Creating SLA policies

Use the SLA Policy Automation feature to quickly implement a protection strategy that aligns with your business continuity plan. Simply create an SLA policy and the appliance automatically creates the backup and backup copy jobs needed for the RPO and retention settings you specified. For details on how SLA policies work, see Methods for scheduling jobs.

SLA policy requirements

The following requirements and considerations apply to SLA Policy Automation:

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The backup appliance must be running version 10.0 or higher (10.3 or higher for Windows image-level assets).

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The following asset types are supported: file-level Windows, file-level Linux, image-level Windows, and VMware, Hyper-V, and AHV virtual machines. You must manually create job schedules for other asset types.

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You must log in to the backup appliance directly to create SLA policies. You cannot create a policy for a managed appliance by logging in to its manager appliance.

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An asset can be assigned to only one SLA policy.

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A file-level asset can be assigned to one SLA policy and/or to one or more manually created backup schedules.

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An image-level Windows asset can be assigned to one SLA policy and/or to one or more manually created backup schedules.

•

A virtual machine asset can be assigned either to one SLA policy or to one manually created backup schedule (to ensure that the VM exists in only one backup schedule).

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SLA policy schedules do not support the auto-include assets option. You must manually create a backup schedule to use this option.

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The hot backup copy option is supported only if a Unitrends appliance or the Unitrends Cloud has been added as a backup copy target. (For details on adding a hot target, see Backup copy targets.)

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The cold backup copy option is supported only if the cold target has been added to the appliance and this target is one of the following types: third-party cloud, NAS, or iSCSI. (For details on adding a cold target, see Backup copy targets.)

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If multiple cold targets exist, the policy copies backups to the one that was added first. To copy to a different cold target, you must manually create a backup copy job instead.

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Do not directly edit job schedules that were created by an SLA policy. Instead, modify the SLA policy itself. The appliance automatically modifies the policy's schedules based on the changes that you make. On the Job Manager tab, SLA policy schedule names display with the prefix _SLA, so you can easily distinguish them from manually created schedules.

SLA policy procedures

Use these procedures to create SLA policies:

To create an SLA policy for Windows and Linux file-level assets

Note: A file-level asset can be assigned to one SLA policy and/or to one or more manually created backup schedules.

Select Jobs > SLA Policies > Create Policy.

Select File Level in the What do you want to protect? list.

In the Inventory tree, check boxes to select the asset(s) you want to protect. Selected assets display in the Job Inventory Settings area.

To locate an asset by name, use the Search field below.

(Optional) Select an asset and click Edit to apply options, such as data to include or exclude and commands to run pre- and/or post-backup. Click Save to retain any changes.

Details and considerations

File-level setting

Description

General considerations for including or excluding data from an asset's backups

Review the following before specifying data to include or exclude:

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When creating a schedule, any inclusions or exclusions you add are applied to jobs run by that schedule only. Inclusions and exclusions are not applied automatically in other cases.

•

Running an on-demand backup of the asset does not automatically apply any inclusions or exclusions specified in the asset's schedule. To run an on-demand backup, do one of the following:

–

Create a one-time job that has the same inclusions and exclusions as in the schedule.

–

Manually run the schedule (select the schedule under Jobs > Job Manager and click Run).

–

Run a one-time Selective backup (so that a new full is not created).

•

If you specify both files to include and files to exclude, the inclusion is applied first. Any exclusions are then applied to the subset of included files.

Inclusion tab

Click to specify files, folders, or volumes to include in backups of this asset.

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Data that does not meet the criteria you specify here is NOT included in the backup.

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Type in the full path (e.g., C:/Documents) or Browse the asset to specify data to include. (Wildcards are not supported.)

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If you are running a full backup and include files or folders in the system drive (typically C:), do not check the System State box on the Advanced tab. Full backups fail if system state is excluded.

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Run a new full backup upon creating or modifying included files.

Example:

Exclusion tab

Click to specify files, folders, or volumes to exclude from backups of this asset.

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Data that does not meet the criteria you specify here IS included in the backup.

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To specify files to exclude, do any of the following:

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Type in the full path (e.g., C:/Documents).

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Browse the asset.

