Choose what to back up · MoorNest Docs

A backup plan says what to back up on one server, where to keep it and how often. You set plans up in the console from a live list of the server's own drives, folders and virtual machines. This page walks through the Back up screen and its options.

Before you start

The server must be connected. See Add a server.
You need the Operator or Administrator role.
At least one storage destination must be set up. See Storage: MoorNest Cloud and NAS.

Open the plan screen

Open the server from Servers. For a server with no plans yet, click Choose folders to back up (or Choose what to back up on a Hyper-V host). For a server that already has plans, click Add backup plan.

The screen has four choices: What to back up, Where to keep it, How often and How long to keep backups, plus More options. The Summary on the right shows the plan in one sentence as you go. The defaults suit most servers.

What to back up: folders

MoorNest asks the server for its drives and shows them as a folder tree. Click a drive or folder name to open it.

Tick a folder to back it up with everything inside it. Its subfolders are included and cannot be ticked separately.
Ticked folders appear under Selected folders. Remove one with its x button.
You can tick up to 64 folders on one server at a time. Each folder becomes its own plan, named after the folder, with the same storage, schedule and options.

Windows drive roots

On Windows, a whole drive such as D:\ cannot be ticked. The drive shows Open it and pick folders: open it and tick the folders below it instead. Windows open-file snapshots need a folder below the drive root.

Folders that are never backed up

Some folders are always skipped, even when they sit inside a folder you ticked. They hold the operating system, temporary system files, MoorNest's own configuration or system secrets. In the tree they are greyed out with System folder, not backed up.

On Windows:

C:\Windows, C:\Program Files and C:\Program Files (x86)
MoorNest's own folders under C:\ProgramData and C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Crypto
C:\Recovery
System Volume Information, $Recycle.Bin, pagefile.sys, hiberfil.sys and swapfile.sys on any drive

On Linux:

/proc, /sys, /dev, /run and /boot
MoorNest's own folders (/etc/moornest, /var/lib/moornest, /opt/moornest and the gateway's)
/etc/shadow, /etc/gshadow and /root/.ssh

On Linux you can tick / (shown as the whole system); the folders above are still skipped.

What to back up: Hyper-V virtual machines

On a Hyper-V host, choose Virtual machines at the top of What to back up. The list shows every VM the host reports.

Tick the VMs to back up. Each VM is backed up whole, including its disks and settings, as its own plan.
Under More options > While backing up a VM, choose Keep it running (the default) or Only back up VMs that are shut down.

Option	What it means
Keep it running	The VM stays up. A restore behaves like the VM after a power cut, which Windows and SQL Server handle.
Only back up VMs that are shut down	The cleanest copy, but running VMs are skipped.

You can back up folders on the same host too: choose Folders instead.

Where to keep it

Pick one storage destination. Storage that is offline or refusing backups is shown but cannot be chosen; click it to see why.

One plan writes to one destination. For a second copy somewhere else, add another plan after this one with the other storage. See Storage: MoorNest Cloud and NAS.

How often

Choice	When it runs
Every hour	At a minute you choose (At minute :00, :15, :30, :45 or any minute).
Every 6 hours	Four times a day from the time under Starting at.
Once a day	At the time under At. The default is 22:00.
Only when I start it	Never on its own. Use Back up now. Nothing warns you if you forget.

Times are on the server's own clock. The screen shows the server's time zone, for example Server time: America/Vancouver. An agent that does not report a time zone uses UTC.

How long to keep backups

Keep every backup is the only choice for now. Automatic clean-up of old backups is not available yet, so nothing is ever deleted. On storage with a deletion lock, each backup also cannot be deleted by anyone until its lock ends.

More options

Option	Default	What it does
Speed	Balanced	Quiet uses less CPU and network so users do not notice. Full speed finishes sooner. Limits set on the server itself always win.
Upload limit (MB/s, 0 for no limit)	0	Caps the upload rate. Use 0 or at least 0.07 MB/s.
Open files (Windows)	On	Use a Windows snapshot so open and locked files are backed up. Recommended. Without it, files that are open during the backup are skipped.
Check backups can be restored	7 days	How often kept backups are read back again (Off, 7, 14 or 30 days). Each backup is also checked right after it finishes.
Warn me	26 hours	Raises an issue and emails your alert recipients if there is no good backup for this long (Off, 2, 8, 26 or 50 hours).
Read everything again	Every 7 days	How often every file is re-read and checked, to catch a change that left the file's date and size alone (Every 7 days, Every 14 days, Every 30 days or Never).
Retry after a temporary failure	2 times	For folder plans: try again up to 0 to 5 times.
Plan name	The folder or VM name	When you tick several folders, a name typed here goes in front of each folder's name.

The Windows snapshot captures the folder at one moment, like a disk after a power cut. It does not ask applications such as SQL Server to prepare first.

Save the plan

Click Save backup plan (or Save 3 backup plans when you ticked several folders or VMs). MoorNest then asks Run the first backup now? The server is not protected until its first backup finishes, so Back up now is usually the right choice. Wait for schedule starts it at the next scheduled time.

The first backup copies everything. After that, only changes are read and sent. See How MoorNest works.

Change a plan later

On the server page, open the Backup plans tab. Each plan has:

Pause and Resume: stop and restart its schedule. Existing backups are kept.
Edit: change the name, schedule, speed, retries and checks. What is backed up, and where, stays as it was created, so existing restore points keep matching. To back up something else, add another plan. A plan cannot be edited while it is running.
Run now: start this plan straight away. The regular schedule is not affected.
Re-read all next time: make the next backup read and check every file again.

Back up now at the top of the server page runs a plan you choose. Each server runs one job at a time.