Grandfather Father Son Backup Strategy

In the grandfather father son backup technique, the three scheduled steps make backups:

• The "grandfather" – full backup to some place, perhaps very offsite;
• The "father" – another full backup, more regular, to a faster storage;
• The "son" – incremental backup (or differential backup) to the same storage as "father".

An example of grandfather-father-son backup schedule

To apply this backup scheme, Handy Backup uses the two separate tasks: one to perform a scheduled mixed backup (i.e. a cycle of full backup followed by some preset quantity of differential backups, repeating at a cycle) as both "father" and "son", and another full backup task as "grandfather".

Grandfather-Father-Son Backup Advantages/Disadvantages

Basic advantages and disadvantages of grandfather-father-son backup are obvious. Compared to simple backup, the GFS backup strategy takes much time and some planning job for preparation. It also uses at least two storage types for same data. The result, however, is a regular, reliable and consistent backup!

To operate in a GFS backup scheme with Handy Backup, you can use the sequence of actions provided by the next instruction. In this example, we are assuming that you will apply a GFS backup scheme to “My Documents”, with FTP storage for “father” and “son”, and OneDrive account as “grandfather”.

Firstly, open Handy Backup. Call a new task wizard by clicking the “Create” button on the main panel, or by calling for a main or context menu. (Alternatively, you can just press Ctrl+N.) Select the backup task type on Step 1, and mark the “Advanced mode” option to access to all the functions of a new task!

1. On Step 2, select the "My Documents" plug-in as backup data source in the "User Folders" group on the left pane. Click on the plug-in name to add it to backup list.

2. Mark checkboxes against data that you plan to back up (or just mark an entire folder).
3. Click OK and then click the "Next" button to go to Step 3.
4. On the Step 3 window, click on the "FTP" on the left pane, and then click on the "Create a connection…" string on the right pane, to make an access to your FTP storage.
5. In the connection dialog window, set up all connection parameters to your FTP server.
6. Click OK. Now click on the FTP connection name that you just created on the right pane.
7. Select a particular storage (folder) on an FTP server to place your backup. Click OK.

8. Now click "Next" and go to Step 4. Here, select the "Mixed differential" backup option.

9. Click on the "Versions rotation settings". You will see the new dialog window.
10. In this dialog, select "Keep only last" and mark 5 copies next to this option. Click OK.
11. Click "Next" and go to Step 5. You may choose data encryption and compression on this step. Regardless of these options, click "Next".
12. Now you are on Step 6, and here you will schedule your task.

• On the "Start" date field, select the next Monday to run this task at first as "father" backup.
• Select the "On week day" option, and mark the workdays of the week to make "son" backups.
• We are also recommending marking the "Run the missed schedules" options for this case. It will guarantee the backup consistency.
13. After finishing scheduling, click "Next" to continue. Step 7 is for making external software calls; if you do not need it, go to final Step 8.
14. On the final step, uncheck (!) the option of immediate start to a task, and give your task a name (as an example, "FatherSonOne"). You will complete the task creation!

Customers About Grandfather-Father-Son Backup by Handy Backup

"For me, Handy Backup is a sort of magic. I can implement any scheme of backup that I need, including 3-2-1 and Grandfather-Father-Son backup rotation, with just a few clicks of a mouse. I use the Server Network edition to govern backups on our entire local network, and with the GFS backup task preset, I have absolutely no problem to configure and take any data image that I need!"

George Simmer, a system administrator of Tesco West Coast group

As in the previous part, create a new backup task and make it to the same dataset ("User Folders" → "My Documents") as the previous task. Now follow the next sequence of operations:

1. On Step 3, select “OneDrive” as the backup destination.
2. You can create a connection to your OneDrive account, as for FTP server in the previous example. Click the “Connect to OneDrive” button, and then provide all data for your account in the browser window. Do not forget to allow Handy Backup using your OneDrive!
3. On Step 4 , select full backup. Mark the option "Store versioned backups".

4. Click "Versions rotation settings". On the dialog window, allow to save as many (or as old) copies of your "grandfather" backup as your wish.
5. Return to the new task wizard and go to Step 6. Here, enable scheduling and repeating, and select the last Friday of the month in the “Start” date field.

6. Select a repeating option of "Custom" period of the 28 days 0 hours 0 minutes, to ensure that your "grandfather" backup will take place every fourth Friday.
7. Check the "Run the missed schedules" option, to be ensured that your "grandfather" backup sequence will also be as consistent as "father" and "son".
8. Complete the task creation as described in the previous part. Give your task a name related to the "father-son" part (e.g., "GrandfatherOne"). Check also that you will not run this task automatically just after creating it!

Well done! You have tuned up the GFS backup schema using Handy Backup! Note that it is now a completely automatic process! You have no need to take any additional actions to drive a grandfather-father-son backup process; Handy Backup will do all job without any interference!

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Version 8.5.8 , built on October 31, 2024. 118 MB
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With Handy Backup, you can copy classic "grandfather father son" backup schemes without any limitations! Experience this technique by downloading a 30-day free trial edition of the program, with all functions and plug-ins available!