Change proposal - program improvements

[hydrant]

Is it possible to change the program by adding a separate schedule for a full copy?

The reason is that full copies are best made on weekends when the organization is officially closed, there are no users, etc. But there are a lot of these full copies and a lot of data. This affects the time of their execution - they should be finished by Monday morning before users start their next day of work. The copy schedule that is possible to execute on working days (with differential or incremental copies) does not work with full copies because they start too late.

I see the change in the program interface as follows: in the task settings in the Dynamics tab, somewhere next to the Use a fixed day option, there will be an additional check box (empty by default) and there will be a question whether there should be a separate schedule for the full copy on the selected day or the same (earlier) schedule as on working days when differential/incremental copies are made.

Because in my opinion it makes no sense to duplicate tasks so that a full copy is made at a different time on the weekend. This can make the task list less readable.

[cobian]

That's exactly what "Use a fixed day" does. or am I misunderstanding the issue?

[ira]

So I know you're done modding the program but I decided to go mess around to see how this all seemed to work and found some questions.

If I choose incremental backup every day, full backup every four days and use a fixed day of Friday, what happens. Does it backup every Friday or only when a Friday shows up on a fourth backup day. I assume choosing "Use a fixed day" causes the program to ignore the every Nth day choice, but it's not clear.

And for the original poster, I find if I have a bunch of backups I need to run on one machine in a limited time, that using the post backup even "start task" to run each backup in order, though I see that you might also be able to create a group and use Start group to accomplish the same thing. I see no way to schedule a group which might also be a nice feature if development continues.

[cobian]

The program will use BOTH options. Every Nth PLUS Fridays.

[ira]

Oh, would not have expected that. I would figure they should be mutually exclusive, maybe even with an additional option for day of month so full backup every 1st or maybe 1st and 15th.

[hydrant]

That's exactly what "Use a fixed day" does. or am I misunderstanding the issue?

Hello.
It is exactly as you wrote, there is such an option in the task configuration, I use it and it works. But on weekdays, differential backups start (e.g. in my case) after 3 p.m. However, on every Saturday I would like to make this self-task perform a full backup (and using the option you wrote, it is done) but it also starts after 3 p.m. they are quite large and line up nicely to be made. But there's so much of it that it can't end by Monday morning. Therefore, I would like the full backup to be made on Saturday, but e.g. from 7 am. I can't do it in the same job as differential backups on weekdays. In my opinion this cannot be done. The only idea that comes to my mind is to do a separate task for the full copy on Saturday. But when I look at it, I don't think it's very elegant.
That's why I'm asking if there is any way for the full copy on Saturday to optionally have its own run time (other than on weekdays) in the same task.
I guess now we'll understand what I mean.

[hydrant]

So I know you're done modding the program but I decided to go mess around to see how this all seemed to work and found some questions.

If I choose incremental backup every day, full backup every four days and use a fixed day of Friday, what happens. Does it backup every Friday or only when a Friday shows up on a fourth backup day. I assume choosing "Use a fixed day" causes the program to ignore the every Nth day choice, but it's not clear.

And for the original poster, I find if I have a bunch of backups I need to run on one machine in a limited time, that using the post backup even "start task" to run each backup in order, though I see that you might also be able to create a group and use Start group to accomplish the same thing. I see no way to schedule a group which might also be a nice feature if development continues.

ira -
If I understand correctly what you mean, then I would suggest selecting "weekly incremental backup" in the task properties, choosing Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday as the days of the week, and additionally selecting "use Friday as a fixed day for a full backup." This way, incremental backups will be created on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and a full backup will be created every Friday.

[ira]

I believe that will do what you seemed to be asking.