Backup Retention

[parvez_khp]

Retention specified in the Backup Job should be higher than the Immutability retention why?

[Gostev]

Otherwise it will keep failing to delete still-immutable backups

[parvez_khp]

Dear Gostev,

Thanks for your reply.

Can you please explain it by giving an example?

[Gostev]

Well... if you put money in a safe and give a trusted person the key with instructions to bring it back to you after 10 days, then obviously you wouldn't be able to retrieve your money after only 7 days have passed, right? As you won't have the key for 3 more days.

In this example, 10 days is the "Immutability period" for your money. They will be safe from everyone for this period of time, but "everyone" includes yourself.

While 7 days is the "Retention period" for your money: the time you actually wanted to retain your money in a safe before being able to take them back.

As you can see, not coordinating these two values creates an obvious problem. And just like you're unable to take your money, Veeam is unable to delete a backup that is already due to be deleted. This is why you don't want your Immutability period to ever exceed your Retention period. While the other way around is fine, of course.