Simple (Forever Forward) Schedule

Forever Forward Incremental (FFI) is a specific backup schedule that significantly reduces backup size on storage by keeping only one full backup copy.

With the Forever Forward Incremental schedule, backup data is continuously uploaded and only changes relative to the previous data are kept. The number of available restore points in a backup depends on the backup execution frequency and is defined by the retention policy settings.

The Forever Forward Incremental schedule is not supported for plans in the legacy backup format.

Supported Cloud Storage

Forever Forward Incremental schedule is available for the following storage providers:

• Amazon S3 (except long-term storage classes, e.g., Glacier-IR)
• Microsoft Azure (except long-term tiers, e.g., Azure Cold)
• Wasabi
• Backblaze B2
• S3 compatible (except storage providers without in-cloud object copying support)

The Forever Forward Incremental schedule should be supplemented by Intelligent Retention for storage with an early deletion policy.

Cloud Storages with Early Deletion Policies

Cloud storage with early deletion fees can be used for the Simple (Forever Forward) schedule; Intelligent Retention helps you avoid the fees. This setting is enabled by default. The storage you can select for this schedule should allow in-cloud copying. The Use synthetic full backup option in Advanced Options of the backup wizard should be enabled. Otherwise, the Simple (Forever Forward) schedule cannot be selected.

Below you can see the list of such storages with the early deletion fee periods applicable to them:

• AWS S3 Standard-IA (30 days)
• AWS S3 One Zone-IA (30 days)
• AWS S3 Glacier-IR (90 days)
• Wasabi (90 days)
• MSP360 storage powered by Wasabi (30 days)
• Microsoft Azure Cool (30 days)

Intelligent Retention helps avoid early deletion fees by changing the retention policy settings specified by the user according to the early deletion policy terms. Note that the process of updating restore points includes deletion operations. Therefore, if Intelligent Retention is enabled, the number of incremental backups can be increased for these storages by the number of incremental backups performed on schedule until the early deletion period for the previous restore point expires. When this period expires, the restore point will be updated using all incremental backups that should be included in it, and the number of incremental backups returns to the value prescribed by the retention policy.

For example, if you configure backups to be retained for 7 days and the early deletion period for the selected storage is 30 days, the maximum number of daily incremental backups may temporarily increase to 7 + 30 = 37.

In this case, the restore point date may not match the restore point creation date. The restore point date reflects the backup data it contains, while the creation date corresponds to the time when the early deletion fee period for the previous restore point expires. Refer to the Intelligent Retention chapter for more information.

Restrictions

Forever Forward Incremental schedule is not compatible with GFS retention policy and Immutability. Thus, if you change the schedule of an existing backup plan to Forever Forward Incremental and any GFS retention policy settings are enabled, a new full backup will be created specifically for Forever Forward Incremental. At the same time, all previously created backups governed by the GFS retention policy or Object Lock (Immutability) settings will be retained on the backup storage until their respective retention periods and the standard retention policy expire.

Apply Forever Forward Incremental Schedule

Set the Forever Forward Incremental schedule on the Schedule step of the backup plan. You can create a new plan for the Forever Forward schedule or edit an existing plan depending on your backup requirements. To create a separate plan with the settings of an existing plan, clone it.

New Backup Plan

1. Create a new plan. Follow the instructions for your backup plan type:
   • File backup
   • Image-based backup
   • VMware backup
   • Hyper-V backup
2. Follow the backup wizard to the Schedule step.
3. Select the Simple (Forever Forward) option.

4. Specify the backup schedule on a daily or monthly basis.
5. Click Next.
6. Specify the retention settings.

6. Click Next.
7. Follow the backup wizard to the end to save the backup plan configuration.

Edit Existing Backup Plan

To apply the Forever Forward Incremental schedule for existing plans, proceed as follows:

1. On the Backup Plans tab, find the required plan and click Edit to open the backup wizard, or edit the backup plan schedule without going through the backup wizard. To do this, click the edit icon in the Schedule (if the plan has the schedule already) or Enable (if the plan is not scheduled).
2. Select the Simple (Forever Forward) option, then specify the required schedule settings. Click Next or OK.

3. Click OK.
4. Specify the retention settings.

5. To avoid extra expenses in storage bills, it is recommended to keep Intelligent Retention enabled.

Set Forever Forward Incremental Schedule in CLI

To set the Forever Forward Incremental schedule in the CLI, use the -ffi parameter. This parameter configures a Forever Forward incremental schedule. This parameter is not compatible with the GFS retention policy. The parameter must be used with schedule settings and combined with the -purge parameter.

Possible values:

• yes
• no (default)

Command example:

addbackupplan -n "mynewplan" -a "myaccount" -d "c:\backup\" -ffi yes -every month -day 15 -at 12:30 -purge "1m"