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Enter a selection pattern. Wildcards are supported for Windows assets. Wildcards are not supported for these asset types: Linux, Unix, and NAS. See these rows below for usage examples: Wildcard * usage, Wildcard ? usage, and Multiple wildcards.

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Run a new full backup upon creating or modifying excluded files.

Example:

Wildcard * usage

An example of how to exclude all files with zero or more characters that match exclusion pattern:

*.txt

An example of how to exclude directories with zero or more characters and their contents within a specified path that match the exclusion pattern:

C:/windows/sys*

Limitations:

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*folder_abc cannot be used to exclude all folders that match folder_abc on the protected asset. The full path must be provided.

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If an entire directory is excluded, the directory name will still appear in the backup; however, its contents will be empty.

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Multiple wildcard matches like the following are not supported:

C:\*\*\abc.txt

Wildcard ? usage

An example of how to exclude all files within specified path that matches a single character within exclusion pattern:

C:/PCBP/Lists.dir/pro_client?.spr

An example of how to exclude all directories and their contents within specified path that matches a single character within exclusion pattern:

C:/Programfiles/Case?/

Limitation: If an entire directory is excluded, the directory name itself will still appear in the backup; however its contents will be empty.

Multiple wildcards

An example that uses multiple “?” wildcards and only one * wildcard:

C:/?Log?/*.logs

Limitation: If an entire directory is excluded, the directory name itself will still appear in the backup; however its contents will be empty.

Advanced tab

Use this tab to specify advanced options. See these rows below for details: Advanced Exclusions, Command to run Pre-Backup, and Command to run Post-Backup.

Example:

Advanced Exclusions

Check one or more boxes to exclude any of the following: system state, temporary files, read-only mounts, network mounts, or all mounts.

Consider the following before applying advanced exclusions:

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To perform bare metal recovery or use Windows replicas, the following must be included in the backup: system state and all boot and critical system (OS) disks/volumes. If you need these features for the asset, do not specify data to include or exclude unless you are sure these disks/volumes will be included.

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If you are running a full backup and have selected files or folders in the system drive (typically C:) on the Inclusion tab, do not check the System State box on the Advanced tab. Full backups fail if system state is excluded.

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Creating aliases for an asset - Adhere to the following when creating aliases for an asset:

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You must include the system state on the asset whose backups contain the boot and critical OS volumes.

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You must exclude the system state on the other aliased assets. This approach ensures you can perform bare metal recovery of the asset.

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Only one asset can include the system state. Disaster recovery of the asset fails if the system state is not included with the boot and OS volume or if the system state is included on aliased assets that do not include the boot and OS volume.

Important! For Windows assets, the backup must contain the system state, boot disk and any other system critical volumes to use the integrated bare metal recovery and Windows replica features. Be sure one of the aliased assets contains all of these disks to use these features.

Command to run Pre-Backup

To run a command or script on the asset before a scheduled backup starts, enter the full path to the command or script in the Command to run Pre-Backup field. For example, C:\Data\script.bat or /usr/jsmith/script.sh.

Note: Pre-backup commands are used for scheduled jobs only. These commands are not applied to on-demand jobs (jobs run by selecting the Now option).

Command to run Post-Backup

To run a command or script on the asset after a scheduled backup completes, enter the full path to the command or script in the Command to run Post-Backup field. For example, C:\Data\script.bat or /usr/jsmith/script.sh.

Note: Post-backup commands are used for scheduled jobs only. These commands are not applied to on-demand jobs (jobs run by selecting the Now option).

Click Next.

Define the remaining Policy Options, then click Save.

SLA Policy Options

SLA policy setting

Description

SLA Policy Name

Enter a unique name for the policy.

SLA Policy Description

(Optional) Enter a short description of the policy.

RPO

Recovery Point Objective – The maximum interval of time between backups (the maximum threshold of data loss tolerated by your business continuity plan). Determines how often backups will run.

Enter the number of hours or minutes to define the RPO interval.

Show Backup Window

Check this box to view and/or edit the following:

•

First Full Date – Date when the policy's first full backups will run. (Applies to assets that do not yet have a successful full backup.)

•

First Full Time – Time when the policy's first full backups will run. (Applies to assets that do not yet have a successful full backup.)

•

Backup Between – Hours of the day when backups will be taken.

