Upgrade Backup Plan Format
As of version 7.8.3 of Backup for Windows, you can upgrade your backup plans created in legacy backup format to the new backup format without creating new plans and deleting the existing ones.
The backup format upgrade brings you the following benefits of the new backup format:
- Grandfather-Father-Son retention policy
- Forever Forward Incremental backup
- Object Lock (Immutability)
- Synthetic Full backup for all backup types
- Changed Block Tracking for Hyper-V and image-based backups
- Consistency check on every backup execution
This chapter covers the following topics:
- Backup plan types available for format upgrade
- Limitations
- Check Plans Before Upgrading
- Backup Data Purge
- Upgrade Backup Plan Using CLI
- Command Examples
Supported Backup Types
The format upgrade is available for the following backup types:
- File backup
- Image-based backup
- VMware backup
- Hyper-V backup
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Limitations
The MS SQL Server backup and MS Exchange backup are not available in the new backup format, so no format upgrade is available as well for plans of these types.
For the same reason, hybrid backup plans cannot be upgraded to the new backup format: hybrid backup is not supported in the new backup format now.
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Check Your Plans Before Upgrading
Before you upgrade your backup plans to the new backup format, get familiar with some peculiarities and test if the configuration of your existing plans in the legacy backup format can be applied in the new backup format.
There are some differences in backup formats in the schedule settings and data retention approach which make the exact application of these settings impossible.
To make sure the backup plan would be correctly upgraded, run the command:
cbb convertToNBF -whatif -n "Plan name"
or
cbb convertToNBF -whatif -id "Plan ID"
The command output will display the possible format incompatibilities (some examples are displayed below).
Example 1
WARNING: Schedule "Block-level: Occurs on 25 January 2023, 18:00" cannot be applied. Use -force parameter to apply the following schedule: "No schedule"
WARNING: Retention "Use default retention policy; Always keep last version; Keep 3 versions" cannot be applied. Use -force parameter to apply the following retention: "Disabled"
Example 2
WARNING: Retention "Use default retention policy; Always keep last version; Keep 3 versions" cannot be applied. Use -force parameter to apply the following retention: "Disabled"
Example 3
The schedule "Specific date: 12.12.2022 Time: 18:30:00" cannot be applied. Use -force parameter to apply the following schedule: "No schedule".
Decide whether the suggested configuration settings suit your backup purposes. If they suit, execute the so-called forcible update. In this case, the backup plan will be upgraded to the new backup format with schedule and retention policy settings automatically set. You can change the backup plan schedule and retention settings at any time you want by simply editing the plan using the backup wizard or the command line interface.
Note that file backup plans are upgraded into the new backup format without scheduled full backup. If you intend to schedule it, do it manually
If your file backup in the legacy backup format has the Real-time backup schedule enabled, it will turn into incremental backup every 1 hour schedule.
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Backup Data Purge
Upon the upgrade of a backup plan to the new format, you can keep your backup data in the legacy format unpurged or apply the retention policy.
This choice is configured with the -purgelegacy parameter of the convertToNBF command and is mandatory: the command executed without this parameter will return an error.
The purgelegacy parameter has two possible values:
- no. If you set this value, data previously backed up in the legacy backup format will be kept on backup storage
- yes.
Note that if the plan is successfully upgraded to the new backup format with the -purgelegacy yes value set in the command, backup data on storage will be subject to the new retention policy: data will be purged according to the period set in the 'Keep backup for' field of the retention policy.
Read more about the retention policy in the Retention Policy chapter
Refer to the Command Examples paragraph to learn about the command syntax more.
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Upgrade Backup Plan Using CLI Command
To upgrade a backup plan, use the convertToNBF command.
The command has the following parameters:
- -n. Plan name
- -id. Plan ID
- -whatif. This parameter executes a test format upgrade, no changes to the plan will be made
- -force. Executes the forcible format upgrade with automatic application of the incompatible parameters of the plan(optional)
- -purgelegacy. This parameter configures legacy data purging for a backup plan. Possible values: yes, no
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Command Examples
Upgrade the 'My Old plan' backup plan to the new backup format without test executions. Possible incompatibilities in schedule retention policy settings will be ignored and the values will be applied automatically. You can edit these settings at any time.
cbb convertToNBF -force -purgelegacy "yes" -n "My Old plan"
Upgrade the backup plan with the 0d5eec1d-ddbd-4f89-bbd7-9abf87a41221 using a test execution to display the schedule and retention policy compatibility
cbb convertToNBF -id "0d5eec1d-ddbd-4f89-bbd7-9abf87a41221" -whatif