Understand the replication stages

The Server Backup Replication has four (4) stages:

*1. Snapshot of the Disk or Volume.*
A point-in-time online snapshot of the server's file system is created.

*2. Exclude files/folders.*
At this stage, you can choose which files/folder will be excluded from the replication.
If you exclude files by pattern (e.g. ".log"), this process will take longer as each file name must be examined against the pattern (e.g. ".log"). You can save time by excluding entire folders rather than single files. The Backup Manager will give you a progress indicator showing you how much time has elapsed excluding files/folders.

*3. Copy Deltas or Perform Initial Replication.*
At this stage, the deltas are saved to the Disk Safe a new Recovery Point is created.

To view the Id of the merged Recovery Point, go to Task History, select the current policy, and click on the "Merged Recovery Points" tab.


h4. Replication Types

The Server Backup Replication has three (3) types:

*1. Initial Replica*
This replica is created once for each new device you save to a Disk Safe. During the Initial Replica, all information from the disk (except for the files/folders you have excluded) is copied to the Disk Safe and forms the first Recovery Point. This usually requires some time. To learn more about this process, see: [Virtual Full Backups|TP:Backup Method - Virtual Full Backup].

*2. CDP Replication*
During Replication, the Backup Agent installed on the Host tracks what block-level deltas have changed on the target replication device since your last Recovery Point and copies them to the Disk Safe. This process doesn't take long. To learn more see: [Computing Deltas|TP:Computing Deltas - near-Continuous (CDP)].

*3. Full Block Scan*
Sometimes the Backup Agent must perform a full block scan type replication of the device. This procedure is required to get the asynchronous CDP replications back in sync. During the scan, every allocated block in the file system must be read from disk and its MD5 check sum computed and compared to the checksum in the last completed Recovery Point. This process takes much longer than the CDP Replication.
{excerpt:hidden=true}The description of the replication stages and types in Server Backup Manager.{excerpt}