Backup Plan Chain Explained

A backup chain is a configured sequence of backup or restore plans (only a backup plan can be the leading backup chain link), in which the completion of a backup plan can be used as a trigger for starting the specified backup or restore plan. The backup chain can be configured using the backup plan wizards.

How to Create a Backup Plan Chain

To create a backup chain during the backup plan creation or editing on the Pre/Post Actions step of the backup plan wizard, select the Execute following plan after backup completes: checkbox, then select a backup or restore plan to run if specified conditions are met.

Configure the conditions:

• Run the selected plan if this backup completes with success. Select this option to start the specified backup or restore plan only if this backup plan completes successfully.
• Run the selected plan regardless of this backup plan completion result. Select this option to start the specified backup or restore plan in any case.
• If you chained a backup plan, you can select the backup type for the chained plan: a full backup, or the current backup plan settings. Thus, if the last backup run is full, the chained plan will be full as well; if the last plan run is incremental, the chained plan will be incremental.