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Find out how centron cBacks works: automated, crash-consistent VM backups, including the schedule, procedure and important notes.

How do the centron, ccloud³, VM and cBacks work?​

cBacks is an automated process that takes place within a predefined time window and runs in the background whilst the ccloud³ VM is running. This enables system-wide cBacks on your server without having to shut it down.

Process during a cBacks:​

  1. A snapshot of the running system is taken, creating a crash-consistent, point-in-time image.
  2. The snapshot is backed up to a location outside the disk.
  3. The snapshot is deleted as soon as the backup is complete.

Crash-consistent backup:​

  • A crash-consistent backup makes it possible to capture all the data on the hard drive exactly as it was at a specific point in time. This means that the data is backed up in a consistent state.

Backup schedule:​

  • Once you have enabled cBacks, they will be scheduled at intervals ranging from hourly to daily within a specific time window, which is automatically assigned by centron. To view the time window, navigate to your ccloud³ VM in centron Control Panel and click on the ‘cBacks’ link.
  • In the ‘cBacks’ block, you will find a message such as this: ‘cBacks is currently enabled.’
  • cBacks for your ccloud³ VM will start at some point during the specified time window. Depending on when the backup starts and the size of the disk to be backed up, it may not be completed by the end of the listed window.

Storage​

Up to 10 cBacks records are retained per ccloud³ VM. There is no fixed retention period – older cBacks records are overwritten as soon as the limit of 10 is reached.

Please note:​

  • cBacks instances may not be ideally suited for ccloud³ VMs with intensive I/O workloads, such as database servers, as disk performance may be affected whilst the cBacks is being created.
  • Centron-automated cBacks instances may not include volumes, as is the case with DigitalOcean, but you can perform manual cBacks operations using volume snapshots.

This information has been adapted for centron’s ccloud³ VMs and is based on the features and processes of DigitalOcean’s cBacks.

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