When you first start protection on your nodes, onQ initiates a full disk image of the disks’ entire contents, including operating system, configuration, applications, and user data. Performing initial deduplication and storing the data on the HA takes time.

Transferring gigabytes or terabytes of data over a relatively low-bandwidth WAN can be time consuming even with onQ’s integrated deduplication and compression.

One way to minimize the time consumed by this process is to take advantage of onQ’s exclude list feature, which enables you to specify folders and files that do not need to be backed up. See Edit backup exclude list for details.

After the initial cycle, or “base image”, the onQ backup process is always incremental, meaning that subsequent backups involve only new files or only the parts of large files that have changed. Subsequent backups involve far less data and are generally quite fast.

If practical, Quorum suggests that you perform the initial backup with both your HA and DR Appliance on the same LAN. You can also use a removable drive for the initial synchronization as outlined in Seed the DR Repository.

The subsequent backups begin based on the Window Start time, which you specified when you configured your PN’s Backup Schedule (see Schedule backups).

You can monitor progress of the backups. See Monitor protected nodes and Monitor DR Appliance. If you receive any email alerts, follow the instructions in Backup Alerts.

You know that the initial backup has finished on an HA by checking the Backup Status field on a PN Status page, and on a DR Appliance by checking the RN Status field on the DR Status page. After the initial DR backup completes, you can shut it down and move it to its permanent locale.