Retention Policy - How it's working?

[Dobble]

Hi,
Sorry for my english. It's a simple question

I set up deleting backups after 10 days
My backup is done every week

What happens when the backup fails?
Will the previous backup be deleted automatically after 10 days and I will stay without a backup?
Does the time (10 days) only start running from the next backup?

[wishr]

Hi Dobble,

To clarify, are you asking about object storage or what technology exactly?

Speaking about retention basics, I would recommend checking the KB1933 article and the corresponding user guide sections: Short-term retention policy, Removal of restore points.

Thanks

[Dobble]

I mean the Object Storage

[wishr]

Veeam retention is set on the job level, regardless of the repository type.

[Dobble]

Ok, so what will happen with my backup if the next one fails?
Will the previous backup be deleted automatically after 10 days and I will stay without a backup?

[wishr]

Your initial restore point will remain intact until the point when you get at least 4 restore points total.

From the aforementioned user guide:
"Mind the following for the daily retention policy:

The minimum number of retained restore points is 3. This number does not depend on the number of days set in the retention policy. For example, the retention policy is set to 5 days. You launch the job after it was stopped for 10 days. Normally, Veeam Backup & Replication would delete all previous restore points. However, due to the minimum number of retained restore points, you will still have at least 3 restore points: the newly created restore point and the two previous ones."

Thanks

[Dobble]

Really? So if my backup is 50 GB, I have to provide a minimum of 150 GB?

[wishr]

Yes. I would even recommend aiming to have at least 250GB in this case.

[veremin]

The object storage part got me interested - currently it's possible to use object storage as a Capacity Tier, which has fully replicated source backup chains (copy policy) or inactive backup chains only (move policy). Either way it will be retention policy configured for source backup job that will decide when it's time to delete data from both Performance and Capacity Tiers (Capacity Tier does not have its separate retention).

Also, the backup chain size estimation does look correct:

- locally you don't necessarily have to have space for three full backups, cause after the initial point the subsequent ones will be incremental (I assume you're not talking about creation of weekly full backups, are you?) thus occupying less space

- and in Capacity Tier we have forward forever mechanism that allows us to offload only blocks that are not already present on object storage.

Probably we can be of better help, if you can provide us with more details regarding source job (job schedule, full backups schedule, retention, etc.) and target repository configurations (repository type, applied policies, etc.)

Thanks!