Backup frequency is specified in policies; a backup schedule is specified in the resource group configuration. The most critical factor in determining a backup frequency or schedule is the rate of change for the resource and the importance of the data. You might back up a heavily used resource every hour, while you might back up a rarely used resource once a day. Other factors include the importance of the resource to your organization, your Service Level Agreement (SLA), and your Recover Point Objective (RPO).
An SLA defines the level of service expected and addresses many service-related issues, including the availability and performance of service. An RPO defines the strategy for the age of the files that must be recovered from backup storage for regular operations to resume after a failure. The SLA and RPO contribute to the data protection strategy.
Backup schedules have two parts, as follows:
Backup frequency (how often backups are to be performed) is part of a policy configuration. For example, you might configure the backup frequency as hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly. You can access policies in the VMware vSphere web client for SnapCenter Plug-in for VMware vSphere by clicking Policies in the left Navigator pane.
Backup schedules (exactly when backups are to be performed) are part of a resource group configuration. For example, if you have a resource group that has a policy configured for weekly backups, you might configure the schedule to back up every Thursday at 10:00 PM. You can access resource group schedules in the VMware vSphere web client for SnapCenter Plug-in for VMware vSphere by clicking Resource Groups in the left Navigator pane.