Incremental Storage Policy

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Overview

Incremental Storage Policy Considerations

Support Information - Storage Policy

Overview

For iDataAgents, to reduce your backup window and utilize storage resources effectively, you can define a storage policy for full backups and another storage policy, called an Incremental Storage Policy, for non-full backups.

In such a configuration, it is recommended that the full storage policy use tape media, and the incremental storage policy use disk media to effectively utilize the available resources.

In the following example, Subclient A is backed up using a storage policy which has the incremental storage policy option enabled. Hence, the full backup uses a storage policy that backs up to a tape library. The incremental and differential backups use a storage policy that backs up to disk media.

To configure your subclients to use this feature, the incremental storage policy must be enabled in the Storage Policy Properties dialog box. In the sample image, SP_Mag_Library2_2 is enabled as an Incremental Storage Policy for storage policy SP_Tape_Library1_1. Multiple storage policies can enable the same storage policy as its Incremental Storage Policy. However, within the storage policy that is enabled as an Incremental Storage Policy, you will not be able to enable the Incremental Storage Policy option, as it is not available.
In the sample image that follows, the Incremental Storage Policy option is not available in SP_Mag_Library2_2, as it is already enabled as an Incremental Storage Policy for SP_Tape_Library1_1. For this reason, the list of incremental storage policies displayed in this dialog box will include only those storage policies that do not have an Incremental Storage Policy enabled.
In the sample image that follows, the list of incremental storage policies in SP_Mag_Library3_3 does not include SP_Tape_Library1_1, as SP_Tape_Library1_1 has an Incremental Storage Policy enabled.
Once this is done, your subclients that are configured to use the storage policy that has the incremental storage policy option enabled will use different storage policies for full and non-full backups. This information can be viewed from the Storage Device tab of the Subclient Properties dialog box. Note that the name of the Incremental Storage Policy is also displayed.

Incremental Storage Policy Considerations

• If you want to perform a synthetic full backup using an alternate MediaAgent (one other than the MediaAgent used for the Primary backup), you must configure an Incremental Storage Policy.

• You cannot enable a storage policy as an incremental storage policy if that storage policy already has an incremental storage policy enabled.
• The incremental storage policy option is available for a Standard storage policy.
• If you are using a different MediaAgent for an incremental storage policy than the MediaAgent used for a full storage policy, one of the following conditions must be met:
  • The primary copies of both this storage policy and the selected incremental storage policy use a shared index cache.
  • The primary copies of both this storage policy and the selected incremental storage policy are set to use preferred data paths.
  • If it is a case of failover/round robin, the primary copies of both this storage policy and the selected incremental storage policy must have the same data paths.
• An incremental storage policy must be de-associated from a storage policy before that storage policy can be deleted.
• If an incremental storage policy is de-associated from a storage policy, the most recent incremental backup may be pruned before the next full backup occurs.

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