GFS question and retention change on an already active job

[merku]

Hello,
I would like to understand some things related to retention and GFS on some Fileserver backups we set up a year ago.
We currently have two jobs (same configuration with different VMs inside them) configured as follows:

-Veeam Backup & Replication 10 (build 10.0.1.4854)
-Backup on Scaleout with and Object Storage IBM which moves data older than 15 days
-Retention Policy 365 days
-Active FULL (Last Wednesday of every month)
-Schedule Every day at 19:30
-NO GFS activated

So now I have on Object Storage (IBM) with all the FULL and INCREMENTAL created in a year for the servers included in those jobs (5 VMs).

Our customer's request has changed and asks us this:

1) Make monthly full and activate GFS that protects the FULL point for 12 months
2) Have the ability to have all restore points go back 90 days (3 months)

The questions are:

1) Is it possible to do this using the original jobs we used before, but without losing the ability to restore until a year ago?
2) If I need to have two other jobs that have GFS enabled, how can I make sure that the old jobs continue to regularly expire backups according to 365 days retention?

I also opened a call to support (Case #04797520)

Thanks all

[Gostev]

Hello, yes this is possible. First, you need to activate GFS with 12 monthly for the job, and let it continue with this new retention policy. Then every month, after the monthly GFS full creation, you can reduce daily retention in the job settings by 30 days (up until you're finally down to 90 days). Or you can just do it once after 270 days (less work for you, by temporarily more backup storage consumed). Thanks!

[merku]

Hi Gostev,
thanks for the quick reply.
In your opinion, is it possible to automate this with some powershell script?

Thank you

[merku]

another doubt about it:

1) Is it necessary to launch a FULL or just do an incremental?
2) If I have to do a FULL and don't want to upload it to Object Storage, can I manually delete it before 15 days?

Thanks

[Gostev]

Hello!

1. Full will be created automatically according to your existing schedule for those (last Wednesday of every month), so I see no sense of triggering it manually?

2. You can delete all but the most recent full backup. Older GFS full backups are not a part of the incremental chain so nothing depends on them, thus they can be deleted freely.

Thanks!

[merku]

Sorry Gostev,
I didn't understand that you are recommending me to use the original jobs that I am already using.
Support recommends that I disable the old jobs and use two new ones (with GFS enable).
However, every month I would have to lower the retention and run the two old jobs to delete the old versions from Object Storage.
It seems a bit forced as a procedure to me.

Thank you!

[Gostev]

Well, the good news is that it does not happen very often (businesses requiring major changes around their data retention policies). Making an existing retention policy longer or shorter would have been super easy, but completely re-designing it after all restore points have already been created according to the original policy is of course not so easy.

[merku]

Hello, yes this is possible. First, you need to activate GFS with 12 monthly for the job, and let it continue with this new retention policy. Then every month, after the monthly GFS full creation, you can reduce daily retention in the job settings by 30 days (up until you're finally down to 90 days). Or you can just do it once after 270 days (less work for you, by temporarily more backup storage consumed). Thanks!

Hello,
since I already use an active full every month in the backup job (and I don't want to change the execution date) I should use the Yearly GFS cycle set to 1 year, correct?

[Gostev]

You did not note any requirements around yearly GFS backups retention in your first post. Based on the requirements posted above, you should not touch Yearly GFS policy setting at all. Only Monthly GFS setting should be activated, and set to 12 months.

[merku]

ok, sorry but my doubts come from what I read in the link: https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=110 in the Monthly GFS cycle section talks about protected weekly backups for X months. So in this case I leave my backups with active full backups periodically monthly and active GFS monthly enabled. My fear is to have two full backups in the same month, one created from active full backups and one created by GFS. In this case what should I choose? First or Last?

Thanks again

[Gostev]

I think you're not reading the link correctly... as far as I can see, the Monthly GFS cycle section talks about the retention policy for monthly - not weekly backups. It references weekly backups only to explain the logic behind selecting which weekly full backup will be designated as Monthly.

I don't expect Backup Copy job to create additional full backups to be used as monthly when you already have a periodic monthly full backup scheduled. It would be an invalid behavior on our end to create another full in such configuration. On the other hand, I cannot know if your scenario was specifically tested, as it's quite rare for customers who require GFS retention not have weekly full backups scheduled, and most of the testing is done in more typical configurations.

[merku]

Consider that I have to make the change to two jobs:

1) Full active backup on the second Wednesday of the month
2) Full active backup on the last Wednesday of the month

In this case when I activate the GFS and choose "Keep Monthly full backup for: 12 months" how should I set the "Use weekly full backup for the following week of a months" option? First or Last?

[Gostev]

Picking Last is a safer choice I think, as this should ensure that there will already be a full backup created and available to be marked as Monthly, so it should prevent the creation of another full. Normally it should not be created in any case, but as I've said I can't know if your scenario was explicitly tested. We can ask QC to test your scenario to be absolutely sure, but they won't do it instantly as there's a pipeline of tasks like that.

[merku]

Thanks Gostev for the patience,
in the meantime I activate the GFS Monthly by choosing Last and see what happens. If possible ask QC to test my scenario even though I know it will take some time

I may have found the correct link explaining how the Monthly GFS works and what Last meanse exatcly:

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=110