Copy backups to the Hot Backup Copy Target

Check this box to copy backups to your hot backup copy target.

Supported only when a Unitrends appliance or the Unitrends Cloud has been added as a backup copy target. (For details on adding a hot target, see Backup copy targets.)

Copy backups daily to the Cold Backup Copy Target

Check this box to copy backups to your cold backup copy target.

Supported only when a cold backup copy target has been added to the backup appliance. Supported for these types of cold targets only: third-party cloud, NAS, or iSCSI. If multiple cold targets exist, the policy copies to the one that was added first.

•

To copy to a different cold target, manually create a backup copy job instead, as described in Creating backup copy jobs.

•

To add a cold target to the backup appliance, see Backup copy targets.

Cold Backup Copy Retention Days

Check this box to specify the length of time a copy must be retained before it can be deleted. To define the retention period, enter a number and select Days, Weeks, Months, or Years. For example, enter 2 and select Weeks to retain copies for 2 weeks.

Encrypt Cold Backup Copies

Check this box to encrypt cold backup copies. (Encryption must also be configured on the appliance. For details, see Encryption.)

Note: If the backup copy target device is configured for encryption, copies are encrypted regardless of this setting.

Keep backups for N days

Number of days backups must be retained. Backups that are younger than N days are not purged for any reason, including at the expense of new, incoming backups.

Warn when less than N days of backups remain

Use this option to receive an email notification if this asset has less than N days of backups stored on the appliance.

Delete backups after N days

Number of days after which the appliance will delete backups.

The appliance creates the policy and related jobs. Click Close to close the status message.

The policy displays on the SLA Policies tab:

Jobs display on the Job Manager tab and are named with the prefix _SLA:

To create an SLA policy for Windows image-level assets

Note: An image-level asset can be assigned to one SLA policy and/or to one or more manually created backup schedules.

Select Jobs > SLA Policies > Create Policy.

Select Image Level in the What do you want to protect? list.

In the Inventory tree, check boxes to select the asset(s) you want to protect. Selected assets display in the Job Inventory Settings area.

To locate an asset by name, use the Search field below.

(Optional) Select an asset and click Edit to apply options, such as data to include or exclude and commands to run pre- and/or post-backup. Click Save to retain any changes.

Details and considerations

Notes:

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Critical system volumes are required for the image-level replicas feature and to recover the entire asset . Use care when omitting volumes from backup.

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When you recover the entire asset, any existing data on the target is overwritten or deleted. Volumes on the target disk that were excluded from backup may also be overwritten. For details, see Windows unified bare metal recovery.

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To recover a SQL server, the master, model, and msdb system databases must be present in the image-level backup of the Windows asset. (These are included by default. If you want the recovered asset to include a hosted SQL application, use care not to exclude these system databases from the image-level backup.)

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Image-level protection is not supported for read-only disks. You must exclude all volumes on read-only disks from the backup job or run file-level backups. Image-level backups fail if read-only volumes have not been excluded.

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Removable media is automatically excluded from image-level backups. (You do not need to exclude volumes on a read-only disk that resides on removable media.)

See the following for details:

Image-level setting

Description

General considerations

Review the following before specifying volumes to include or exclude:

•

When creating a schedule, any inclusions or exclusions you add are applied to jobs run by that schedule only. Inclusions and exclusions are not applied automatically in other cases.

•

Running an on-demand backup of the asset does not automatically apply any inclusions or exclusions specified in the asset's schedule. To run an on-demand backup, do one of the following:

–

Create a one-time job that has the same inclusions and exclusions as in the schedule.

–

Manually run the schedule (select the schedule under Jobs > Job Manager and click Run).

Inclusion tab

Click to specify volumes to include in backups of this asset.

•

Any volumes that you do not select here are NOT included in the backup.

•

Type in the volume (e.g., C:/) or Browse the asset to select volumes to include.

•

Run a new full backup upon creating or modifying included volumes.

Inclusion example:

Exclusion tab

Click to specify volumes to exclude from backups of this asset.

•

Any volumes that you do not select here are included in the backup.

•

Type in the volume (e.g., C:/) or Browse the asset to select volumes to exclude.

•

Run a new full backup upon creating or modifying excluded volumes.

