Backup retention

[Mgamerz]

I was talking with my parent office who is considering using Veeam agents to cover their end user systems like we do. My boss asked me how retention works when I was showing him the page where you tell it how many restore points to keep - in my case, the last 90 days of backups, excluding days the system was off (no backup taken). I told him after 90 days' that could be restored to (e.g. backup every two days would mean I have backups going back 180 days ago, spaced every two days). He asked how retention works on that, once you hit that point, does it start pruning the old ones off? And what happens if a system drops out of AD or stops backing up, how are those backups cleared? Do you have to do them all manually?

I did not know the answer, so I though I would ask here. Looking at backup folders in our repo also makes me wonder if I replace a system, e.g. I rebuild it with same name - say for example after a windows OS upgrade that I had to reformat system for - does the "Keep last X amount of days" apply to this new system with the old chain or does it form a whole new chain? How are old backups deleted if the chain is renewed? From filesystem naming it seems every system has a GUID assigned and inside of that guid is the hostname. So I assume a system being fully reformatted (not restored) would make a whole new independent backup chain. I am not sure if this consumes a license when this occurs.

[Vitaliy S.]

He asked how retention works on that, once you hit that point, does it start pruning the old ones off? And what happens if a system drops out of AD or stops backing up, how are those backups cleared? Do you have to do them all manually?

Retention kicks in when a restore point is created. If your Agent was idle all the time, backup files will not be deleted. Here is a bit more info on how retention policy works for a Workstation agent: Retention Policy in Free and Workstation Editions

if I replace a system, e.g. I rebuild it with same name - say for example after a windows OS upgrade that I had to reformat system for - does the "Keep last X amount of days" apply to this new system with the old chain or does it form a whole new chain?

Depending on how you rebuild your OS (just an update or complete re-install with hardware refresh), the new backup chain will be created or the existing one will be continued.

How are old backups deleted if the chain is renewed? From filesystem naming it seems every system has a GUID assigned and inside of that guid is the hostname. So I assume a system being fully reformatted (not restored) would make a whole new independent backup chain. I am not sure if this consumes a license when this occurs.

Yes, in that case, there will be a new backup chain, and you will need to remove old backups manually. The license key is assigned to an Agent, so there will be no license consumption for the second time.

Hope this helps!