Protection plan cheat sheet

The following table summarizes the available protection plan parameters. Use the table to create a protection plan that best fits your needs.

WHAT TO BACK UP		ITEMS TO BACK UP Selection methods	WHERE TO BACK UP	SCHEDULE Backup schemes	HOW LONG TO KEEP
Disks/volumes (physical machinesA machine that is backed up by an agent installed in the operating system.)		Direct selection Policy rules File filters	Cloud Local folder Network folder NFS* Secure Zone**	Always incremental (Single-file) Always full Weekly full, Daily incremental Monthly full, Weekly differential, Daily incremental (GFS) Custom (F-D-I)	By backup age (single rule/per backup set) By number of backups By total size of backups**** Keep indefinitely
Disks/volumes (virtual machinesA virtual machine that is backed up at a hypervisor level by an external agent such as Agent for VMware or Agent for Hyper-V. A virtual machine with an agent inside is treated as physical from the backup standpoint.)		Policy rules File filters	Cloud Local folder Network folder NFS*
Files (physical machines onlyA machine that is backed up by an agent installed in the operating system.)		Direct selection Policy rules File filters	Cloud Local folder Network folder NFS* Secure Zone**	Always incremental (Single-file)*** Always full Weekly full, Daily incremental Monthly full, Weekly differential, Daily incremental (GFS) Custom (F-D-I)
ESXi configuration		Direct selection	Local folder Network folder NFS*
Websites (files and MySQL databases)		Direct selection	Cloud	—
System state		Direct selection	Cloud Local folder Network folder	Always full Weekly full, daily incremental Custom (F-I)
SQL databases
Exchange databases
Microsoft 365	Mailboxes (local Agent for Microsoft 365)	Direct selection	Cloud Local folder Network folder	Always incremental (Single-file)
	Mailboxes (cloud Agent for Microsoft 365)	Direct selection	Cloud	—
	Public folders
	Teams
	OneDrive files	Direct selection Policy rules
	SharePoint Online data	Direct selection Policy rules
Google Workspace	Gmail mailboxes	Direct selection	Cloud	—
	Google Drive files	Direct selection Policy rules
	Shared drive files	Direct selection Policy rules

* Backup to NFS shares is not available in Windows.

** Secure Zone cannot be created on a Mac.

*** The option Always incremental (Single-file) is available only if the primary backup destination is Cloud.

**** The By total size of backups retention rule is not available with the Always incremental (single-file) backup scheme or when backing up to the cloud storage.