Backup Settings

Using the Backup settings, you can automate snapshots creation. You can find detailed information on snapshots and how to work with them in Working with snapshots .

To edit these settings, do the following:

1. Open the Virtual Machine menu or Alt-click (Option-click) the Parallels icon in the Mac menu bar (in the Crystal view mode) and click Configure .
2. In the Virtual Machine Configuration window, click Options and select these settings name in the sidebar.

Note: When your virtual machine is paused, snapshots cannot be created.

Setting the Time Interval

Backing up with Time Machine

If you are using Time Machine for backing up your Mac, you may exclude the virtual machine from the Time Machine backups by selecting the Do not back up virtual machine option. Time Machine backups may decrease the performance of your virtual machine when it is running in parallel with the Time Machine backup. When your virtual machine is not running (when it is stopped or suspended), the Time Machine backups do not affect it in any way.

For more information about backing up your virtual machines, refer to Backing Up a Virtual Machine .

Automating Snapshots Creation

The SmartGuard functionality allows you to automate snapshots creation.

Note: SmartGuard is available only when the Undo Disks feature is disabled and the virtual machine is not running in Safe Mode .

To enable SmartGuard, click the SmartGuard menu and choose one of the following:

• Optimize for Time Machine . If you select this option, a snapshot will be taken every 24 hours. Time Machine, when backing up your Mac, will not back up the entire virtual machine, but only its latest snapshot. This allows you to reduce the amount of data that Time Machine backs up, to reduce the time Time Machine spends backing up the virtual hard disk(s), and to minimize the risk of data loss or corruption when restoring the virtual machine hard disk(s) from the Time Machine backup.
• Custom . If you select this option, you will be able to manually set the snapshots frequency and maximum number of snapshots to keep.

If you want to know when it is time to make the next snapshot and to be able to reject the snapshot creation, enable the Notify me before snapshot creation option.

Setting the Snapshots Frequency

Set how often snapshots should be made in the Take a snapshot every field. You can set from one to 48 hours.

If the time interval is less than 24 hours, SmartGuard will allow you to restore the latest hourly, daily and weekly snapshot. If the time interval is more than 24 hours, you will be able to restore the latest daily, weekly and monthly snapshot.

To manage the snapshots and restore any of them, use Snapshot Manager .

Restricting the Snapshots Number

Use the Snapshots to keep field to set the maximum number of snapshots that can be stored on your Mac. The maximum available value is 100 snapshots. As soon as Snapshots Manager reaches the limit for snapshots and needs to make a new one over limit, it deletes the oldest snapshot.

If you want to prevent Virtual Machine Configuration from unauthorized changes, click the Lock icon at the bottom of the window. The next time someone wants to change the settings in any pane of Virtual Machine Configuration, an administrator's password will be required.