86 Copyright © Acronis, Inc., 2000-2011
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Backup
The result of a single backup operation (p. 86) as a single recovery point (p. 92) inside archive (p. 86).
Physically, it is a file that contains a copy of the backed up data (virtual machine volumes) from
specific date and time for a specific virtual machine. Backup files created by Acronis vmProtect have
a TIB extension. One backup file may include useful data from multiple machines plus necessary
metadata inside.
Backup archive (Archive)
A set of backups (p. 85) created and managed by a backup task (p. 87). An archive in Legacy mode
format can contain multiple full backups (p. 91) as well as incremental (p. 92) and differential
backups (p. 89). An archive of Always Incremental (p. 85) format can contain only incremental
backups (the first backup will always be a full one). Backups belonging to the same archive are always
stored in the same location. Multiple backup tasks can back up the same source data to the same
archive, but a basic scenario is "one task one archive".
Backups in an archive are managed by the backup task. Manual operations with archives (validation
(p. 94), viewing contents, mounting and deleting backups) should be performed only using Acronis
vmProtect. Do not modify your archives/backups using non-Acronis tools such as Windows Explorer
or third-party file managers.
Backup operation
An operation that creates a copy of the data that exists on a machine's hard disk for the purpose of
recovering or reverting the data to a specified date and time.
Backup options
Configuration parameters of a backup operation (p. 86), such as archive protection, source files
exclusion or data compression level. Backup options are a part of a backup task (p. 87).
Backup scheme
A part of the backup task (p. 87) that includes the backup schedule, [optionally] the retention rules,
and the cleanup (p. 88) schedule. For example: perform full backup (p. 91) monthly on the last day of
the month at 10:00AM and incremental backup (p. 92) on Sundays at 10:00PM (for old generation
format archive (p. 85)). Delete backups that are older than 3 months. Check for such backups every
time the backup operation is completed. If the backup is performed in Always Incremental (p. 85)
mode, then there is no need to define it's type, i.e. Full or Incremental.
Acronis vmProtect provides the ability to use well-known optimized backup schemes, such as GFS (p.
91), to create a custom backup scheme or to back up data once.
