New Backup Format Retention Policy - Keep for 1 week HELP
  • WSpeed
    0
    Hi Team,
    We are running Hyper-V backups in the new format and the requirement is to always keep 1 week of backups.
    By checking the in-depths at the AWS S3 bucket, I can see that because of the way the new backup format works, instead of keeping 1 week, it's keeping 2 weeks.

    My understanding is that:
    GENERATION 3: week 1 - full backup runs, incremental runs.. until the weekend so
    GENERATION 2: week 2 - full backup runs, incremental runs.. until the weekend so
    GENERATION 1: week 3 - full backup runs, Generation 3 gets purged, incremental runs... until the weekend and so on.

    So instead of keeping backups for 1 week, we're actually keeping for 2 weeks.

    How can I accomplish such requirement with the new format for this Hyper-V Backup?

    Currently, we configured to keep backup for 1 week and fulls are scheduled every 1 week.

    My understanding of the new format is that I'm selecting to keep 1 week of generations... so we're always keeping 2 generations and when it starts the 3rd full backup, it purges the first one.

    Anyways, I thought to myself a way to achieve the 1 week requirement, but didn't find a way as it actually keeps 2 weeks and that consumes too much data on customer storage.

    Please advise.

    Best regards and thanks for the help in advance.
    WSpeed Options
  • David Gugick
    118
    ↪WSpeed
    I don't think the new backup format works differently than the legacy format in that regard. If you perform weekly fulls, and you need to keep 1 week of backups, then you'll always end up with two weeks in storage before the first backup set can be removed. Then you'll have 1 week in storage, building up to two weeks again until the next purge. The only way to change that would be to run fulls more frequently (not the best option for many). Are you seeing something different than what I'm describing?

    Also, please confirm your software version.
    David Gugick Options
  • WSpeed
    0
    Hi David, it's the latest Version 7.5.3.

    I understood your point.

    The thing is that as the retention policy now applies to the generation, so bottom line if check on the config to keep for 1 week, it's not that I'm going to keep 1 week of retention of files, it's regarding generation, so we need to do the math and it's misleading to customer.

    In order for me to always keep the last 7 days, I guess it's not possible to accomplish such requirement right?

    With the legacy format I would just set to keep 7 versions and run a daily backup.

    Please correct me if I'm wrong.

    As to running more frequent fulls, I don't think it's possible on the config, it allows only weekly and monthly.

    Cheers,
    WSpeed Options
  • David Gugick
    118
    ↪WSpeed
    With Image and VM backups, retention always applied to the backup set / generation. You mentioned you are performing Hyper-V backups. Those backups would consist of a Full and zero-to-many incremental backups. Together they are treated as a complete set since none of the backups can be removed without invalidating the set for further incremental use. This is no different between the legacy and new backup formats. Is it possible you were running daily full backups or were you running more than one backup a day?

    Can elaborate on what you would like to see so I understand better. What would you like to happen after you run 7 days' of backups and then on the 8th day, a new full is executed?

    The only way to ensure you always have 7 days' of backups for restore is to keep 7 days in storage at all times.

    I look forward to your reply.
    David Gugick Options
  • WSpeed
    0
    Can elaborate on what you would like to see so I understand better. What would you like to happen after you run 7 days' of backups and then on the 8th day, a new full is executed? — David Gugick

    Thinking on how the NBF is organized, I guess there won't be a way for me to accomplish this requirement.

    If I set a 1 week retention policy, after a while I will always have at least 2 Fulls + incrementals.
    Whenever the third full is ran, the oldest full + incrementals are removed due to the policy.

    Anyways, I guess that's how we need to cope with.

    Just to figure out on future cases to quote the amount of space for customer.

    Thanks David
    WSpeed Options
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