Exclusion example:

Advanced tab

Use this tab to specify commands to run before or after the backup job. (Advanced Exclusion options are not supported for image-level backups.) See these rows below for details: Command to run Pre-Backup and Command to run Post-Backup.

Example:

Command to run Pre-Backup

For image-level backup schedules, you cannot enter command syntax as you would inside the Windows Command Prompt. Instead, you must use this format:
cmd /<argument> "<commandSyntax>"

For example: cmd /C "mkdir C:\folder"

To run a command or script on the asset before a scheduled backup starts, enter the command in the Command to run Pre-Backup field.

Note: Pre-backup commands are used for scheduled jobs only. These commands are not applied to on-demand jobs (jobs run by selecting the Now option).

Command to run Post-Backup

For image-level backup schedules, you cannot enter command syntax as you would inside the Windows Command Prompt. Instead, you must use this format:
cmd /<argument> "<commandSyntax>"

For example: cmd /C "mkdir C:\folder"

To run a command or script on the asset after a scheduled backup completes, enter the command in the Command to run Post-Backup field.

Note: Post-backup commands are used for scheduled jobs only. These commands are not applied to on-demand jobs (jobs run by selecting the Now option).

Click Next.

Define the remaining Policy Options, then click Save.

SLA Policy Options

SLA policy setting

Description

SLA Policy Name

Enter a unique name for the policy.

SLA Policy Description

(Optional) Enter a short description of the policy.

RPO

Recovery Point Objective – The maximum interval of time between backups (the maximum threshold of data loss tolerated by your business continuity plan). Determines how often backups will run.

Enter the number of hours or minutes to define the RPO interval.

Show Backup Window

Check this box to view and/or edit the following:

•

First Full Date – Date when the policy's first full backups will run. (Applies to assets that do not yet have a successful full backup.)

•

First Full Time – Time when the policy's first full backups will run. (Applies to assets that do not yet have a successful full backup.)

•

Backup Between – Hours of the day when backups will be taken.

Copy backups to the Hot Backup Copy Target

Check this box to copy backups to your hot backup copy target.

Supported only when a Unitrends appliance or the Unitrends Cloud has been added as a backup copy target. (For details on adding a hot target, see Backup copy targets.)

Copy backups daily to the Cold Backup Copy Target

Check this box to copy backups to your cold backup copy target.

•

To copy to a different cold target, manually create a backup copy job instead, as described in Creating backup copy jobs.

•

To add a cold target to the backup appliance, see Backup copy targets.

Cold Backup Copy Retention Days

Encrypt Cold Backup Copies

Check this box to encrypt cold backup copies. (Encryption must also be configured on the appliance. For details, see Encryption.)

Note: If the backup copy target device is configured for encryption, copies are encrypted regardless of this setting.

Keep backups for N days

Number of days backups must be retained. Backups that are younger than N days are not purged for any reason, including at the expense of new, incoming backups.

Warn when less than N days of backups remain

Use this option to receive an email notification if this asset has less than N days of backups stored on the appliance.

Delete backups after N days

Number of days after which the appliance will delete backups.

The appliance creates the policy and related jobs. Click Close to close the status message.

The policy displays on the SLA Policies tab:

Jobs display on the Job Manager tab and are named with the prefix _SLA:

To create an SLA policy for VMware assets

Notes:

•

A VMware asset can be assigned either to one SLA policy or to one manually created backup schedule (to ensure that the VM exists in only one backup schedule).

•

The policy can contain VMs that are managed by a single vCenter or ESX server.

•

A VM can be assigned to only one hot backup copy schedule. The policy does not create a hot backup copy schedule if any of its VMs exist in another hot backup copy schedule.

•

To access newly added virtual machines, sync inventory before creating your job by clicking the Gear icon in the upper-right of the UI and selecting Inventory Sync.

Select Jobs > SLA Policies > Create Policy.

Select VMware in the What do you want to protect? list.

In the Inventory tree, expand the virtual host and check boxes to select virtual machines to protect. Selected VMs display in the Job Inventory Settings area.

•

To locate an asset by name, use the Search field below.

•

To protect all VMs, select the virtual host.

(Optional) Edit Job Inventory Settings to exclude VM disks from backup:

•

Locate the VM in the Job Inventory Settings list.

