Job backup configuration strategy

[CharadeUR]

I am backing up a weekend job to a small iOmega NAS device that is taken off site each week. I have the job set to backup every Saturday. I am using incremental with synthetic fulls and transforms.
Questions:
1. I have it checked to do the synthetic fulls on Saturday. Since the job only runs on Saturday does that mean it will do a synthetic full every time it backs up?
2. Would reverse incremental be a better strategy for this scenario?
3. How much more space would be used if I turn transforms off? I am confused as to how transforms work.

Just an FYI this site has 4T of data and if I had to do it over again I probably would not choose the iOmega due to the bottleneck it causes during the backup. These iOmega NAS devices have worked fine in the past at sites with less than 1T of data.

Thanks.

[Vitaliy S.]

Hi George,

1. Correct.
2. Sure, since you're running your job only once a week (on Saturday), but in this case you will have to offload the entire VBK file (full backup) to your iOmega NAS device.
3. How did you configure a retention policy for this backup job?

Thanks!

[CharadeUR]

Retention policy is set for 8 restore points.

How do transforms actually utilize the disk space vs without transforms?

[Vitaliy S.]

If you decide to stick with forward incremental backup mode and do not enable transform operation, then you will have 2 VBK files (full backups) and up to 14 VIB files (increments). Transform operation allows you to keep only single VBK file and increments according to the retention policy settings.

Here is a really informative topic covering both options in great details, look it through: Reversed incrementals vs. Fwd w/ DAILY Synthetic + Transform