PowerProtect Data Manager 19.11 Network Attached Storage User Guide

Add a centralized protection policy for NAS assets

Create a protection policy that backs up NAS assets on a schedule. NAS supports both synthetic-full backups and full backup types, and they can have different retention values. However, you must add a synthetic-full backup before you can add a full backup.

1. Log in to the PowerProtect Data Manager user interface as a user with the Administrator role.
2. From the left navigation pane, select Protection > Protection Policies.
   The Protection Policies window appears.
3. Click Add.
   The Add Policy window appears.
4. In the Type page, specify the new protection policy fields.
   1. In the Name field, specify a descriptive name for the protection policy.
      If you do not specify an existing storage unit and let PowerProtect Data Manager automatically create a storage unit, the name that you specify here becomes part of the storage unit name.
   2. In the Description field, specify a short description of the protection policy.
   3. In the Type field, select NAS.
   4. Click Next.
      The Purpose page appears.
5. In the Purpose page:
   1. Select Centralized Protection.
   2. Click Select Credentials.
      The Set Credentials dialog box opens.
   3. Select a credential from the drop-down list or add a NAS credential.

      PowerProtect Data Manager uses these credentials at the policy level for all shares unless otherwise specified at the asset level.

      The credentials provide snapshot creation and export permissions on the appliance, and read/write access to the NAS shares. Supply administrator-level credentials. For supported appliances, these credentials are specific to the discovered assets rather than the management console.

   4. Click Save.
   5. Click Next.
      The Assets page appears and displays any matching unprotected assets that have not been assigned to a protection policy.
6. Select the unprotected assets that you want to add to the backup for this protection policy.

   Within this page, you can filter by share name, protocol, and asset source to locate the required assets.

   To avoid duplicate backups, a yellow identifies NAS assets that are offered through multiple protocols. Select the entry with the preferred protocol.

   NOTE For generic shares and PowerScale shares, the .snapshot folder is not backed up as it contains the manual snapshots, which increases shares size during the backup.
7. Click Next.
   The Objectives page appears.
8. On the Objectives page, select a policy-level Service Level Agreement (SLA) from the Set Policy Level SLA list, or select Add to open the Add Service Level Agreement wizard and create a policy-level SLA.
   The PowerProtect Data Manager Administration and User Guide provides instructions.
9. Click Add under Primary Backup.
   The Add Primary Backup dialog box appears.
10. To schedule a synthetic-full backup of the protection policy, on the Schedules pane of the Add Primary Backup dialog box, specify the following fields:
    1. Backup every—Specify how often to create a synthetic-full backup. A synthetic-full backup uses only the changed data since the last backup to create a new full backup.
    2. Retain for—Specify the retention period for the backup.

       The retention period cannot be less than any associated replication frequency. If you set a shorter retention time this value automatically updates to match the replication frequency.

       You can extend the retention period for the latest primary backup. For example, your regular schedule for daily backups can use a retention period of 30 days. However, you can extend retention to keep the backups taken on Mondays for 10 weeks. Extended retention provides more information.

    3. Start and End—The activity window. Specify a time of day to start the synthetic-full backup, and a time of day after which backups cannot be started.
       NOTE Any backups started before End occurs continue until completion.
    4. Click Save within the pane for the synthetic-full backup schedule.
11. To schedule a full backup of the protection policy, complete the following actions:
    1. On the Objectives page, under Primary Backup, click Edit.
    2. Click Add backup.
       The backup type in the Create a field defaults to Full.
    3. In the backup every field, specify how often to create the backup.
    4. In the Repeat on field, specify the day on which the backup is to repeat.
    5. In the Retain for field, specify the retention period for the backup.
    6. In the Start and End fields, specify the time of day to start the backup and a time of day after which backups cannot be started.
    7. Click Save within the pane for the full backup schedule..
12. Specify the fields on the Target pane of the Add Primary Backup dialog:
    1. Storage Name—For the primary backup, select a destination from the list of existing DD systems. Alternatively, select Add to add a system and then complete the details in the Storage Target window.
       The Space field indicates the total amount of space, and the percentage of available space, on the storage system.
    2. Storage Unit—Select an existing storage unit from the list, or select New to let PowerProtect Data Manager automatically create a storage unit for this policy.
    3. Network Interface—Select a network interface from the list, if applicable.
    4. Retention Lock—Move the Retention Lock slider to the right to enable retention locking for these backups on the selected system. PowerProtect Data Manager uses Governance mode for retention locking, which means that the lock can be reverted at any time if necessary. Toggling the Retention Lock slider on or off applies to the current backup copy only, and does not impact the retention lock setting for existing backup copies.
    5. SLA—Select an existing service level agreement that you want to apply to this schedule from the list, or select Add to create an SLA within the Add Service Level Agreement wizard.
       The PowerProtect Data Manager Administration and User Guide provides instructions.
13. Click Save to save your changes and return to the Objectives page.

    The Objectives page updates to display the name and location of the target storage system under Primary Backup.

    After completing the objective, you can change any details by clicking Edit next to the objective.

