Step X: Intelligent Scheduling

Automation. The magic 10-letter word that gives everyone hope for a better IT Administration future - this is what Intelligent Scheduling brings to the table.

We call this Step X because schedules can be created and configured at any time. We call them intelligent schedules. We won't go into too much detail in this article on how it works, but this quote from the Amanda Community Wiki Pages gives a brief summary:

...The Amanda planner runs on the server to decide exactly how to go about backing things up. It, too, contacts each Amanda client and requests an estimate of the size of full and incremental dumps for each DLE. It then does some complex planning based on the history of each DLE, the estimated sizes, the available storage space, and a number of tweakable parameters to decide what to back up.

This often confuses newcomers, who have control issues and want to tell Amanda when to do full backups and when to do incrementals. The planner is one of Amanda's strengths! Don't fight it!

Each backup set may be linked with one schedule at any given time, but each schedule may be linked with as many backup sets as you have. It is also important to note that the fancy algorithm operates on a Backup Set basis.

In the following steps, we will show you how to create a schedule, link it to a backup set, and activate it.

Steps

  1. In the left navigation window, click on Schedule Plan

  2. In the top right corner, click ADD SCHEDULE. A configuration page will appear:

You will see four schedule options:

  • Daily - For backup jobs to be carried out on a daily basis, regardless of week or month

  • Weekly - For backup jobs to be carried out on specific days of specific weeks of each month

  • Monthly by Weeks - For backup jobs to be carried out during specific days of specific weeks of specific months

  • Monthly by Days - For backup jobs to be carried out during specific days of specific months

Depending on what you choose, you will be given different configuration fields. For this guide, we will show you the Monthly by Weeks option, which will give you a good sense of how to configure the other options.

  1. Let's fill out the details:

  • Schedule Name - Give a descriptive name to the schedule

  • Time Zone - According to which time zone do you wish to schedule the backups

  • Schedule Date - The day that this schedule will begin

  • Schedule Time - The time when the backups will start

  • Select Months - The months of the year you wish to run this backup schedule

  • Select Weeks - The weeks of each month you wish to run this backup schedule

  • Full Backup Time Specified - Checking this box gives you a new field that will allow you to configure the time when you wish to run full backups

  • Select Backup Type - Here you have three options:

    • Auto - The Intelligent Scheduler algorithm will automatically choose when to perform full and incremental backups. Selecting any other option will override the intelligent scheduler.

    • Full - This will run a full backup on the days specified

    • Incremental - This will run an incremental backup on the days specified

    • No Backup - No backup will be run on the days specified

Schedule Configurations
  1. Once you fill out everything, click SAVE

  2. Your schedule will now appear on the Schedules page

  1. Now let's add the schedule to a Backup Set. There are two ways to do this:

  • The first is through the Backup When step when you are running a backup. Please see the Run a Backup page for how to do this.

  • The second is through the Backup Sets page. Read on for how to do this:

  1. Click on Backup Sets in the left navigation bar

  2. Click on the icon to the left of the backup set that you wish to add your schedule to.

  3. A configuration window will appear. Under the Select Schedule drop-down, select the schedule you wish to add to the Backup Set, and then click SAVE

  4. The final step is to activate your schedule. To do this, click on the icon next to the backup set. You may also have to update the configuration in the Backup Where section of the Backup Set before the schedule can be activated.

  5. Please see the following gif for the full process of adding a schedule to a backup set, as well as both methods of activation.

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