At a glance
Parameters
Parameter |
Meaning |
Full backup |
Specifies on what schedule and under which conditions to perform a full backup. For example, the full backup can be set up to run every Sunday at 1:00 AM as soon as all users are logged off. |
Incremental |
Specifies on what schedule and under which conditions to perform an incremental backup. If the archive contains no backups at the time of the task run, a full backup is created instead of the incremental backup. |
Differential |
Specifies on what schedule and under which conditions to perform a differential backup. If the archive contains no full backups at the time of the task run, a full backup is created instead of the differential backup. |
Clean up archive |
Specifies how to get rid of old backups: either to apply retention rules regularly or clean up the archive during a backup when the destination location runs out of space. By default, the retention rules are not specified, which means older backups will not be deleted automatically. Using retention rules Specify the retention rules and when to apply them. This setting is recommended for backup destinations such as shared folders or centralized vaults. When there is insufficient space while backing up The archive will be cleaned up only during backup and only if there is not enough space to create a new backup. In this case, the program will act as follows:
This setting is recommended when backing up to a USB drive or Acronis Secure Zone. This setting is not applicable to managed vaults. This setting enables deletion of the last backup in the archive, in case your storage device cannot accommodate more than one backup. However, you might end up with no backups if the program is not able to create the new backup for some reason. |
Apply the rules (only if the retention rules are set) |
Specifies when to apply the retention rules. For example, the cleanup procedure can be set up to run after each backup, and also on schedule. This option is available only if you have set at least one retention rule in Retention rules. |
Cleanup schedule (only if On schedule is selected) |
Specifies a schedule for archive cleanup. For example, the cleanup can be scheduled to start on the last day of each month. This option is available only if you selected On schedule in Apply the rules. |
Examples
Full and incremental backup plus cleanup
Monthly full, weekly differential, and daily incremental backups plus cleanup
Resulting tasks
Any custom scheme always produces three backup tasks and—in case the retention rules are specified—a cleanup task. Each task is listed in the list of tasks either as Scheduled (if the schedule has been set up) or as Manual (if the schedule has not been set up).
You can manually run any backup task or cleanup task at any time, regardless of whether it has a schedule.
In the first of the previous examples, we set up a schedule only for full backups. However, the scheme will still result in three backup tasks, enabling you to manually start a backup of any type:
You can run any of these backup tasks by selecting it from the list of tasks in the Backup plans and tasks section in the left pane.
If you have also specified the retention rules in your backup scheme, the scheme will result in four tasks: three backup tasks and one cleanup task.