Apply-VBRIndependentRetention used for imported backups

[n.kretschmar]

Hi all,

We do have a lot of, mostly "imported", some "orphaned", restore points, located on StoreOnce appliances, on their Catalysts or CIFS stores. The linked backup jobs are deleted over time, as we migrated the performance tiers to SOBRs, in conjunction with object storages. At this time of deletion, I guess depending on the VBR version, the written backups are flagged as imported (v10) and later as orphaned (v11).

With v12 is this great features to apply retention policies, even for backups without the original job. Which sounds quite good for cleaning repositories.
Appearantly, this is working for the "orphant" restore points but not for the "imported" ones.

Any idea, how to get the "imported" restore points treated like the "orphaned"?
PS: At least in the UI for the imported ones, I see GFS related information like "R", "W", "M", "Y" at VBKs with a lot of VIBs. So the information how to treat these, is basically there.

Regards,

Nico

[david.domask]

Hi @n.kretschmar,

Correct, the Background Retention works on the Backups > Disk (Orphaned) node as per the User Guide:

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... on&ver=120

Limitations

The background retention does not apply to the following backups:

Backups stored on backup repositories with rotated drives.
Backups stored in the archive tiers of scale-out backup repositories.
Backups stored in the capacity tier.
Imported backups.
....

What you might try is temporarily mapping a dummy job to such imported backups, then delete the job or detach the backup from the job: https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=120

Unfortunately, this will be a manual process at this time :/

[n.kretschmar]

Hi @david.domask,

thanks for the quick reply.

I just had a look, and here the feedback:
- To be able to map the backup copies to a job, I need to create a backup copy job
- There is the new need of upgrading the backup copy chain from a legacy backup copy to an image level job
- As all source backups are in remote sites, I would need to attach a real backup job or repository to the dummy job, which appears to be unnessary for my original goal
- For some of the backup copy backups, we haven't anymore a source backup, as the site may be closed
- I'm afraid, the suggestion doesn't help in this way

Please advise.

Regards,

Nico

[david.domask]

Hi @n.kretschmar

I was afraid this might be the situation.

Regrettably, I don't think you're going to be able to utilize the Background Retention then. And I strongly advise against .NET Methods/Reflection to work around it, this can get pretty nasty if we go unsupported routes.

I'm afraid not really possible at this time then. The proposed solution would be the only way, but I understand it's not really feasible for you. So probably, it's best to just manually manage the retention for now.

[n.kretschmar]

Hi @david.domask,

anyway, thanks for the effort and time spent on this topic!

Regards,

Nico