Backup Copy GFS Retention Policies

[maxse]

Our full backups are around 1TB (VBK). We are running a nightly backup for 30 nights and then once a month we run an active full backup. I am in the process of designing the backup copy job retention and have some questions maybe someone can help with.

We want to have about 1 year of retention but are ok with quarterly to save on storage space. How exactly should a GFS plan be configured best for this purpose? Is every weekly/monthly/quarterly/yearly a full VBK? If so it will definitely take up lots of space.

Is it possible to enable deduplication in Server 2012 to save on the VBK files or is this not going to help?

[DGrinev]

Hi,

GFS retention configuration depends on how many RPs do you need during quarter. You can keep only monthly RPs or add a few weekly RPs.

By the way there is a Restore point simulator for storage planning.

Is every weekly/monthly/quarterly/yearly a full VBK?

Yes.

Is it possible to enable deduplication in Server 2012 to save on the VBK files or is this not going to help?

Yes, it is possible. Please review this exiting topic for details: Best Practice for MS Server 2012 DeDup Repo

Thanks!

[maxse]

Thank You!