Backup Scheduling

Use the Schedules page in Barracuda Backup to specify which data sources and data gets backed up, when, and how often. You can create as many backup schedules as you like, stagger the schedules for better backup efficiency, or just create one single backup schedule to protect everything.

When creating backup schedules, it is important to understand the maximum number of simultaneous backups that can run across all connectors for each Barracuda Backup model. If a backup schedule exceeds the maximum simultaneous backup for a connector or the total across all connectors, the additional jobs are queued until a backup job ahead of it completes. This is all handled automatically by Barracuda Backup. If the number of data sources in a backup schedule exceeds the maximum simultaneous backup for a connector or the total across all connectors, it is advised that you split the backup schedule into multiple schedules and stagger the start times.

Use the following table to select the best backup scheduling strategy for your environment:

To create a backup schedule:

1. Log in to Barracuda Backup and select the associated Barracuda Backup device in the left pane or in the devices table (for customers with multiple Barracuda Backup devices).

2. Go to the Backup > Schedules page, and click Add a Schedule to create a new backup schedule.

   A default backup schedule is automatically created when data sources are first added to Barracuda Backup, with the default set to protect all data sources at 8:00 PM local time every day. You can edit or remove this default schedule by clicking on the Edit or Remove links on the Schedules page.

3. Complete the following information on the Add a Backup Schedule page:

   1. Schedule name

   2. Items to Back Up

   3. Schedule Timeline

   4. Daily Backup Timeline

   5. (Optional) SQL/Exchange Backup

4. Once the backup schedule is configured, click Save.

SQL/Exchange Backup Mode (Barracuda Backup Agent for Windows)

If Microsoft Exchange or SQL Server databases backed up using the Barracuda Backup Agent for Windows are included in the backup schedule, you must specify the backup type in the SQL/Exchange Backup section on the Add a Backup Schedule page. Exchange and SQL databases are handled differently than file or virtual machine (VM) data, which are always incremental forever backups. Because Exchange and SQL databases must rotate between incremental and periodic full backups, you must specify when to perform a full/complete and incremental/log backup. Smart mode is the default Backup type setting and automatically rotates between complete/full and log/incremental database backups for you. For more control over when full and log backups occur, create multiple backup schedules for Exchange and SQL databases; one for the complete/full backup and one for the log/incremental backup:

• Smart – This backup type is a combination of the complete backup and the log backup, with thresholds to minimize the impact of backups on network resources necessary to transfer data offsite.
• Complete – This backup type performs a full database backup, including the transaction logs.
• Log – This backup type only backs up the transaction logs created since the last complete/full backup.

With the Smart backup type, threshold values are used to determine when to switch between complete and log backups. The minimum threshold value specifies how many days Barracuda Backup continues to back up transaction logs before another full backup is run. After the minimum threshold value is met, Barracuda Backup determines whether to perform another backup based on the amount of binary data in the offsite transfer queue. If the binary data in the offsite transfer queue size exceeds 1 GB, Barracuda Backup continues the transaction log backup until:

• the maximum threshold level is met, or
• the queue size drops below 1 GB

Advanced Folder Path Selection

For data sources with an abnormally large volume of files or directories, Barracuda Backup offers an alternate method of specifying data to back up to the standard selection tree structure. Next to the File Systems container for every agent or share for every file share backup, is an Advanced link. Click the Advanced link to open the Advanced: File Systems dialog where you can specify an absolute folder path to be included in the backup. You can add multiple folder paths to the backup selection.

Figure 1. Advanced Folder Path Selection.

Manage Backed Up Data via Schedules

You can ed it a schedule and remove previously backed up data, or remove a schedule to manually purge items stored in Barracuda Backup.