Platform: WindowsProducts: MSP360 Backup
Article ID: s0006Last Modified: 08-Oct-2026
Terms and Definitions
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Backup Agent | An instance of MSP360 (CloudBerry) Backup which is linked to a Backup service solution |
| Backup Chain | A backup chain is a sequence of configured plan executions in which the completion of a backup plan can trigger a specified backup or restore plan. Refer to Backup Chains Explained for details |
| Backup Plan | A backup plan determines which objects in a local storage must be monitored and uploaded to the backup (cloud or local) storage. These objects (primarily files and folders) can be referred to as backup source. MSP360 (CloudBerry) Backup allows uploading multiple versions of each file to backup storage, it is supported in both backup formats: current and new backup format. MSP360 (CloudBerry) Backup uses timestamps to identify which files have been modified and your backups include only files/folders that were modified since the previous backup date. The file version control is maintained by providing a synchronization layer between backup and local storages. After a backup plan is scheduled, the backup service will automatically execute it in the background at the specified time. To learn more, refer to the Backup Plans chapter |
| Backup Prefix | A single bucket (or container, depending on the cloud provider) can store backups from different computers and the backup prefix is used to identify different backups within the same bucket. To learn more, refer to the Changing the Backup Prefix to Access Backups from Another Computer |
| Backup Service | MSP360 (CloudBerry) Backup does not need to be constantly running in the background. To be able to process backups on a schedule, the installation registers a Windows service in the operating system that automatically performs the required tasks in the background. You can configure the backup service to automatically restart scheduled backup and restore tasks when the computer starts if processing was interrupted. To learn more, refer to the Backup Service In Windows article at kb.msp360.com |
| Backup Service Account | The service account is a user account under which MSP360 (CloudBerry) Backup runs. The privileges granted to this account may forbid the processing of certain files (such as system and protected files). The application is running under the Local System account by default, which can prevent the backup service from accessing certain files and folders. You can also consider making the service account under which CloudBerry Backup is running a member of the Backup Operators group to ensure that files are backed up. To learn more, refer to the Changing the Backup Service Account chapter |
| Backup Source | A backup plan determines which files in local storage the backup service monitors and uploads to the destination storage. These files can be referred to as backup source and MSP360 (CloudBerry) Backup can upload multiple versions of each file to your destination storage. MSP360 (CloudBerry) Backup maintains file version control by providing a synchronization layer between your cloud and local storages |
| Block-Level Backup | Unlike a full backup, which uploads a complete copy of each file to storage, a block-level backup uploads a full copy of the data only during the first execution of the backup plan or when a full backup is explicitly requested. In other cases, the backup service uploads only blocks (parts of a file) that were modified since the last backup date, which can significantly decrease the processing time required for completing your backup routine, as well as reduce the required storage space. Instead of uploading complete copies of modified files, which is the case with an incremental backup, a block-level backup operates with modified file blocks. To learn more, refer to the Block-Level Backup chapter |
| Bucket / Container | A bucket (or container, depending on the cloud provider) is used to store your data in the cloud. You can use buckets to organize your data and control access to it, but unlike directories and folders, you cannot nest buckets. The implementation of buckets may differ among various cloud providers. Please consult your cloud provider's documentation to learn more about using buckets/containers. When a bucket stores backups uploaded from different computers, the backup prefix is used to identify different backups within the same bucket |
| Bunch | A bunch is an internal representation of a backup plan in the main database. Bunch is linked to a directory in the database which in turn is linked to a destination. A destination can be modified. Bunch is always unique within the cloud folder and the plan type. This approach simplifies data deletion on cloud storage since all backup content is stored in one directory |
| CLI | Backup for Windows provides a command line interface to manage your backup routines. Note that the CLI implementation differs across MSP360 (CloudBerry) Backup editions for Windows, Linux, and macOS. To learn more, refer to the CLI section |
| Cloud | An abstract cloud storage for backups |
| Data Seeding | If a computer has a slow Internet connection, you can perform an initial full backup on another computer with a faster connection and then use the resulting backup data to perform subsequent block-level backups from the first computer. This process is known as data seeding. To learn more, refer to the Seeding Data article |
