When you create a full database backup, you have the option of assigning it to one of the backup management groups. The database Snapshot copy names and SnapInfo directory Snapshot copy names reflect the management group to which you assigned the backup. The purpose of backup management groups is to enable you to designate various levels of backup retention. See the following topics for more information:
When you create a backup, you can assign it to any one of the SnapManager backup management groups:
When you start or schedule a full database backup, the Backup Wizard and the Backup and Verification tab prepopulate the backup management group selection field with the Standard group.
For more information about starting or scheduling a full database backup, see the following topics:
Note
The choice of backup management group--combined with the backup Snapshot copy naming convention selected (unique or generic)--affects the name assigned to the backup Snapshot copy. The name of each Snapshot copy created during a SnapManager backup operation includes information that identifies the Snapshot copy contents. This is described in SnapManager Snapshot naming conventions.
The primary purpose of backup management group is to facilitate a database backup strategy. Backup management groups are used to determine which backups are targeted for automatic deletion of older backups, database verification for unverified backup Snapshot copies, and explicit deletion of backups.
Note
The backup management group neither depends on nor enforces how often backups are performed. Backup management groups are only a backup labeling convention that you can assign to a backup set.
When you run or schedule a full database backup, you can specify how many of the most recent backups you want to retain. Only backups of the specified backup management group are deleted. The procedural details are included in Creating a full database backup using SnapManager.
When you run or schedule a database verification separate from the full database backup operation, you can limit the backups you want to verify by specifying a particular backup management group. The procedural details are included in Performing database verification using SnapManager.
When you explicitly delete multiple backups, you can specify that only backups belonging to a certain backup management group be deleted. The procedural details are included in Deleting multiple backups.
Suppose your company wants to take regular backups between 7:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. You want to keep the last backup of the day and retain it for a few weeks, and you want to keep one backup per week for several months for archiving.
To achieve this using backup management groups, you could use the Standard backup management group for the backups during the day, and use a separate backup job to create one backup in the Daily management group at the end of the day. Then, once a week, you could use another job to create a backup in the Weekly backup management group.
You could then decide how many backups to retain independently for each backup management group. For example, you could keep 10 Standard backups, seven Daily backups (one week's worth), and four Weekly backups (one month's worth).
If your Daily or Weekly backup job failed for any reason, you could promote the most recent successful Standard backup to replace the Daily or Weekly backup by changing its backup management group.
Use the Change Backup Management Group dialog box to change the backup management group to which the selected backup set belongs.
To change the backup management group of an existing backup set, complete the following steps.
Note
You cannot change the backup management group of the most recent backup sets that were created using the Generic naming convention.
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Last updated: 01-Sep-2006 07:41:15