Long Term NAS Backup to Object

[gingerdazza]

We have a requirement to keep backups of NAS for 15 months. We are backing up to object storage. I believe NAS backup is forward forever incremental. So, is the right way to do this to just create a single backup job with 15 months of retention? Is such a long chain of incremental backups viable? Is there a better way?

[david.domask]

HI Dazza,

The backup format for Unstructured Data backup isn't the same as the usual VBK + VIB you're used to, it's best to understand it as a database-less database. It is "forever forward" in the sense that there is no equivalent of Reverse Incremental or Forward Incremental for the Unstructured Data backups, but the mechanism of the retention differs from the Forever Forward incremental you're thinking of.

Start with that article on How Unstructured Data Backup works and check the retention scenarios; very likely you will probably settle on keeping a more limited short term retention with the main job, then set an Archive Repository for your longer term archival copies, but there is no requirement to do it this way, there are quite a few options.