Templates are a new addition to Backup Radar, they serve two functions. To automatically activate backups as they come into Backup Radar, and to improve the maintenance of your Backup Radar configuration by linking multiple backups to a single template. This allows you to change configuration once and affect all the linked backups in Backup Radar. 

Standalone Backups

We understand there may be situations where there may be one off backups that don't fit with the rest of the backups in your templates. At any time you can edit a backup that was previously linked to a template and force it to be "standalone". You can then individually adjust the configuration of that backup without affecting the rest that were in the template. When set to standalone a backup will never be pulled into a template even if it matches the rules defined.

Legacy Auto Activation rules need to be removed

If you had previously been using the legacy auto activation rules you will be notified that these rules need to be deleted to ensure they don't conflict with the templates you are about to setup. For help in converting your auto activation rules to templates please submit a support ticket.

Go to the Templates page (Manage Templates)

There are two parts to the template, the configuration and the rules. Both need to be configured for a template to be active. 

Backup Count will take you directly to the audit screen to view the backups linked to that template.

Deleting a template will force any linked backup into a "standalone" state. 

Template Statuses

The status column will provide further insight into the status of template rules 

	This indicates rules and or configuration have not been defined
	There is a conflict between one or more rules. Review the rules in conflict and make sure your backups don't match multiple template rules.
	There are rules change or newly established which are pending "apply". You can manually apply these which will force apply to the already activated backups. Or you can wait until Backup Radar automatically checks to update the backups waiting in "Activate Backups". Backup Radar will auto apply to the inactive backups every hour.
	The company rules have been applied

Part 1 - The configuration

To edit the template configuration click the icon.

*Name: Whatever you wish to name your template

*Device Type: Assign the appropriate device type (this field is populated by your PSA integration, if this drop down is empty you can create a new device type by typing in your new device type then selecting it from the dropdown below.)

Backup Categories: This is optional

Tags: Tags are also optional but are very valuable for sorting and grouping backups. Tags can be used to include or exclude in filters on Dashboards, reports, audit, ticketing etc.

Status Calculation: This is how Backup Radar decides how to summarize the "daily status" when that backup receives multiple results in the same day.

• Last Status Received: The last status Backup Radar receives will determine the entire status for that day. This is useful when the backups run multiple times a day but you only care about the last result being a success.
• Default: If there is a mix of statuses, the status for the entire day will result in a warning. This is used when you want to ensure you have all backups throughout the day.

*Schedules: Set the appropriate schedule cadence for when the job is actually scheduled. This is how Backup Radar decided when to flag a backup as "No Result". If the backup is scheduled 5 days a week M-F, but you leave it on daily, you will get "No Results" on Saturday and Sunday when the job should not actually run. If the default schedules don't suit your needs you can create a custom schedule from the Manage Schedules page. 

*Start of Business Day: This field allows you to reset boundary time when today rolls over to tomorrow. By default it is midnight, but when you have backup jobs that start after midnight you may want those results to appear on the previous day. 

For example if the current day is the 10th, and your backup job runs tonight after midnight, say 2am. 2am is technically the 11th. If you want to consider this backup a 10th backup (because its data from the 10th business day) you could set "Start of Business Day" to a time that falls after that backup time but before the backups for the following day begin. You may want to add a bit of a buffer too just incase the backup is delayed. (Most backups report to us the start time not the end time of backup) 

Treat Warning as Success: Use with caution, this will force any warning to appear as a success. 

No Result Threshold: By default Backup Radar expects a result at least once each day it is scheduled. This allows you to suppress the "No Result" status for a period of time (days). This should not be used to fix a schedule issue. If the backup is not actually scheduled to run on a specific day please adjust the schedule accordingly. 

For example, you may have workstation / laptop backups scheduled for M-F, but it's not uncommon for someone to be on vacation and never open their laptop. Backup Radar would be warning you of "No Results". This may not be something you actually want to be notified of just yet.

You can use the "No Result Threshold" to hold off the "No Result" status for a number of days before it becomes a true problem to you. Say 10 days.

This means Backup Radar won't set the backups to "No Result" until 10 days from the last time we received a result. (This is 10 calendar days, not 10 scheduled days)

Alert on Failure: Do not use this as your default ticketing/email notifications. Please see ticketing rules instead. 

Alert on failure is intended to be used for backups that run multiple times a day where you want to be notified of failures the same day as you progress through the day. It allows you to enable ticketing and/or email notifications. As well as set a threshold to only notify after x number of failures. You can optionally require these to be x number of sequential failures.

Part 2 - The Rules

Rule Attributes and Operator options

*We support Acronis, Axcient RMC, Datto BCDR, and MSP Backup (Cove). If you have a backup method (or API keys for an existing backup metadata integration) we don't currently support, see Submitting Product Ideas to the ScalePad team for instructions on submitting your request to us.

Rule Configuration

Much like the company rules, the template rules allow you to designate a set of rules to determine which backups should be applied this particular template. You will want to design your rules in a way to prevent conflicts where multiple templates are trying to absorb the same backup. 

Templates offers an additional attribute of Company. This can be defined individually in the rules like every other rule attribute, additionally companies can be defined right at the top of the rules page. Here you can mass select multiple companies this template would be applied to. There are invisible "OR" between each company in the top companies box, then there is an invisible "AND" between it and the rules defined below.

Here is a common example for a Datto Screenshot template rule. 
This rule apply the "Datto Screenshot" template to backups with the company of "BR" OR "Backup Radar" AND Backup Method of Datto API and Job Name ends with Screenshot.

Testing your rule

Once you have built out your rule as you see fit it is recommended to test your logic against your backup list. This will look at all of your already activated backups, and backups waiting in the "Activate Backups" screen. 

The test screen will display any backups matching your rule. It will also indicate if there already is a template assigned to the backups. This is helpful to ensure you are not creating rules that are too generic where it could be creating conflicts with other template rules. The enabled column will tell you if the backup is already activated or waiting to be activated.

Saving your rule

After you save your rule, it will begin to be used to activate backups waiting in the "Activate Backups" screen. Your templates will be applied hourly against any backups sitting in the "Activate Backups" screen. 

You must click "Apply Changes" to apply your templates to backups that have already been activated. 

Analyze and apply rules

When you are ready to apply your templates to the backups you have already activated you will press the "Apply Changes" button on the Templates page. 

Apply Changes first analyzes all of your rules to ensure there are not any conflicts where more than one template is fighting over the same backup. You will have a screen popup listing all backups to be affected by your template assignment. By default this screen will hide all backups which have already been applied, you can view everything by toggling the switch in the top right corner. 

Each template will be contained in its own collapsible section. You will be presented with a summary indicating the following:

• The number of backups that are moving from one template to another (or no template to a template)
• The number of backups in conflict 
• The total number of backups to be assigned 

When you expand a template section you can see each backup to be affected and specifically which backups are in conflict. The enabled column will indicate if the backup is already activated, or if it will become activated when you apply the template.

Pressing apply will write the changes to the specified backups, linking them to their respective templates outlined on this summary. 

If a template has any conflicts that template will not be applied. The status for that template will become "conflict" and you will need to sort out your rules before that template can be applied to any backups.