 14 days daily retention period expires after 9 Feb, the recovery point will be available for the next 3  months.
Yearly retention setting You will have one recovery point for 31 Dec due to the yearly retention setting. This recovery point will be available for 3 years.

Impact of retention period settings on recovery point objective (RPO)

In continuation with the example above, so let us say malware was detected on 9 Feb evening.  After investigation, it was discovered that the data till 7 Feb is corrupted.  In that case, the recovery point available to you will be of 6 Feb which is available due to the daily recovery point.  However, there could be a data loss of data backed between 7 Feb and 9 Feb.

Retention Setting and RPO.png

Considerations

  • Any changes that you make to the existing retention policies will be applied to all the new as well as the existing recovery points.
  • Retention periods are applicable for recovery points that reside on CloudCache and Druva Cloud.
  • Druva runs a retention expiration algorithm to delete the recovery points that have crossed the expiration period. This algorithm does not delete thawed recovery points. For more information, see Recovery points.

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 Management Console.

  2. Select the workload from the Protect menu. Note that if the All Organizations menu is enabled, you have to first select an organization that has your NAS device and then select the workload.

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

  4. In the right pane, click New Backup Policy.

    backup_plicy_nas.png

You can also click the Customize Table Columns icon to get a list of all the columns on the page.

  • Select the checkbox to display the column. 
  • Clear the checkbox to hide a column on the Backup Policies table. Removing unnecessary columns will make the UI more spacious.
  • Move a column to change the order. The change is reflected in the Backup Policies table.

The column configuration persists across sessions in the same browser.

Note: You can resize a column on the Backup Policies table by dragging it to the desired location.

Add a backup policy while creating a backup set for a NAS share
  1. Log in to the Management Console.

  2. Select the workload from the Protect menu. Note that if the All Organizations menu is enabled, you have to first select an organization that has your NAS device and then select the workload.

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

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

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

  6. 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 - General tab.png

Field Description
Name Name of the backup policy that is being created.
Description (optional) A short description of the backup policy. This field is optional.
Step 2: Backup Schedule information

In the Backup Schedule section, enter the following details:

 

Field Description
Backup Frequency Select the days on which you want the backups to run
Start at (Proxy 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

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

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

Note: The maximum bandwidth that a backup job can consume is 2 Gbps (2000 Mbps).

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. 
removeNAS.png

Step 3: Retention information

In the Retention tab, select the storage tier and enter the duration for which the daily, monthly, weekly, and yearly recovery points should be retained. Click Next.

RetentionTab.png

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

Storage Tier settings

You can select Warm, Long Term Retention (LTR), or Archive options.

Warm 

By default, the warm storage tier is selected.

In the Retention tab, enter the duration for which the daily, monthly, weekly, and yearly recovery points should be retained.

Long Term Retention (LTR)

Select Long Term Retention (LTR) for backup sets that need to be retained for a year or longer.

In the Retention tab, enter the duration for which the daily, monthly, weekly, and yearly recovery points should be retained and the value of the Long Term Retention Threshold.

Recovery pointss older than the set threshold value are moved to the cold storage. This lowers the total storage cost for the LTR backup sets. 

For more information, see About Long Term Retention, and Enabling Long Term Retention.

Archive

Select Archive to move the backup data directly to the cold storage.

In the Retention tab, enter the duration you want to retain the archived data. For example, a retention value of 22 years means that all the recovery points are retained for 22 years.

Archive is used for storing data that is rarely accessed or restored but required to be protected for future reference and compliance purposes. Archive allows you to bypass the warm storage tier and directly backup the data to the cold tier. Data stored in the cold tier incurs up to 50% lower fee.
For more information, see Protect File Server and NAS data in Archive storage tier.

Enable Data Lock

You enable the Data Lock for the backup policy. Data Lock prevents your backup recovery points from accidental or malicious deletion or modification. For more information about Data Lock, refer to  Data Lock for preventing malicious or accidental deletion of recovery points

Note: Once you apply Data Lock to the backup policy, you cannot:

  • Disable Data Lock.
  • Delete the recovery points, backup sets, and backup policy.
  • Edit the retention period in the backup policy.
  • Associate another backup policy to the Data Lock-enabled backup set. 
Step 4: Pre/Post Script Settings information

In the Pre/Post Script Settings section, perform the following tasks to execute custom pre-backup and post backup scripts, and click Finish. Configuring pre/post scripts in NAS share backups is optional.

Pre-post script settings.png

Field Description
Windows Proxy
Enable Scripts Enable pre-backup and post-backup scripts execution for SMB share backups. When you enable scripts, the Scripts location field gets enabled.
Scripts Location Enter the location of the folder that contains the pre-backup and post-backup scripts on the NAS proxy.
Linux Proxy
Enable Scripts Enable pre-backup and post-backup scripts for NFS share backups. When you enable scripts, the Scripts location field gets enabled.
Scripts Location Enter the location of the folder that contains the pre-backup and post-backup scripts on the NAS proxy.
Skip Backup if
Pre-script is not present at the specified location Select the option to skip the backup if a pre-backup script is not available at the specified script location.
Pre-script execution fails Select the option to skip the backup if a pre-backup script execution fails.
Abort pre/post script execution if it does not complete in X Minutes/Hours Enter the duration in minutes or hours after which Druva should abort the pre-backup or post-backup script execution. You can leave this field blank if you don’t want to enter a timeout value. In that case the pre-backup and post-backup scripts run until the job is canceled or the backup window expires.
Scanning methods in NAS

The following table describes different configuration scenarios of the NAS scanning methods.
The Vendor native recovery points method takes the highest precedence when enabling it on the Add/Edit Device page. Advanced Smart Scan is not policy-driven and is applicable if requirements are met.

