Program Output¶
To configure a backup from Program Output, follow these steps:
- Log in to the client area with your email and password.
- Select from the left menu Active services -> Delta Cloud Backup and select your service to open its settings.
- Select Protected items and click the Add protected item button. To be able to add one, you must have previously added and connected a device successfully.
- You will see a screen where you need to specify two things:
- Select the device you want to back up.
- Select the type of protected item.
- After the second option, select Program Output. This type is suitable for Linux, Windows, and macOS. You can add multiple protected items for each device.
From here you can add program output to be included in the backup. This option is particularly useful for situations where you want to back up resources that are not directly supported by our backup. An example of this is PostgreSQL. Fortunately, PostgreSQL has utility programs such as pg_dump and pg_dumpall. On Linux and macOS, these commands can write directly as output to stdout instead of to a file. This output is passed to our backup software and saved as a file. That is, if we want to back up all of our PostgreSQL databases, we should enter in the "Command" field, for example, pg_dumpall -U postgres -c, and in the "Save as" field we can enter all-postgresql-databases.sql. This way we will end up with a backup in SQL format in a single file of all our databases.
The options here are as follows:
- Option Command: a command that can write output to stdout, whose output you want to save as a backup.
- Option Working directory: the directory from which to invoke the command (workdir).
- Option Save as: save the output of the command under the name of a specific file.
Adding additional commands (before and after execution)¶
This menu is optional. Here you can add a custom command to be executed before starting the backup process, after completing the backup process, or after generating a snapshot. For example, you can use this feature if you want to receive emails from your server after generating a backup by specifying the exact command for it, or if you want to receive a push notification in your chat system (Slack, etc.) after the backup completes.
Schedule¶
By setting up a schedule, you ensure that a given protected item on a given device will be backed up exactly at the time you specified. Here you can choose how often to start the specific backup - daily (once a day), weekly (once a week), and monthly (once a month).
| Frequency | Description |
|---|---|
| Daily execution | Here you can only set the time at which the backup should start, for example at 12:00. |
| Weekly execution | Here, in addition to the time, you can also select on which day of the week it should start. For example on Sunday, at 12:00. |
| Monthly execution | Here you can set the day of the month and time at which the backup should start. For example, on the 1st of every month, at 12:00. |
Additionally, you need to select the storage location. This storage location is provided by us and is the only option. When creating an execution schedule, you also have the Random delay option. This option provides the ability for a random delayed start. For example, if you have set the backup to start at 12:00 and there is a random delay of 60 minutes, then the backup will start randomly between 12:00 and 12:59. This option can be useful if you have other running processes during that time and do not want them to fully overlap with your backup.
Advanced schedule settings¶
In addition to setting up a schedule, you also have the option to configure additional settings, which are described here:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Skip if already running | If this same backup is already started and there is such a running process, then the next backup will be skipped. |
| Limit backup to use only 1 disk thread | By default, the backup process runs in multithreaded mode. If you find that the backup process consumes too many resources, you can limit it to using only 1 thread. |
| Use files instead of RAM (slower) | The backup software works in such a way that to start a backup, it needs to check what was previously stored and what needs to be archived. This calculation is performed on the fly and uses RAM to be faster. If the device being backed up has limited memory, you can limit its consumption with this option. |
| Allow backup of empty files | If you know you have empty files and for some reason it is important that they also exist in the backup, then you can enable this option. |
| Cancel backup if still running for more than | If the backup process takes longer than a time specified by you, you can use this option to have the process terminated. |
| Limit archive transfer speed | Since the storage location is remote, it is logical that some traffic is used for transferring backup data. You can limit the speed if you do not want the backup to consume a certain capacity of the total transfer bandwidth. |
| Apply retention policy after backup | This retention policy is an internal process that takes care of data consistency. We recommend leaving it set to "Automatic". |
Retention period¶
The retention period is the time for which you want all backup copies to be kept for the specific protected item. Here you have two options - to keep all copies and never delete them, or to retain a specific number of copies according to criteria you define. The criteria for retaining a specific number of backups are as follows:
The last [...] copies
The last [...] copies, at most one per day
The last [...] copies, at most one per week
The last [...] copies, at most one per month
All backup copies from the last [...]
All backup copies newer than a specific date
One copy every day for the last [...] days
One copy every week for the last [...] weeks
One copy every month for the last [...] months
Depending on which option you have selected, you will be able to configure various combinations of count, date, days, weeks, or months.