Scheduling an NDMP Backup Job

If you want to run certain backup jobs on a regular basis, it is best to create a schedule for them.

You may add a schedule to an existing job and save it, add a schedule to an existing job and save it under another name (thus creating a new job without affecting the job you have made edits to), or create a completely new job, adding a schedule to it.

Desktop interface

To add a schedule to an NDMP backup job, start creating a new job or open a saved job to edit it.

1. Go to the Backup tab and from the Backup Modes section in the task panel, choose NDMP.

2. Under the Job Tasks section, select Schedule Backup Job. The Job Schedule dialog will open.

   This dialog box contains three tabs along the top: Schedule, Exceptions, and Preview.

   • The Schedule tab allows you to define the dates and times you want the current job to run.

   • The Exceptions tab allows you to list any exceptions to that schedule.

   • The Preview tab allows you to view all jobs scheduled for a specified future date.

Note. For File, Image, and NDMP backup jobs only, you can use the scheduler to define a Migrate operation. See Specifying an Automatic Migrate Operation in the DPX 4.9.x Reference Guide.

1. Select the Schedule tab. Using the Schedule window, you systematically define the schedule for the particular job you are defining. A single schedule definition for a single job can include many schedule description items or job schedule elements, which can be for different frequencies and different backup types. The following illustrates a schedule definition that contains three job schedule elements. Note that after defining the schedule, you will have an opportunity to exclude particular events by using the Exceptions tab.

   
2. Add job schedule elements one by one. To do so:

   1. Click New.

   2. In the New Schedule box, select a frequency. The following list describes your choices:

      Freq	Description
      Once	To schedule a job to run once, on a particular date and at a particular time in the future.
      Daily	To schedule a job to run every day at a particular time.
      Weekly	To schedule a job to run weekly on a particular day of the week, or to schedule a job to run in a particular week of each month.
      Monthly	To schedule a job to run monthly on a particular day of the month.
      Scheme	To schedule rudimentary base/incremental or base/differential schemes. These are weekly schedules that run a Base backup once a week and Incremental or Differential backups on the remaining days. This option is not available for Block backup jobs.

   3. Fill in the relevant details. The following table provides an overview of the field definitions. The field definitions may vary depending on the frequency you selected.

      Freq	Field	Definition
      Once	Run [Backup Type]	Select the backup type (base, differential, or incremental) for this job element. See Backup Types. For File, Image and NDMP, you can also select Migrate.
      	Backup at [Time]	Enter the time of day you want this job element to commence.
      	On [Date]	Select from the display calendar the date you want this job element to run.
      	Retention	Enter the number of days you would like the backed-up data for this element of this job to be saved in the Catalog. See Tape Retention in the DPX 4.9.x Reference Guide.
      Daily	Run [Backup Type]	Select the backup type (base, differential, or incremental) for this job element. See Backup Types. For File, Image and NDMP, you can also select Migrate.
      	Backup at [Time]	Enter the time of day you want this job element to commence.
      	On [Date]	Select from the display calendar the first date you want this job element to run.
      	Repeat every [Days]	Select the repeat frequency in days.
      	Retention	Enter the number of days you would like the backed up data for this element of this job to be saved in the Catalog. See Tape Retention in the DPX 4.9.x Reference Guide.
      	End Date	This field is optional. To enable this field, select the check box, then select from the display calendar the final date you want this job element to run.
      Weekly	Run [Backup Type]	Select the backup type (base, differential, or incremental) for this job element. For more information, see Backup Types. For File, Image and NDMP, you can also select Migrate.
      	Backup at [Time]	Enter the time of day you want this job element to commence.
      	On [Day of Week]	Select the day of the week you want this job element to run. You can select more than one day.
      	Repeat	Choose either Select Weeks or Week Day in Month.
      	Every	With the Select Weeks option selected in the Repeat field, select the frequency of weeks that this job should repeat.
      	The	With the Week Day in Month option selected in the Repeat field, select the week in each month that you would like this job element to run. You can select more than one week. Note that Week Day in Month refers to the set of 7 days starting from the first day in the month, not the calendar week containing the first day of the month.
      	Retention	Enter the number of days you would like the backed up data for this element of this job to be saved in the Catalog. See Tape Retention in the DPX 4.9.x Reference Guide.
      	Start Date	This field is optional. To enable this field, select the check box, then select from the display calendar the first date you want this job element to run.
      	End Date	This field is optional. To enable this field, select the check box, then select from the display calendar the final date you want this job element to run.
      Monthly	Run [Backup Type]	Select the backup type (base, differential, or incremental) for this job element. See Backup Types. For File, Image and NDMP, you can also select Migrate.
      	Backup at [Time]	Enter the time of day you want this job element to commence.
      	On [Day of Month]	Select the numeric day of the month you want this job element to run. You can also choose last day of month.
      	Repeat every [Months]	Select the repeat frequency in months.
      	Retention	Enter the number of days, months, or years that you would like the backed up data for this element of this job to be saved in the Catalog. See Tape Retention in the DPX 4.9.x Reference Guide.
      	Start Date	This field is optional. To enable this field, select the check box, then select from the display calendar the first date you want this job element to run.
      	End Date	This field is optional. To enable this field, select the check box, then select from the display calendar the final date you want this job element to run.
      Scheme	Run [Backup Type]	Select the backup type Base. See Backup Types.
      	Backup at [Time]	Enter the time of day you want the base backup of this job to commence.
      	On [Day of Week]	Select the day of the week you want the base backup of this job to run.
      	Retention	Enter the number of days you would like the backed-up data for the base backups of this job to be saved in the Catalog. See Tape Retention in the DPX 4.9.x Reference Guide.
      	Run [Backup Type]	Select either Differential or Incremental. See Backup Types.
      	Backup at [Time]	Enter the time of day you want the differential or incremental backups of this job to commence.
      	On [Scheme]	Select the scheme for the differential and incremental runs of this job. Your choices are displayed on the drop down list.
      	Retention	Enter the number of days you would like the backed up data for the differential or incremental backups of this job to be saved in the Catalog. See Tape Retention in the DPX 4.9.x Reference Guide.

   4. Click Apply. The job schedule element is added to the “Schedule Description” list at the top of the window.

   5. Repeat steps 4.1 through 4.4 as needed to define the schedule for the particular job you are defining.

3. Select the Exceptions tab if exclusions are desired. This window allows you to exclude any future scheduled runs of the job. Add exclusion description items one by one. To do so:

   1. Click New.

   2. In the New Exclusion box, select from the display calendar the date of your desired exclusion. In the display calendar, the dates for which the current job is scheduled are denoted in purple. The job elements scheduled for that date appear in the box.

   3. To exclude certain job elements scheduled for that date, click Select one or more entries to exclude, then select the desired jobs from the entries listed in the box. To exclude all job elements scheduled for your selected date, click Exclude whole day.

   4. Click Apply. The exclusion description item is added to the Schedule Description list at the top of the window.

   5. Repeat steps 6.1 through 6.4 as needed to define the exceptions for the particular job you are defining.

   6. You can also indicate whether or not scheduled jobs should be skipped on holidays by clicking to select or unselect Skip Run if Holiday.

4. Click OK. The schedule and exceptions you just defined are associated with the job you are defining.

Tip. Remember to save the job definition after you specify a job schedule.