You can automate the creation of recovery points using a weekly or monthly schedule. If you are creating a base with incrementals, you can also specify that certain events, such as logging on or off a computer, create an incremental recovery point.
See“Ways to work with base recovery points and incrementals ”on page 52.
With regard to time zones, when scheduling recovery points, be aware of the following:
■ If you live in an area where Daylight Savings time changes are observed, ensure that you do not schedule recovery points to begin during the hour in which the time change takes place (for example, between 2:00 and 3:00 a.m. on October 29, 2006, in the U.S.A.).
■ The time you specify for scheduled recovery points is relative to the Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery console. If you are managing computers in a time zone that is different from the computer where the console is running, you should adjust recovery point times accordingly.
To schedule a recovery point 1 Do one of the following:
■ In the Advanced View of the Drives tab, click Tools > Configure Jobs, and then click Next.
On the Drives tab, any unprotected drives (that is, drives that have not yet had the “Create Recovery Point” job run on them) are labeled blank in the Last Recovery Point column.
Creating recovery points Scheduling a recovery point 62
■ In the Basic View, click Configure Jobs, and then click Next.
2 In the Type dialog box, click the recovery point type you want, and then click Next.
See“Ways to work with base recovery points and incrementals ”on page 52.
3 Select one or more drives to back up, and then click Next.
Shift-click to select a group of contiguous drives, or Ctrl-click to select non-contiguous drives.
A separate recovery point will be created for each drive you select.
A drive with a red X next to it indicates that the drive is not available for backing up, usually because the drive has been deleted or the entire hard disk has been removed from the computer since you installed Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery.
When you create a base with incrementals, if you select a hidden drive (partition) and a non-hidden partition in the same recovery point job, the hidden partition will only be backed up when a base recovery point is specified;
no incremental recovery points will be created for that drive.
63 Creating recovery points Scheduling a recovery point
4 In the Location dialog box, select from the following options:
If you receive a message stating that there may not be enough available space at the specified location, you should specify a new location rather than continuing with the wizard and possibly not being able to save a complete recovery point.
Because recovery point jobs are designed to run without user intervention (possibly when the computer is unattended), you cannot save incremental recovery points directly to removable media.
See“Storing recovery points”on page 38.
See“Selecting a storage location for recovery points ”on page 39.
Folder for recovery point storage
Click Rename, and then type a new file name if you want to rename the recovery point instead of using the default file name.
By default, filenames for scheduled base recovery points will be appended with 001.v2i, 002.v2i, and so forth. Filenames for incremental recovery points based on the base recovery point will be appended with _i001.iv2i, _i002.iv2i, and so forth. For example, if your recovery point were called C_Drive001.v2i, the first incremental recovery point would be called C_Drive001_i001.iv2i.
Rename
5 Click Next.
6 Specify the frequency and time of the recovery points.
Your options are:
■ Weekly
■ Monthly
■ No schedule (save for later) See“Schedule options ”on page 55.
7 Click Next.
Creating recovery points Scheduling a recovery point 64
8 If you are creating a base with incrementals, select the events that will automatically create an incremental recovery point. Your options are
■ Any user logs on to the computer
■ Any user logs off from the computer (Not at Shutdown or Restart)
■ Any application is installed
■ The data added to a drive exceeds: “x” number of megabytes See“Event-driven options”on page 56.
9 Click Next.
10 In the Options dialog box, select from the following options:
Enter a name that you will view in the Job list. For example, default: Backup of C:\.
Name:
Select the compression level for the recovery point.
■ None
■ Standard
■ Medium
■ High
See“Setting the compression level for recovery points ”on page 43.
Results may vary, depending on the types of files saved in the drive you are backing up.
Compression drop-down list
Select this option to determine whether a recovery point or set of recovery points is valid or corrupt immediately following its creation.
You can use Verify Recovery Point to determine whether a recovery point or set of recovery points is valid or corrupt.
Verify recovery point after creation
65 Creating recovery points Scheduling a recovery point
To limit the number of full or base recovery point sets saved for each drive, select this option, and then type a number in the text field.
When this limit is reached, each successive recovery point is first created and stored, and then the oldest, previously created recovery point is deleted (including all associated incrementals if it is a base recovery point) from the same storage location.
Be sure you have enough hard disk space to accommodate the number of recovery points you specify, plus one additional recovery point.
If you run out of hard disk space before the number of specified recovery points is reached, the recurring recovery point process will no longer complete successfully and a current recovery point will not be created.
Limit the number of recovery point sets saved for each drive
Select how often you want incremental recovery points consolidated.
■ Never
■ Every 12 hours
■ Every 4 hours
See“Consolidating incremental recovery points”on page 57.
Consolidate incrementals drop-down list
Type a description that you want associated with the recovery point.
Description text box Creating recovery points
Scheduling a recovery point 66
In the Advanced Options dialog box, select the options you want to use such as encrypting the recovery point, and then click OK.
Your options are:
■ Use password
■ Use Encryption
■ Divide into smaller files to simplify archiving
■ Ignore bad sectors during copy
■ Disable SmartSector Copying
See“Advanced options for creating recovery points ”on page 44.
Advanced
11 Click Next.
12 If appropriate, specify a command file (.exe, .cmd, .bat) from each drop-down list to run during a particular stage in the recovery point creation process, and then specify the amount of time (in seconds) you want the command to run before it is stopped.
If you just added the command file to the CommandFiles folder, you may need to click Back, and then Next to see the files in each stage's drop-down list.
■ Before data capture
■ After data capture
■ After recovery point creation
See“Run command files during recovery point creation ”on page 59.
13 Click Next, and then review the recovery point options you have selected.
14 Check Create recovery point now if you want to immediately create a recovery point, and then click Finish.
If you choose Create recovery point now, when the backup begins, you can watch its progress in the Progress and Performance dialog box.
15 In the Progress and Performance dialog box, do one of the following:
■ Drag the slider left or right to adjust the operation speed of Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery while the recovery point is being created.
See“Setting the default performance”on page 77.
■ Click Cancel Operation to stop the creation of the recovery point.
67 Creating recovery points Scheduling a recovery point
■ Click Hide during the creation of the recovery point to close the wizard and return to the console; the recovery point creation will continue.
■ Click Close after the creation of the recovery point to close the wizard and return to the console.