14. Optionally, extend the retention period for a primary backup:
    Extended retention provides more information about Extend Retention functionality.
    1. Click Extend Retention next to Primary Backup.
       An entry for Extend Retention is created below Primary Backup.
    2. Under Extend Retention, click Add.
       The Add Extended Retention dialog appears.
    3. Extend the retention of a full primary backup copy every—Specify the preferred recurrence for the extended retention backup objective.
    4. Repeat on—Depending on the frequency of the full backup schedule, specify the day of the week, the date of the month, or the date of the year that the extended retention backup occurs.
    5. Retain For—Specify the retention period for the backup. You can retain an extended retention backup for a maximum of 70 years.
    6. Click Save to save your changes and return to the Objectives page.
15. Optionally, replicate the backups:
    NOTE

    To enable replication, ensure that you add remote protection storage as the replication location. The PowerProtect Data Manager Administration and User Guide provides detailed instructions about adding remote protection storage.

    When creating multiple replicas for the same protection policy, it is recommended to select a different storage system for each copy. If you select a storage unit that is the target of another objective for the same policy, the UI issues a warning. The PowerProtect Data Manager Administration and User Guide provides information about replicating to shared protection storage to support PowerProtect Cyber Recovery. Verify the storage targets and the use case before you continue.

    For replicas of centralized backups, when you set retention periods for different backup types, any undefined types use the full backup retention period. For example, if you do not define a log backup in the primary objective, the log backup for the replication objective is also undefined. After you run a manual log backup, replicas of that log backup use the same retention period as the full backup.

    Replication after backup completion is not available for replication objectives that are based on extended retention.

    1. Click Replicate next to Primary Backup or Extend Retention. An entry for Replicate is created to the right of the primary or extended retention backup objective.
       NOTEPowerProtect Data Manager supports replicating an extended retention backup only if the primary backup already has one or more replication objectives. Also, for replication of an extended retention backup, you can only select from the protection storage systems to which the primary objective replicates.

       For example, if there are six protection storage systems available (DD1-DD6), and the primary backup is on DD1:

       • Replicate1, which is based on the primary backup, replicates to DD2.
       • Replicate2, which is based on the primary backup, replicates to DD3.
       • Extended retention backup is backed up to DD1.
       • Replicate3, which is based on the extended retention backup, must replicate to DD2 or DD3.
    2. Under Replicate, click Add.
       The Add Replication dialog appears.
    3. Select a storage target:
       • Storage Name—Select a destination from the list of protection storage. Or, select Add to add a protection storage system and complete the details in the Storage Target window.
       • Storage Unit—Select an existing storage unit on the protection storage system. Or, select New to automatically create a storage unit.
       • Network Interface—Select a network interface from the list, if applicable.
       • Retention Lock—Move the Retention Lock slider to the right to enable retention locking for these replicas.
       • SLA—Select an existing replication service level agreement that you want to apply to this schedule from the list. Or, select Add to create a replication SLA within the Add Service Level Agreement wizard.

       The PowerProtect Data Manager Administration and User Guide provides more information about replication targets, such as SLAs.

    4. Select when to replicate the backups:

       Replication triggers provides more information.

       • To replicate after the backup finishes, move the Replicate immediately upon backup completion slider to on.

       • For scheduled replication, move the Replicate immediately upon backup completion slider to off, and then complete the schedule details in the Add Replication dialog.

         For replication of the primary backup, the schedule frequency can be every day, week, month, or x hours. For replication of the extended retention backup, the schedule frequency can be every day, week, month, year, or x hours.

         For daily, weekly, and monthly schedules, the numeric value cannot be modified. For hourly, however, you can edit the numeric value. For example, if you set Create a Full backup every 4 hours, you can set a value of anywhere from 1 to 12 hours.

       All replicas of the primary backup objective use the same retention period and, by default, this retention period is inherited from the Retain For value of the synthetic-full backup schedule.

    5. To specify a different retention period for specific replicas, clear Set the same retention time for all replicated copies, click Edit, change the value in the Retain For field, and then click Save.
       CAUTION Setting a shorter retention period for replicas of incremental, differential, or log backups than for the corresponding full backup may result in being unable to recover from those replicas.
       This retention period is applied to all the replicated copies (synthetic full and full) of this primary backup objective.
    6. Click Save to save your changes and return to the Objectives page.
16. Click Next.
    The Options page appears.
17. Use the following options if required for the policy:

    Option	Description
    Enable indexing for file search and restore	Enables FLR. Enable the Search Engine before you activate this option.
    Troubleshooting	Enables a higher debug logging level for extended troubleshooting.

18. Click Next.
    The Summary page appears.
19. Review the protection policy configuration details. You can click Edit next to any details to make changes. When you are done, click Finish.

    An informational message appears to confirm that PowerProtect Data Manager has saved the protection policy.

    When the new protection policy is created and assets are added to the protection policy, PowerProtect Data Manager performs backups according to the backup schedule.

20. Click OK to exit the window, or click Go to Jobs to open the Jobs window to monitor the configuration of the new protection policy.
    NOTE For generic shares and PowerScale shares, the .snapshot folder is not backed up as it contains the manual snapshots, which increases shares size during the backup.