| Deep Sync | When you need to restore data that was backed up using the new backup format, the process begins with repository synchronization. This step involves listing the files and folders included in the selected backup generation. The backup service then automatically downloads the backup metadata, a process known as "deep sync". This retrieves metadata for all objects in the specified backup generation.. Note that this process may take some time, particularly for long-term storage systems, where it can take up to 12 hours. To learn more, refer to the Backup Metadata Downloading article |
| Differential Backup | Backing up Microsoft SQL Server data is performed by using the native differential backup functionality of SQL Server |
| File-Level Backup | As opposed to an image-based backup that can store a complete disk image as a single object, a file-level backup can contain data stored in individual files and/or folders. To learn more, refer to the File Backup section |
| Full Backup | In general, a backup process starts by uploading a full copy of the data to storage. However, it is unreasonable to create and upload a full copy of every file each time when you need to apply any changes made to your locally stored data to the backup stored in the cloud. How a full (or incremental) backup processes your data depends on the kind of data that you back up. To learn more, refer to the Full Backup chapter |
| Generation | A full backup and its subsequent incremental backups. |
| GFS | The Grandfather-Father-Son (GFS) retention policy provides custom purge delays for selected full backups to meet archival storage requirements and optimize storage costs. Refer to the About GFS chapter to learn more |
| Hybrid Backup | A backup type that provides uploads to local and cloud destinations. Learn more about hybrid backups in the Hybrid backup chapter |
| Image-Based Backup | An image-based backup stores the system state at a specific point in time, to which you can roll back in the event of a system failure. An image stores information about files and folders, as well as system, application, and software configuration. You can restore an image-based backup to different destinations: to a virtual machine in the cloud (such as Amazon EC2), to dissimilar hardware, to a Hyper-V or VMware instance. You can even create a recovery USB drive (or ISO disk image), as well as restore individual files from an image-based backup. Similar to a basic file-level backup, you can store multiple versions of an image, which allows you to restore to a specific point in time. Without versions, you would end up having just one last copy of a system image that could become damaged or outdated |
| Incremental Backup | An incremental backup is a type of backup that works in conjunction with a full backup. An incremental backup uses a full backup as a basis. This type backs up only files/folders that were changed since the previous backup was created. One full backup can be accompanied by one or more incremental backups according to the backup plan schedule. A full backup in combination with incremental ones forms a generation |
| Keeping period | A keeping period is a period defined by the GFS retention policy during which a backup is retained. Keeping periods can be weekly, monthly, and yearly. Learn more about GFS in the following section |
| Real-Time Backup | Applies to legacy format only. With MSP360 (CloudBerry) Backup, you can enable the backup service to continuously scan your source files in the background and update the backup storage on detecting any changes made to these files in real-time, without compromising the overall performance of your computer. Note that the real-time backup is not available for the image-based backup type. To enable real-time backup, refer to the Schedule step of the Files Backup Plan wizard |
| Repository | MSP36 (CloudBerry) Backup uses a service SQLite database to keep track of the backed-up data and ensure that the backup service will not repeatedly upload files that already reside in the cloud. This reduces the number of requests sent to the cloud and lowers your storage bills. To ensure that your local repository is up to date, you can do one of the following: * Perform a consistency check to detect discrepancies between the repository and backup storage and take appropriate action * synchronize your repository to delete the current repository and rebuild it based on the current contents of backup storage |
| Restore Plan | Similar to backup plans, you can save your restore configurations to be able to run them at a later time. You can manage restore plans using the Restore Wizard or command line interface (CLI) |
| Restore Point | A restore point is a completed backup plan run. The restore point can be empty or contain some files or folders. The restore point is considered successful if the following conditions are met: - the backup plan is completed successfully without any warnings or errors - both the TOC and part files are uploaded properly |
| Storage Account | To be able to upload your backups to a cloud or local storage, you need to grant MSP360 (CloudBerry) Backup access to your cloud service provider by creating a storage account. This account stores the credentials or other settings, such as access keys, required to access the corresponding storage and upload or restore backups. The storage associated with a created account becomes a destination or target storage for your backups |
| Synthetic Full Backup | A synthetic full backup combines an incremental backup with in-cloud copying to create a full backup in the backup storage. Read more about Synthetic Full backup in Synthetic backup chapter |
| TOC file | Table of contents. In terms of backup, the TOC file is an auxiliary file that contains object descriptions of contents of different data parts. TOC does not apply for legacy backup format |