Retention Policy

[schon-weg]

Hi guys,

I just need a bit help, how to plan the retention policy with weekly fullbackups.

I am using the free version of veeam agent for windows.

The computer I want to backup mostly runs only from monday - friday, so having 5 restore points would be perfectly fine. If I use the configuration wizard with default settings, only changing the backup time and the retention policy to 5 should be perfectly fine I guess.

Am I correct that veeam will perform a full-backup at the first run, then incremental until it is reaching the 6th restore point. But what is happening then?

For example, retention policy set to 5, backup time at 9.
Monday veeam creates full backup.
Tue, wed, thursday, friday will be all incremental
Weekend the computer is shut down.
Monday - whats happening here?

The last Monday backup should be obsolete by now, but it cannot be deleted because the incremental backups would be useless. Does veeam now merge the last monday full backup with the tuesday incremental backup? And will there only be one new incremental backup again?

Sorry if it's rather complicated understanding me.

Thanks a lot.

Regards

[Dima P.]

Hello and welcome to the community schon-weg.

Am I correct that veeam will perform a full-backup at the first run, then incremental until it is reaching the 6th restore point. But what is happening then?

Yes, if you are running the forever incremental backup mode (without periodic fulls enabled). At 6 restore point the oldest incremental backup is going to be merged into full backup. Check this Help Center article to know more about retention logic.

[DGrinev]

In the scenario with weekly full backups on Mondays you will get 2 weeks of backup files ((1 full followed by 4 increments) x 2), so on Monday of week 3 when the third Full will be delivered, the backup chain of week 1 will be deleted. Thanks!

[schon-weg]

Thanks a lot guys.

Appreciate your help

[DGrinev]

Schon,

I'm sorry, I was mistaken, in case the retention is set to 5 the backup chain of week 1 will be deleted right after the fifth increment of week 2 will appear. Thanks!

[schon-weg]

Thanks for clarification dgrinev,

If I set the retention policy to 7 instead of 5, rest is the same configuration (Monday full backup, rest incremental, Saturday and Sunday turned off pc) I have at least 3 full backups before the oldest fullback chain would be deleted?

Best regards

Edit: correction of some mistakes

[DGrinev]

Hi Schon,

That's correct.
When the sum of restore points will be equal to 7 (2nd week(1 full + 4 increments) + 3rd week(1 full + 1 increment) the backup chain of the first week will be deleted. Thanks!