•

Click Edit to specify disks to exclude.

•

Click Save to retain any changes.

Note: To recover the entire virtual machine requires critical system volumes. Use care when omitting disks from backup.

Click Next.

Define the remaining Policy Options, then click Save.

Policy Options

SLA policy setting

Description

SLA Policy Name

Enter a unique name for the policy.

SLA Policy Description

(Optional) Enter a short description of the policy.

RPO

Recovery Point Objective – The maximum interval of time between backups (the maximum threshold of data loss tolerated by your business continuity plan). Determines how often backups will run.

Enter the number of hours or minutes to define the RPO interval.

Show Backup Window

Check this box to view and/or edit the following:

•

First Full Date – Date when the policy's first full backups will run. (Applies to assets that do not yet have a successful full backup.)

•

First Full Time – Time when the policy's first full backups will run. (Applies to assets that do not yet have a successful full backup.)

•

Backup Between – Hours of the day when backups will be taken.

Copy backups to the Hot Backup Copy Target

Check this box to copy backups to your hot backup copy target.

Supported only when a Unitrends appliance or the Unitrends Cloud has been added as a backup copy target. (For details on adding a hot target, see Backup copy targets.)

Copy backups daily to the Cold Backup Copy Target

Check this box to copy backups to your cold backup copy target.

•

To copy to a different cold target, manually create a backup copy job instead, as described in Creating backup copy jobs.

•

To add a cold target to the backup appliance, see Backup copy targets.

Cold Backup Copy Retention Days

Encrypt Cold Backup Copies

Check this box to encrypt cold backup copies. (Encryption must also be configured on the appliance. For details, see Encryption.)

Note: If the backup copy target device is configured for encryption, copies are encrypted regardless of this setting.

Keep backups for N days

Number of days backups must be retained. Backups that are younger than N days are not purged for any reason, including at the expense of new, incoming backups.

Warn when less than N days of backups remain

Use this option to receive an email notification if this asset has less than N days of backups stored on the appliance.

Delete backups after N days

Number of days after which the appliance will delete backups.

The appliance creates the policy and related jobs. Click Close to close the status message.

The policy displays on the SLA Policies tab:

Jobs display on the Job Manager tab and are named with the prefix _SLA:

To create an SLA policy for Hyper-V assets

Notes:

•

A Hyper-V asset can be assigned either to one SLA policy or to one manually created backup schedule (to ensure that the VM exists in only one backup schedule).

•

The policy can contain VMs that are managed by a single Hyper-V server.

•

A VM can be assigned to only one hot backup copy schedule. The policy does not create a hot backup copy schedule if any of its VMs exist in another hot backup copy schedule.

•

To access newly added virtual machines, sync inventory before creating your job by clicking the Gear icon in the upper-right of the UI and selecting Inventory Sync.

Select Jobs > SLA Policies > Create Policy.

Select Hyper-V in the What do you want to protect? list.

In the Inventory tree, expand the Hyper-V server and host application, then check boxes to select virtual machines to protect.

•

To locate an asset by name, use the Search field below.

•

To protect all VMs, select the Hyper-V host.

Click Next.

Define the remaining Policy Options, then click Save.

Policy Options

SLA policy setting

Description

SLA Policy Name

Enter a unique name for the policy.

SLA Policy Description

(Optional) Enter a short description of the policy.

RPO

Recovery Point Objective – The maximum interval of time between backups (the maximum threshold of data loss tolerated by your business continuity plan). Determines how often backups will run.

Enter the number of hours or minutes to define the RPO interval.

Show Backup Window

Check this box to view and/or edit the following:

•

First Full Date – Date when the policy's first full backups will run. (Applies to assets that do not yet have a successful full backup.)

•

First Full Time – Time when the policy's first full backups will run. (Applies to assets that do not yet have a successful full backup.)

•

Backup Between – Hours of the day when backups will be taken.

Copy backups to the Hot Backup Copy Target

Check this box to copy backups to your hot backup copy target.

Supported only when a Unitrends appliance or the Unitrends Cloud has been added as a backup copy target. (For details on adding a hot target, see Backup copy targets.)

Copy backups daily to the Cold Backup Copy Target

Check this box to copy backups to your cold backup copy target.

