Forcing a Full Backup Out of Schedule
Situation
In order to save network bandwidth and computing resources, each backup plan type supports block-level scheduling. It allows uploading only the changed increments of the source data, as opposed to performing a full dataset reupload on each run of the plan.
Scheduled full backup runs are still necessary (for example, on a weekly or monthly basis) to keep the backup chain stable and data retention policy active (unless a specific setup is being used, such as forever forward incremental).
However, in certain situations it is a good practice to force a full backup outside of its regular schedule. Main reasons to do so are troubleshooting backup chain inconsistencies and retention policy issues, as well as creating additional full restore points.
Solutions
Please refer to a section below that corresponds to the type of backup plan you need to force a full backup for (applicable to Backup agent ver. 6.* and earlier):
Note that the above instruction only apply to Backup Agent software versions 6.* and earlier.
For Backup Agent software version 7.0 and later, kindly refer to the end of the article.
Image-based Backup (Backup agent ver. 6.* and earlier)
Switch to the Backup Plans tab, expand the required plan, then click Force Full Backup:
VMware / Hyper-V Backup (Backup agent ver. 6.* and earlier)
Switch to the Backup Plans tab, expand the required plan, then click Force Full Backup:
MS Exchange Backup (Backup agent ver. 6.* and earlier)
Switch to the Backup Plans tab, expand the required plan, then click Force Full Backup:
MS SQL Backup (Backup agent ver. 6.* and earlier)
Switch to the Backup Plans tab, expand the required plan, then click Force Full Backup:
File-level Backup (Backup agent ver. 6.* and earlier)
Switch to the Backup Plans tab, expand the required plan, then click Force Full Backup:
Backup agent 7.0 and later (+ new backup format plans)
Force Full Backup button was moved to a drop-down menu for all types of backup plans that support full backup:
Where:
Run Backup = regular backup plan launch as per schedule.
Force Full Backup = full source dataset re-upload and creation of a new backup chain.
Force Synthetic Full Backup = in-cloud creation of a synthetic full restore point on a supported cloud storage solution and creation of a new backup chain.