Active full vs synthetic full question

[pstoric83]

I’m replacing Windows Server Backup with Veeam Agent free and I was wondering If active full backups were preferred over synthetic fulls when backing up a single server to an external drive via USB? It’s a simple set up but not sure if one had any major advantage or disadvantage over the other. The retention period will be 30 days.

[Dima P.]

Hello Paul,

Active full provides impact on the production system, while synthetic full backup does not actuate the production storage due to the merge process on the target storage. Both solutions have cons and pros, take a look at these help center articles to learn more: Synthetic Full Backup and Active Full Backup. Hope it helps, cheers!

[pstoric83]

Thanks!

[pstoric83]

Question. Let's say I have a nightly backup scheduled at 9PM but I want to do a one-time full backup to a diff external drive and start that at 1PM but it takes 12 hours to complete that full backup. Will Veeam bypass the nightly as it's already doing a backup?

[Dima P.]

Paul,

Standalone full backup (I bet that's the option you've been looking for) should not affect the scheduled backup. However, the scheduled job should await till the standalone full backup is completed. Cheers!