Creating a custom policy

If the needs of your data protection environment are not covered with any of the predefined policies, you can create a new policy and tailor it to your needs. In this case, besides setting the desired RPO, the retention period for the backup data, and the target, you can also enable one or more additional policy options for optimal policy implementation.

Policy option Allows you to...
Backup Window

Start all backup tasks within specified time frames to improve effectiveness and avoid an overload of your environment. For details, see “Creating a backup window”.
Copy Create a copy of backup data.
Archiving

Preserve your data for future reference. For details, see “Creating a data archive”.
Tags Set up automatic assignment of policies to virtual machines based on tags that are added to virtual machines in Azure. For details, see “Setting up automatic policy assignment”.

Prerequisites

  • Only if you plan to select a manually created storage account. A storage account is added to HYCU for Azure as a target. For instructions, see “Adding a storage account to HYCU for Azure”.

  • Only if you plan to enable the Backup Window policy option. A backup window exists. For instructions, see “Creating a backup window”.

  • Only if you plan to enable the Archiving policy option. A data archive exists. For instructions, see “Creating a data archive”.

  • Only if you plan to enable the Tags policy option. The virtual machine is tagged in Azure. For details on how to do this, see Azure documentation.

Considerations

  • HYCU for Azure automatically associates the resource with one of the pricing tiers based on the value of the Backup every option that you set in the policy. However, if you are storing data as a snapshot and have enabled the Archiving option, the pricing tier is automatically set to Bronze regardless of the specified RPO.

  • Only if you plan to select a manually created storage account for storing backup data. If there is insufficient space on the selected target, an automatically created one will be used instead.

  • If you want your data to be stored as a snapshot and on a target, make sure to select the Snapshot target and also enable the Copy policy option.

  • Only if you plan to enable the Tags policy option.

    • Tags that you specify in a HYCU for Azure policy must be unique within the selected protection set. Using the same tag (both its name and value) in another policy in the same protection set is not possible.

    • The hycu-policy tag takes precedence over any other tag that might be added to the virtual machine in Azure. For more information on the hycu-policy tag, see “Setting up automatic policy assignment”.

To access the Policies panel, in the navigation pane, click  Policies.

Procedure

  1. In the Policies panel, click  New.

  2. Enter a name for your policy and, optionally, its description.

  3. Add any of the following policy options to the list of the enabled options by clicking it:

    • Backup (mandatory and enabled by default)

    • Backup Window

    • Copy

    • Archiving

    • Tags

  4. In the Backup section, do the following:

    1. In the Backup every field, set the RPO (in months, weeks, days, hours, or minutes).

      n Note  You can set the RPO to 30 minutes in the following cases:

      • If you are storing data only as a snapshot.

      • If you are storing data as a snapshot and have enabled the Archiving option.

      For all other cases, the minimum RPO is one hour.

    2. In the Retention field, set a retention period (in months, weeks, or days) for the backup data.

    3. From the Target drop-down menu, select a location for storing your backup data.

      If you select the Automatically selected option, HYCU for Azure creates a storage account in the region of the virtual machine and uses it as a target for storing the backup data. If an automatically created storage account already exists, it is used instead.

  5. Depending on which policy options you have enabled, do the following:

    Policy option Instructions
    Backup Window

    In the Backup Window section, from the Backup window drop-down menu, select a backup window for backup tasks.

    If you do not select any backup window, the Always option is shown, which means that your backups are allowed to run at any time.
    Copy

    In the Copy section, do the following:

    1. Set a retention period (in months, weeks, or days) for the copy of backup data.

    2. From the Target drop-down menu, select a location that you want to use for storing the backup data. If you select a manually created storage account, make sure it is different from the one you selected for the backup.

      If you select the Automatically selected option, HYCU for Azure creates a storage account in the region of the virtual machine and uses it as a target for storing the copy of backup data. If an automatically created storage account already exists, it is used instead.
    Archiving

    In the Archiving section, from the Data archive drop-down menu, select a data archive.
    Tags

    In the Tags section, enter a tag name and value, and then click Add.

    During the next virtual machine synchronization, the policy is automatically assigned to all the virtual machines with the corresponding tags in Azure.

    n Note  HYCU for Azure performs automatic synchronization of virtual machines every five minutes. However, you can at any time update the list of virtual machines also manually by clicking  Synchronize in the Virtual Machines panel.

  6. Click Save.

The policy is created and added to the list of policies. For details on managing policies, see “Managing policies”.