Backing Up to Removable Disks in Rotation

Product version: 6.0

Last modified: 20 January 2016

Question

Can I back up to multiple removable disks and rotate the disks?

Answer

Data protection best practices recommend always keeping a copy of important backups offsite. One way to have backup copies to an offsite location is backing up VMs to removable disks and rotating the disks, and storing one of the disks at a remote location. To back up to disks and rotate the disks with NAKIVO Backup & Replication, take these steps.

Preparing Backup Repositories

To back up to two disks with disk rotation, create a Backup Repository on each disk.

Note
If you create just one Backup Repository on Disk 1 and copy/paste it to Disk 2, you will not be able to back up to Disk 2 with rotation.

  1. Prepare two disks to which you plan to backup VMs.

  2. Connect or mount Disk 1 to a machine where a Transporter is installed.

  3. Create Backup Repository 1 on Disk 1.

  4. Connect or mount Disk 2 to a machine where a Transporter is installed.

  5. Create Backup Repository 2 on Disk 2.

Prepare Backup Jobs

To back up to two disks with disk rotation, create two separate backup jobs: backup job 1 to back up your VMs to Disk 1 and backup job 2 to back up the same VMs to Disk 2. To do that:

  1. Create a backup job 1 for Disk 1:

  2. Make sure that Disk 1 is connected or mounted to the machine on which the Transporter is installed.

  3. If Backup Repository 1 was detached, attach it to the product.

  4. Start the New Backup Job Creation Wizard.

  5. In Backup Job Wizard for VMware: Source, choose the VMs that you want to back up.

  6. In Backup Job Wizard for VMware: Destination, choose Backup Repository 1 that you have created.

  7. In Backup Job Wizard for VMware: Schedule, select the Do not schedule, run on demand option.

  8. In Backup Job Wizard for VMware: Options, specify the required backup options.

Repeat the above steps to create backup job 2 with Backup Repository 2. 

Back Up to Removable Disks in Rotation

To back up to a removable disk, do the following:

  1. Connect or mount Disk 1 to the machine on which the Transporter is installed.

  2. Attach Backup Repository 1.

  3. Run backup job 1.

  4. After backup job 1 has completed, detach Backup Repository 1.

  5. Disconnect or unmount Disk 1; it’s now ready to be moved to an offsite location.

  6. Repeat the above steps for Disk 2.