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The schedule marked out according to the GFS scheme.
Schedule: Workdays at 8:00 PM
Weekly/Monthly: Friday
Acronis uses incremental and differential backups that help save storage space and optimize the
cleanup so that consolidation is not needed. In terms of backup methods, weekly backup is
differential (Dif), monthly backup is full (F) and daily backup is incremental (I). The first backup is
always full.
The Weekly/Monthly parameter splits the total schedule into daily, weekly and monthly
schedules.
Assume you select Friday for Weekly/Monthly backup. Here is the real schedule of the backup
tasks that will be created.
Backup tasks created according to the GFS scheme by Acronis Backup & Recovery 10.
Schedule: Workdays at 8:00 PM
Weekly/Monthly: Friday
Keep backups: Daily
This step defines the retention rule for daily backups. The cleanup task will run after each daily
backup and delete all daily backups that are older than you specify.
Keep backups: Weekly
This step defines the retention rule for weekly backups. The cleanup task will run after each
weekly backup and delete all weekly backups that are older than you specify. The weekly
backups' retention period cannot be less than the daily backups' retention period. It is usually set
several times longer.
Keep backups: Monthly
This step defines the retention rule for monthly backups. The cleanup task will run after each
monthly backup and delete all monthly backups that are older than you specify. The monthly
backups’ retention period cannot be less than the weekly backups’ retention period. It is usually
set several times longer. You have the option to keep the monthly backups indefinitely.
The resulting archive: ideal
Assume you select to keep daily backups for 7 days, weekly backups for 2 weeks and monthly
backups for 6 months. Here is how your archive would appear after the backup plan is launched if all
the backups were full and so could be deleted as soon as the scheme requires.
The left column shows days of the week. For each day of the week, the content of the archive after
the regular backup and the subsequent cleanup is shown.