Backup Copy Job Wizard: Options

On the Options page of the wizard, you can set up job options. Proceed as described in these sections: 

Job Options

In this section, you can give a name to the backup copy job and enable/disable network acceleration, change tracking, encryption, and VM Verification. Proceed as described below.

Job Name

Specify a name for the backup copy job in the Job Name box.

Job Priority

Select a job priority level between 1 and 5, with 1 being the highest priority. Jobs with higher priority levels are prioritized by Transporters during job processing.

Note
This option is only available in the Enterprise, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Plus, MSP Enterprise, and MSP Enterprise Plus editions.

Network Acceleration

If network acceleration is enabled, NAKIVO Backup & Replication uses compression and traffic reduction techniques to speed up data transfer. Select this option if you plan to back up over WAN or slow LAN links. 

Encryption

If the Encryption option is selected, backup data will be protected with AES 256 encryption while traveling over the network. Data encryption increases the backup time and CPU load on machines running Transporters. Select this option if you are backing up over WAN without a VPN connection. 

Note
You need at least one Transporter at the source and target sites to enable encryption.

VM Verification

VM Verification allows you to check the integrity of the backup by starting it and interacting with it. For more details, refer to VM Verification

You can choose one of the following VM verification options: 

  • Disabled: VM verification is disabled.

  • Screenshot verification: When enabled, all VM backups created by the job are verified: After a backup of a VM is completed, the VM will be recovered from the backup using Flash boot (and will be disconnected from networks) and a screenshot of the recovered VM will be taken once the VM OS has booted, after which the VM will be discarded. VM screenshots will be included in email notifications (if they’re configured) and displayed on the Dashboard.

  • Boot verification: When enabled, all VM backups created by the job are verified as follows. After a VM backup is completed, NAKIVO Backup & Replication recovers the VM using Flash boot, disables networking to prevent network connections, and verifies that system start is successful. 

After choosing Screenshot verification, provide the following information in the dialog box that opens: 

  1. Provide a location of the VMs that need to be booted:

    1. Target Container: Choose a target container (cluster, host, or resource pool) where VMs will be run using Flash boot.

    2. Target Datastore: Choose a datastore that will host changes to the recovered VMs.

    3. Proxy transporter: Choose a proxy transporter from the list of available Transporters.

    Note
    NAKIVO Backup & Replication will use a proxy Transporter in the following cases:
    The Transporter assigned to the Backup Repository cannot use iSCSI port 3260 because it is occupied by other services.
    iSCSI packages are missing on the Transporter assigned to the Backup Repository.

  2. Set verification options:

    • Verify not more than X VMs simultaneously: Specify the maximum number of VMs that can be started on the Target Container simultaneously. 

    • Recovery time objective: Specify the amount of time allocated for the verification of each VM backup. If a VM OS does not start within the specified amount of time, verification will be considered failed.

    • Screenshot delay: The amount of time that the product should wait after the guest OS starts before taking a screenshot.  

      The specified time must be sufficient to fully start the VM OS. Try increasing this amount if the default amount is not sufficient.

After selecting Boot verification, do the following in the dialog box that opens: 

  1. Provide the location of the VMs to be booted as described for the Screenshot verification option.

  2. Set verification options:

    • Verify not more than x VMs simultaneously: Specify the maximum number of VMs that can be started on the Target Container simultaneously. 

    • Recovery time objective: Specify the amount of time allocated for verification of each VM backup. If a VM OS does not start within the specified amount of time, verification will be considered failed.  

Full Backup Settings

If the type of the Backup Repository that you selected on the Destination page is set to Incremental with full backups (Store backups in separate files option is selected), you can specify the following options:

  • Create full backup: Specify how often full backups should be created. 

  • Full backup mode: Specify how the full backup should be created. You can choose between the following options:

    • Synthetic full: If this option is selected, NAKIVO Backup & Replication will first perform an incremental backup (that is, will transfer only the data that changed since the last backup) and will then transform the available data into a full backup file. This approach has the following benefits:

      • The synthetic full backup is usually faster than the active full backup.

      • The load on the network is lower, as less data is transferred.

      • The load on the source datastores running your production VMs is lower.

    • Active full: If this option is selected, NAKIVO Backup & Replication will read all data from the source and transfer it to the Backup Repository. 

  • If a full backup fails, create a full backup on the next job run: With this option selected, the next job run creates a full backup if the current job run fails to do so.

Pre and Post Actions

NAKIVO Backup & Replication allows you to set up certain actions before a backup copy job begins and after it has completed. You can choose to send job run reports to the email provided and run local pre and post job scripts.

