Explanation of Policy Domains and Management Classes

Policy Domains and Management Classes exist in a hierarchical structure. The top level is called a Policy Domain. Inside of a Policy Domain there are sub levels called Management Classes. The names of Policy Domains and Management Classes are arbitrary, but generally a descriptive name is used to make it less confusing for both the node administrators and the Bucky Backup administrators.

Policy Domains

The Policy Domain is where your node (e.g. a computer/server) is assigned to when the node is created and it can be changed later by a Bucky Backup administrator if necessary. Nodes must be a member of a Policy Domain and will use the default Management Class if another is not specified. In simple terms, the Policy Domain is just a container for potentially multiple Management Classes but it must have a default Management Class. The Policy Domain is named after the default Management Class it contains. Specific rules for your backup are defined in each Management Class.

Management Classes

The Management Class is where the rules for your backups are defined (i.e. number of versions, retention time, etc.).

Within a Management Class several settings can be specified:

• Number of versions to keep
  • If client data exists
  • If client data is deleted
• Length of time to retain extra backup version (number of days to keep inactive versions of files)
• Length of time to retain only backup version (number of days to keep the last backup version of a file that has been deleted)

The Management Class can be specified in the options file by the node admin. Any existing Management Class that is a member of the node's Policy Domain can be specified for any file on the server or computer. For example, you could say backup these 10 files with this Management Class, and backup the rest of the files with a different Management Class. If no Management Class is specified there is a default Management Class that will be used.

Common Policy Domains and Default Management Class Settings

Policy domains exist in every combination of 2, 3, and 5 versions with retentions of 30, 180, and 365 days with the names "XverYdays", where X is the number of version and Y is the number of days of retention. You can choose any combination of those options for your default policy when you register your node. The default management class has the same name as the policy domain name. Some common policy domains are:

* DOIT3VER and DOIT5VER are for DoIT managed nodes only.

Additional Management Classes in Policy Domains

In addition to the default management class in a Policy Domain there are other management classes that you can use through include statements. See also: Bucky Backup - Includes and Excludes in TSM

You can see which management classes are available and their settings.

In the GUI client: Utilities -> View Policy Information

On the command line: "dsmc query mgmtclass" (add "-detail" for more information)