Backup copy advice

[t481]

Hi,
I'm looking to use backup copy to change the retention period for backups.

Here are the requirements:
Daily backups retained for 14 days (14 restore points) - This is done by the main backup job
Weekly backups on Saturday retained for 4 weeks (weekly backups) - Backup copy 1
1 Monthly backup retained for 6 months (Monthly backups) - Backup copy 1

I have to say the interface isn't very intuitive. I've created a backup copy job (Backup copy 1 as above), changed the restore points to 2 (I have no idea what this is for and why it can't be 1 if my intention is to keep 1 copy of the weekly and monthly copies), ticked "Keep the following restore points for archival purposes" then changed weekly to 4 on Saturday and the monthly to 6 on the last Saturday of the month.

Is the above correct for what I'm trying to achieve?

[PTide]

Hi,

I've created a backup copy job (Backup copy 1 as above), changed the restore points to 2

You should setup it to 14 if you want to keep 14 daily restore pointsin your main backup copy chain.

ticked "Keep the following restore points for archival purposes" then changed weekly to 4 on Saturday and the monthly to 6 on the last Saturday of the month.

Yes, all is correct here. Please also check this article for more info about backup copy job GFS retention (the one which is used for weekly and monthly fulls).

Thanks

[t481]

Thanks @PTide for your swift reply.

The main backup job is set to 14 days so the daily backups are already retained for 14 days. Why would the copy need to be set to 14? I'm confused!

Also, why does the backup job run daily? "Copy every xxx "

I'll check the article you referenced. Many thanks

[foggy]

changed the restore points to 2 (I have no idea what this is for and why it can't be 1 if my intention is to keep 1 copy of the weekly and monthly copies

This is a regular chain retention and the minimum setting here is 2 due to transform implementation (having additional restore point ensures at least one restore point remains valid in case of incremental backup failure).

[PTide]

The main backup job is set to 14 days so the daily backups are already retained for 14 days. Why would the copy need to be set to 14? I'm confused!

Backup copy job does not simply copy the original backup to the destination but copies changes only X times a day (X is the number that you specify on the first step of backup copy job settings). If you choose to create backup once a day with 14 days retention and setup backup copy job to sync once a day with retention of 20 days then you'll have 20 restore points in the backup copy job chain. Please take a look at this article too.

Also, why does the backup job run daily? "Copy every xxx "

Not sure if I got the question right, did you mean backup copy job? If so then you can set the interval to 2 days if you need the job to sync with its source once in two days.

Thanks