Email Notifications 

NAKIVO Backup & Replication can send email notifications on job completion status to specified recipients. This feature complements global notifications and provides you with the ability to configure notifications on a per-job level.

To enable this option, configure your Email settings.

To send email notifications, do the following:

  1. In the Pre and Post Actions section, select the Send job run reports to option.

  2. Specify one or more email addresses in the text box. Separate multiple email addresses with a semicolon.

Pre Job Script

To run a script before the product begins copying backups, do the following:

  1. Place a script file on the machine where the Director is installed.

  2. In the Pre and Post Actions section, select the Run local pre job script option and click the settings link. Specify the following parameters in the dialog box that opens:

  • Script path: Specify a local path to the script on the machine where the Director is installed. Script interpreter should be specified.
    Example (Windows): cmd.exe /c D:\script.bat

Example (Linux): bash /root/script.sh

  • Job behavior: Choose either of the following job behaviors in relation to script completion:

    • Wait for the script to finish: If this option is selected, the backup copy will not be started until the script is completed.

    • Do not wait for the script to finish: If this option is selected, the product will run the script and will start copying backups at the same time.

  • Error handling: Choose either of the following job behaviors in relation to script failure:

    • Continue the job on script failure: If this option is selected, the job will perform backup copy even if the script has failed.

    • Fail the job on script failure: If this option is selected and the script fails, the job will be failed and the backup copy will not be performed.

Post Job Script

To run a script after the product has finished copying all backups, do the following:

  1. Place a script file on the machine on which the Director is installed.

  2. In the Pre and Post Actions section, select the Run local post job script option and click the settings link. Specify the following parameters in the dialog box that opens:

  • Script path: Specify a local path to the script on the machine on which the Director is installed. Script interpreter should be specified. 
    Example (Windows): cmd.exe /c D:\script.bat
    Example (Linux): bash /root/script.sh
  • Job behavior: Choose either of the following job behaviors in relation to script completion:
    • Wait for the script to finish: If this option is selected, the job will be in the “running” state until the script is completed.
    • Do not wait for the script to finish: If this option is selected, the job will be completed even if the script execution is still in progress.

  • Error handling: Choose either of the following job behaviors in relation to script failure.

    • Continue the job on script failure: If this option is selected, script failure will not influence the status of the job.

    • Fail the job on script failure: If this option is selected and the script has failed, the job status will be set to “failed” even if VM backup has been successful.

Notes

  • Pre- and post-job scripts can be executed only on the machine on which the Director is installed.

  • When Integration Services are used on Hyper-V 2016 and above, custom pre/post scripts are unavailable for Windows VMs.

Data Transfer

In the Data Transfer section of the Options page, you can specify a Transporter load and configure bandwidth throttling.

Transporter Load

You can limit the maximum number of Transporter tasks used by the job. By default, it is set to 3 concurrent tasks.

To change the default number of tasks, do the following:

  1. In the Data Transfer section, select the Limit transporter load to checkbox.

  2. Specify the number of concurrent tasks in the corresponding box.

Bandwidth Throttling

Follow the steps below to regulate the speed of data transfer over the network for your backup copy job:

  1. For the Bandwidth throttling option, choose Enabled.

    Note
    If bandwidth throttling is disabled for the current job, global bandwidth rules may still apply to your job. 

  2. Click the settings link that becomes available.

  3. The Job Bandwidth Rules dialog box opens displaying you the list of available rules. You have the following options:

    • Create a new bandwidth rule for your backup copy job:

      1. Click the Create New Rule button.

      2. The New Bandwidth Rule dialog box opens. Refer to Bandwidth Throttling for details on creating a bandwidth rule.

      3. Click Save.

    • Activate an existing bandwidth rule for your job. Select the checkbox to the left of the necessary bandwidth rule. To deactivate a bandwidth rule for your job, clear the corresponding checkbox.

    • Edit a bandwidth rule. Click the Edit link for a bandwidth rule and modify it in the Edit Bandwidth Rule dialog box that opens.

    • Disable a bandwidth rule. Click the Disable link. The bandwidth rule will be disabled for all jobs.

    • Remove a bandwidth rule. Click the Remove link and then click Delete to confirm your operation.

Bottleneck detection

When the Bottleneck detection option is enabled, additional information is collected and recorded in NAKIVO Backup & Replication logs in the course of data transfer for the purpose of bottleneck detection. Check this option to enable the Bottleneck detection capability of the Transporters engaged in the job.

Note
This option is available only if the Disk destination type was chosen on the Destination page of the wizard.

Completing the New Backup Copy Job Wizard

Click Finish or Finish & Run to complete the job creation.

Note
If you click Finish & Run, you will have to define the scope of your job. Please refer to Running Jobs on Demand for details.