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full archive. Generally, a differential backup will be restored faster than an incremental one,
as it does not have to process through a long chain of previous backups.
A standalone full backup may be an optimal solution if you often roll back the system to the
initial state (like in a gaming club or Internet café, to undo changes, made by the guests). In
this case, you need not to re-create the initial full image, so the backup time is not crucial,
and the restore time will be minimal.
Alternatively, if you are interested in saving only the last data state to be able to restore it in
case of system failure, consider the differential backup. It is particularly effective if your data
changes tend to be little as compared to the full data volume.
The same is true for incremental backup. In addition, it is most useful when you need
frequent backups and possibility to roll back to any of stored states. Having created a full
backup once, if you then create an incremental backup each day of a month, you will get
the same result as if you created full backups every day. However, the cost in time and disk
space (or removable media usage) will be as little as one tenth as much.
It is important to note that the above arguments are nothing but examples for your
information. Feel free to make up your own backup policy in accordance with your specific
tasks and conditions. Acronis True Image Server for Linux is flexible enough to meet any
real-life demands.
An incremental or differential backup created after a disk is defragmented might be considerably larger
than usual. This is because the defragmentation program changes file locations on disk and the
backups reflect these changes. Therefore, it is recommended that you re-create a full backup after disk
defragmentation.
3.3
Acronis Secure Zone
The Acronis Secure Zone is a special partition for storing archives on the computer system
itself. In the Acronis True Image Server for Linux Wizards' windows the zone is listed along
with all partitions available for storing archives. Acronis Secure Zone is necessary for using
Acronis Startup Recovery Manager (see below).
Acronis Secure Zone helps the user to get rid of outdated backups. If there is not enough
space for the new archive, older archives will be deleted to create space.
Acronis True Image Server for Linux uses the following scheme to clean up Acronis Secure
Zone:
•
If there is not enough free space in the zone to create a backup, the program deletes
the oldest full backup with all subsequent incremental/differential backups.
•
If there is only one full backup (with subsequent incremental/differential backups) left
and a full backup is in progress, then the old full backup and incremental/differential
backups are deleted.
•
Otherwise, (only one full backup left, and an incremental/differential backup is in
progress) you will get a message about space error. In that case you will have to either
re-create the full backup or increase Acronis Secure Zone.
Thus, you can back up data automatically on a schedule (see
and not worry about zone overflow issues. However, if you keep long chains of incremental
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General information and proprietary Acronis technologies
Chapter 7 Scheduling tasks
),
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