Some backups retention period not marked

[jmac75]

Hi,

I created a backup job specifically for running a final backup of a list of servers and set the retention appropriately for the job so backups would be retained for 10 years. The backup job ran successfully, but when i look at the backup properties, about half the backups do not have retention marked. Have half WMY and the rest are blank. Any suggestions how this would happen and if i can mark them somehow as WMY?

[Mildur]

Hello Justin

Welcome to the forum.
Those tags are GFS tags. The backup server will set them accordingly how you have configured your long term policy in the job settings. Unfortunately you cannot set a tag manually. We have it noted on our feature request for a future version, but no ETA when and in which version it may be released.

Did you have set in the backup job to keep yearly restore point for 10 years?

Long term retention policy in the backup job settings: https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=120
Long term retention policy: https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=120

Best,
Fabian

[tyler.jurgens]

Did you by chance have two backups for the same VM on the same day - one backup got marked as a GFS, one did not? Also, take a close look at the timestamps for those backups, did they land on the days you have set for your GFS retention (aka, did the backups run long?).

[david.domask]

Out of curiosity @jmac75, was there a specific reason for using a normal Backup job instead of something like VeeamZIP over the list of machines? You can set a default retention there if you really want, encrypt, etc.

The GFS algorithms sort of are designed assuming that the job is gonna run, but it is a bit strange some didn't get flagged while others did. I half expect if you exclude the VMs that did get the GFS point temporarily and run an active full, likely the remaining backups will be flagged as GFS, but I'd rather recommend VeeamZIP if you're going this route since I think it's closer to what you're aiming for.

If you really need it to be GFS and it doesn't work with the above, open a support case and share logs from that job: https://veeam.com/kb1832. Use the first radio option, select the job in question, and once the export completes, upload the logs to a case.

[jmac75]

After the job finished, it showed "Keeping 27 full backups from Tuesday, August 29, 2023 as Weekly, Monthly, Yearly GFS Restore point". So i deleted the job and deleted the VMs. As the job and VM's are gone, no option to export job logs or rerun. Its only just now i've noticed the GFS tags missing. Seems the best option might be to restore them all and then run VeeamZip instead. If there's no way of ensuring the retention period will be followed for those not tagged as WMY.

[david.domask]

Hi @jmac75, there is one option to avoid more backups

Export Backup for the non-GFS points: https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=120 You can set a retention (for some reason max is 7 years), or just leave retention off and manually clear the files when you no longer need them. Maybe make a "dummy" repository with a description like "Delete in 10 Years" or something to that effect