Increasing local retention V9.5.4

[Wayneywoo]

Hi all,

New to Veeam, can't afford the time to read and understand.

Customer currently has v9.5.4 - reverse incremental with 14 restore points, daily backup.

How could I achieve, in addition to this, a restore point from 30 days (1 month) and 60 days (2 months) so in total we have 2 weeks (dailies) and 2 months all kept locally?

Appreciate the help!
Thanks

[Egor Yakovlev]

Hi Wayne.

Quick and easy way:
- create a Backup copy job with GFS - Monthly - 2 set

"The right" way(aka in customer's best interest):
- Upgrade to VBR v11
- Switch to Forever forward incremental mode, unless customer has _very_ specific reasons to stick with Reversed mode
- Use built-in Job GFS added with v10, just tick "Keep certain backups longer..." and select "Keep monthly full for 2 months"

/Cheers!

[Wayneywoo]

Hi Egor,

Thank you very much for the quick reply!

I read briefly and understood Reverse Incremental (being injected in to last full, more I/O load) vs Forever forward less I/O (however, how does forever forward handle retention? Does it inject the oldest to be removed incremental in to the full?)

and also, off the top of your head, what with "us" being the experts to dictate to the customer the best BDR method, what 'might' be a very specific reason?

Very much appreciated!

[Egor Yakovlev]

- We have a wonderful KB article with animated retentions explained in detail per mode. Yes, Forever forward mode does auto injection of latest increment into full. With 14 restore points set in the job you will have Full backup followed by 13 most recent incremental backups, with retention applied on each run(as new 15th incremental appears, Full backup will be merged with oldest incremental in the chain).
- Main reason pro Reversed is that latest backup is a Full, so technically its easier to restore from, however nowadays it's restore performance is way too close to restore from forward incremental chain. All the downsides of Reversed mode(like heavier IO requirement) pretty much kill the entire idea of using it. Some people like Reversed due to simple retention understanding "what you see is what you get" - they remember old fashioned Forward Incremental with restore points confusion and don't read on how Forever Forward Incremental works. Some people argument pro Reversed due to the need of periodic Full backups on Tape, which required a Full backup on disk - however that one was addressed with "Tape Virtual Full" functionality quite a while ago too.

/Cheers!