Step 1: Adding Basic Job Details
Enter the following details;
Backup Job Name: Provide any proper name for your backup job.
Backup Repository: Select the backup repository type. You can choose either Block Storage or Object Storage.
Repository Name: Once selecting the repository type, use the drop-down list to select the repository for your backup job.
Immutable Backups (Only for Object Storage):
- You have the option to enable this feature by checking the box, which will secure your backups as immutable for a specific duration. The duration can be specified and you do it for up to 999 day(s). The duration set will be applied to this backup job, which you’ll configure in subsequent steps. When configuring other backup jobs, ensure to adjust the duration according to your needs.
- Immutable backup in the BDRSuite Backup Server is a backup strategy or system you can use where once the data is backed up, it cannot be edited, deleted, or tampered with until a predefined time period expires that can be set up as shown below in the image representation. This approach adds an extra layer of protection to the backup data, making it resistant to ransomware attacks, accidental or malicious changes
Job Description: Provide a job description for future reference.
Step 2: Database Selection
The database selection begins by listing the added MySQL databases. You can apply the filter based on the database recovery model list by clicking on the drop-down menu on the left-hand side of the page. After the selection is complete, the chosen databases for backup will be displayed in a table on the right-hand side of the page for your reference.
Select the required MySQL Database to proceed to next step.
Step 3: Scheduling
The schedule option defines the frequency of your MySQL Backup job.
Incremental Backup Schedule
You can configure the incremental backup schedules by choosing between Run Every/Run Daily/Run Weekly options.
- Select Run Every option if you want to run your backup at regular intervals on a specific day(s). The time frame ranges from 15 minutes to 12 hours a day on specific days a week. By default, all the days in the week will be selected. If you don’t want to run your backup on all days, manually select the days on which you want to run the backup.
- If you want to run your backup every day, select the Run Daily option and configure the period in which your backup has to occur.
- If you want to run your backup every week on a specific day and time, choose the Run Weekly option. Select the time frame and day in which you want to run the backup.
Note: By default, Run Every option will be selected for the backup schedule.
Additional Full Backup Schedule
In some cases, you may require to create a periodic full backup weekly or monthly, or quarterly basis to adhere to your organization policy. Also, it is not a best practice to configure a backup job with one full backup followed by forever incremental backups. BDRSuite’s Additional full backup option allows you to comply with your requirements by creating a full backup periodically.
The additional full backup resets a backup chain and the subsequent incremental are based on the recent full backup. Running additional full backups frequently may sometimes lead to storage space consumption, you can automatically delete the older full backups chain by setting the appropriate retention policy for the additional full backups or deleting it manually when required.
Enable the additional full backup by toggling the slider to the right. Once enabled you will have to specify the scheduling for the synthetic merge to happen.
Specify the Additional full backup frequency. You can specify to run the additional full backups on a weekly or monthly basis.
- If you have scheduled the incremental backups to run Every Few Hours/Min or Daily or After Backup, then you can set the additional full backups frequency as Daily or Weekly or Monthly.
- If you have scheduled the incremental backups to run Weekly or Monthly, then you can set the additional full backups to run on a Weekly or Monthly basis.
Additional full backups are disabled Manually & One Time backup schedules
- If you are selecting the additional full backups to run on a daily basis, then you have to select the start time to run the additional full backups.
- If you are selecting the additional full backups to run on a weekly basis, then you have to select a day and start time to run the synthetic merge. You can select one or more days in a week to run the additional full backups.
- If you are selecting the additional full backups to happen on a monthly basis, then you have to select the month, select a day in the month and start time to run the additional full backups. You can select one or more months in a year to run the additional full backups.
Advanced Schedule Settings
The Advanced Schedule Settings allow you to specify the Backup Window time and Backup Validity for your backup job.
Backup Window
If you don’t want the backup run at a specific time interval, then you can specify it in the backup time window. The backup window prevents the backup job from running during peak production hours and ensures there is no unwanted overhead in the production environment. Select one of the available options to set up the backup window for your backup job
Use Global Settings: Selecting the‘ Use Global Settings’ option will apply the Backup Window setting of your backup server to this backup job. You can set up the global backup window settings for your entire backup server at Backup > Configure Backup Settings > Backup Window.
- In case, if you are selecting the ‘Use Global Settings’, but if global backup window settings are disabled for your backup server, then the job will run as per its schedule
- If you are modifying the Global Backup Windows settings later, it will affect all the backup jobs that are selected with ‘Use Global Settings’
Use Custom Settings: On selecting ‘Use Custom settings’, you have to specify the start time and end time for the window. The backup job will not during the selected time interval. You can also specify the applicable days for the backup window settings such as Mon-Fri or All days. Selecting the ‘Use Custom settings’ will override the global backup window settings.
No Preferences: Selecting ‘No Preferences’ will override the global backup window settings and the backup job will run as per the schedule.
Backup Validity
Set the validity for your backup job by specifying the start date and the expiration date. The Backup job will start to run only after the start date.
If you want a backup job to start to run later, for example, 5 days later from the day you have created the backup job, then you can specify the start date of the backup job accordingly. The expiry date is optional for a backup job, if the expiry date is set the incremental backup or additional full backup does not proceed after that.
Step 4: Backup Job Settings
Retention
- No of Versions to Retain: Only the latest versions of the backed up files will be retained. All the older versions will be deleted.
- Time Period to Retain: Only the backed up files versions within the configured time period will be retained. All versions of files backed up before the configured time period will be deleted.
- Also, you can configure whether to retain all the versions of the file during the time period or only to keep a maximum number of versions within this time period. The following two options will be displayed;
- Keep all the versions within this time period
- Keep only a maximum of specified number of version(s) within this time period
- No of Full Backups to Retain: By selecting this option only the configured number of latest full backups will be retained. The oldest full backup and its associated incremental backup sill be deleted.
Encryption
You can encrypt all the backup data for an added protection. When encryption is enabled all the backup data blocks are encrypted using the AES-256 bit encryption algorithm both during the transfer and at the storage. For encrypting the backup data, you can use the system-generated encryption key or use a custom encryption key.
By default, encryption is disabled for all the backups jobs, you can slide the toggle to the right to enable encryption for your backup data.
- Select ‘Use System Generated Encryption Key’ if you want to encrypt all your backup data using BDRSuite’s automatic System Generated Encryption Key. You do not need to specify any during the recovery or editing the backup job later.
- Select ‘ Use a Custom Encryption Key’ if you want to encrypt all your backup data using your own Encryption Key. You can select the already created encryption keys that are created for other backup jobs from the drop-down list or you can
- Add a new encryption key by providing the encryption password, encryption key hint.
- After providing the password and hint for the encryption key, click on the Save button.
Step 5: Review Configuration
- The last step in your backup process is to review the configurations you have selected. BDRSuite Backup Server supports creating multiple backup schedules each with its own configuration. The backup job name will uniquely identify the backup. While restoring your backup data, you need to choose the data to be restored using its schedule name.
- You have the option of running the backup job immediately after saving the backup. If you want your backup job to be triggered immediately after you save the backup, irrespective of the backup schedule you have configured, select the Run this job immediately after the saving option.
- Click Save the backup option once all the configurations are reviewed. On saving the backup, you will be prompted to confirm to proceed further. Click OK to complete the backup progress.