•

To copy to a different cold target, manually create a backup copy job instead, as described in Creating backup copy jobs.

•

To add a cold target to the backup appliance, see Backup copy targets.

Cold Backup Copy Retention Days

Encrypt Cold Backup Copies

Check this box to encrypt cold backup copies. (Encryption must also be configured on the appliance. For details, see Encryption.)

Note: If the backup copy target device is configured for encryption, copies are encrypted regardless of this setting.

Keep backups for N days

Number of days backups must be retained. Backups that are younger than N days are not purged for any reason, including at the expense of new, incoming backups.

Warn when less than N days of backups remain

Use this option to receive an email notification if this asset has less than N days of backups stored on the appliance.

Delete backups after N days

Number of days after which the appliance will delete backups.

The appliance creates the policy and related jobs. Click Close to close the status message.

The policy displays on the SLA Policies tab:

Jobs display on the Job Manager tab and are named with the prefix _SLA:

To create an SLA policy for AHV assets

Notes:

•

An AHV asset can be assigned either to one SLA policy or to one manually created backup schedule (to ensure that the VM exists in only one backup schedule).

•

The policy can contain VMs that are managed by a single AHV cluster.

•

A VM can be assigned to only one hot backup copy schedule. The policy does not create a hot backup copy schedule if any of its VMs exist in another hot backup copy schedule.

•

To access newly added virtual machines, sync inventory before creating your job by clicking the Gear icon in the upper-right of the UI and selecting Inventory Sync.

Select Jobs > SLA Policies > Create Policy.

Select Nutanix AHV in the What do you want to protect? list.

In the Inventory tree, expand the AHV host cluster and check boxes to select virtual machines to protect. Selected VMs display in the Job Inventory Settings area.

•

To locate an asset by name, use the Search field below.

•

To protect all VMs, select the AHV host.

(Optional) Edit Job Inventory Settings to exclude VM disks from backup:

•

Locate the VM in the Job Inventory Settings list.

•

Click Edit to specify disks to exclude.

•

Click Save to retain any changes.

Note: To recover the entire virtual machine requires critical system volumes. Use care when omitting disks from backup.

Click Next.

Define the remaining Policy Options, then click Save.

Policy Options

SLA policy setting

Description

SLA Policy Name

Enter a unique name for the policy.

SLA Policy Description

(Optional) Enter a short description of the policy.

RPO

Recovery Point Objective – The maximum interval of time between backups (the maximum threshold of data loss tolerated by your business continuity plan). Determines how often backups will run.

Enter the number of hours or minutes to define the RPO interval.

Show Backup Window

Check this box to view and/or edit the following:

•

First Full Date – Date when the policy's first full backups will run. (Applies to assets that do not yet have a successful full backup.)

•

First Full Time – Time when the policy's first full backups will run. (Applies to assets that do not yet have a successful full backup.)

•

Backup Between – Hours of the day when backups will be taken.

Copy backups to the Hot Backup Copy Target

Check this box to copy backups to your hot backup copy target.

Supported only when a Unitrends appliance or the Unitrends Cloud has been added as a backup copy target. (For details on adding a hot target, see Backup copy targets.)

Copy backups daily to the Cold Backup Copy Target

Check this box to copy backups to your cold backup copy target.

•

To copy to a different cold target, manually create a backup copy job instead, as described in Creating backup copy jobs.

•

To add a cold target to the backup appliance, see Backup copy targets.

Cold Backup Copy Retention Days

Encrypt Cold Backup Copies

Check this box to encrypt cold backup copies. (Encryption must also be configured on the appliance. For details, see Encryption.)

Note: If the backup copy target device is configured for encryption, copies are encrypted regardless of this setting.

Keep backups for N days

Number of days backups must be retained. Backups that are younger than N days are not purged for any reason, including at the expense of new, incoming backups.

Warn when less than N days of backups remain

Use this option to receive an email notification if this asset has less than N days of backups stored on the appliance.

Delete backups after N days

Number of days after which the appliance will delete backups.

The appliance creates the policy and related jobs. Click Close to close the status message.

The policy displays on the SLA Policies tab:

Jobs display on the Job Manager tab and are named with the prefix _SLA: