About Retention Policy Settings in Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365

[m.kan]

I would like to inquire about the retention policy settings in Veeam Backup for M365.

Is it possible to change the retention period after completing the initial setup of the backup repository?
We are considering using Veeam Backup for M365 to backup SharePoint Online files, and we plan to use S3 storage for the backup repository.

However, the retention period has not been decided for our project. So, we would like to initially configure the retention policy to "Keep forever" and modify it later once the retention period is finalized. Would this be possible?

If it is possible, I have an additional question regarding the behavior.
For example, let’s assume we initially configure the retention policy to "Keep forever" and start backup the data. The retention type for this backup is snapshot-based retention.
If we backup data and three years later change the retention period to two years, will the backup restore points from three years ago be deleted, while the restore points from the last two years remain available?

I would appreciate your clarification on this matter.

[Mildur]

Hello Mugisuke

However, the retention period has not been decided for our project. So, we would like to initially configure the retention policy to "Keep forever" and modify it later once the retention period is finalized. Would this be possible?

Yes, you can modify from "Keep Forever" to a specific retention period.

If we backup data and three years later change the retention period to two years, will the backup restore points from three years ago be deleted, while the restore points from the last two years remain available?

Yes, the retention process will remove outdated restore points based on the updated retention policy. It runs on a schedule (daily or monthly) and will remove all restore points that exceed the specified retention period.

May I ask if you are planning to use immutability? Immutability is not available for "Keep Forever" repositories. Additionally, immutability cannot be enabled on existing repositories. If you want to have immutable backups, you need to start with it right away.

Furthermore, with immutable repositories, there are limitations when changing the retention period. It's not possible to change the retention period for repositories used for backup copy jobs. Also, you cannot reduce the retention period if you have specified immutability settings to "For the entire duration of their retention policy"; in such cases, you can only extend the retention period.

Best,
Fabian

[m.kan]

Hello Fabian,

Thank you for your response!

May I ask if you are planning to use immutability? Immutability is not available for "Keep Forever" repositories. Additionally, immutability cannot be enabled on existing repositories. If you want to have immutable backups, you need to start with it right away.

Since we are not planning to use immutability, we are thinking of setting it to "Keep Forever."

If possible, I would like to ask an additional question.
Is it possible to manually delete past backups while the retention period is set to "Keep forever"?
For example, after three years from the initial backup, we would like to keep only the most recent backup and delete all older backup. Would this be possible?

[Polina]

Hi Mugisuke,

Deleting certain restore points is not possible. You can only delete from a repository the entire backup for a specific object (i.e. delete all backup data for a specific mailbox, site, etc.).