NAS Scan settings/ method

Requirements

Backup policy

 

Agent version

Enabled?

Precedence

Vendor native recovery points The device should be Dell EMC Isilon with all required permissions. For more information, see Isilon validations. Vendor native recovery points are not policy-driven. 5.0.2 and above Yes 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Advanced Smart Scan

Preferred for NAS devices with SMB server supporting SMB dialects 3.0.0, 3.0.2, and 3.1.1. Currently, it is supported only for Windows proxy for SMB shares.

Note: The preferred port for SMB/TCP connection is 445. You can also use port 139.

Advanced Smart Scan is not policy-driven and applicable if Advanced Smart Scan requirements are met.

6.1.1 and above

Yes

2

Preferred for NAS devices with NFS server supporting NFS v3. Advanced Smart Scan is not policy-driven and applicable if Advanced Smart Scan requirements are met.
 
6.3.1 and above Yes 2

The following examples describe the applicable scanning methods based on conditions: 

  • Vendor native recovery points will be the effective scan method, if:
    • Druva NAS agent version is 5.0.2 and above
    • NAS device is Isilon, and vendor native integration is enabled
  • Advanced Smart Scan will be the effective scan method, if:
    • Druva NAS agent version is 6.1.1 or higher for SMB shares
    • NAS agent version is 6.3.1 or higher for NFS shares
    • NAS device is non-Isilon or vendor native integration is disabled
    • NAS SMB dialect is 3.0.0, 3.0.2, or 3.1.1, and NAS NFS version is v3
      For more information, see Advanced Smart Scan.

      Note: Advanced Smart Scan is not supported on Azure NFS, AWS eFS, and Amazon FSx on Windows.

      Note: Azure files through NFS protocol takes a long time to respond, resulting in delay during the start of the backup.

Copy as NAS share backup policy

  1. Login to the Management Console

  2. Select the workload from the Protect menu. Note that if the All Organizations menu is enabled, you have to first select an organization that has your NAS device and then select the workload.

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

  4. In the right pane, select the backup policy that you want to copy to a new policy, and click Duplicate Policy.

    backup policyDuplicate NAS.png
  5. 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.
  6. Click Save.

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

Edit a backup policy

  1. Login to the Management Console

  2. Select the workload from the Protect menu. Note that if the All Organizations menu is enabled, you have to first select an organization that has your NAS device and then select the workload.

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

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

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

    Edit a backup policy.png
     

    Overview section To edit the policy name and description.

    Backup Schedule section

    To edit the:

    For more details, see the Creating a backup policy.

    Retention section

    You can change the Storage tier from Warm to LTR. 

    Note: Modification of Storage tier from/to Archive tier to/from Warm/LTR tier is not possible.

    Edit the duration for which the Daily, Monthly, Weekly, and Yearly recovery points should be retained. Toggle the Enable Data Lock option to enable Data Lock for your backup policy.

    Notes:

    • For an Archive backup policy, only the Retain recovery points for field and its value is displayed.
    • For a warm/LTR policies, the values of the following fields are displayed: 
      • Daily recovery points for
      • Monthly recovery points for
      • Weekly recovery points for
      • Yearly recovery points for

    Pre/Post Script Settings section

    To enable or disable pre-backup or post-backup script execution. You can alter the pre-backup or post-backup script path. You can also specify whether to skip backup if the pre-backup script is not present at the specified location or if pre-backup script execution fails. You can also set or alter the script time-out value.

    For more details, see Pre/Post Script Settings information.

     

  6. Once the edits are complete, click Save.

You can delete a backup policy only after 7 days of the deletion of the last backup set mapped to the policy.

  1. Login to the Management Console.
  2. Select the workload from the Protect menu. Note that if the All Organizations menu is enabled, you have to first select an organization that has your NAS device and then select the workload.
  3. In the navigation pane on the left, click Backup Policies.
  4. Click the policy that you want to delete.
  5. On the Backup Policies details page, click Delete.
    deleteNAS.png
  6. 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.
  • If the backup policy has Data Lock enabled, you cannot manually delete this backup policy.

Delete a backup policy from Manage Backup Policies

You can delete a backup policy only after 7 days of the deletion of the last backup set mapped to the policy.

  1. Log on to Management Console.
  2. Click Manage > Backup Policies from the menu bar. Note that if the All Organizations menu is enabled, you have to first select an organization and then click Manage > Backup Policies.
  3. Click the backup policy that you want to remove.
  4. On 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.