[QUESTION] Configuration for daily and monthly retention

[JFernandes]

Hi everyone,

I need to have a 30-day retention for daily backups and keep a full backup for the last 5 months.

I set the Retention Policy to 30 days, enabled the option "Create active full backups periodically on" to "Monthly on: This day - last," and enabled the option "Keep certain full backups longer for archival purposes," selecting "Keep monthly full backups for: 5 months."

Is that correct?

I was unsure because in the description of the GFS policy, when I use the "Keep monthly full backups" option, it is stated that it will use the weekly full backups instead of the monthly full backups.

Configuration images:
https://imgur.com/a/KywQrLY

Thanks!!!

[Mildur]

Hello Jonathan

Welcome to the forum!

To create a GFS backups, you can either schedule synthetic or active full backups. Active full backups will always read all data from the source VM to generate a new full backup file. Synthetic full backups will only read changed or new data from the source VM while reusing data blocks from previous backups (full or incremental) stored in your repository to construct a new full backup file.

The type of full backup you choose may depend on your backup target. If you are using repositories with ReFS or XFS, it is advisable to use synthetic full backups to take advantage of fast and space-efficient backups through FastCloning. Active full backups, on the other hand, cannot utilize FastClone. Therefore, doing monthly active full backups on such repositories are expected to consume significantly more disk space compared to weekly synthetic full backups.

If you could share the type of repository you are using, I can try to provide a better recommendation to your specific backup infrastructure.

Best regards,
Fabian

[JFernandes]

Hi Fabian,

The repository I am using is the Veeam Data Cloud Vault.

[Mildur]

Hi Jonathan

Thank you.
Your screenshot has synthetic full in it. But synthetic full is not available for VDC Vault or any object storage repository.

For VDC Vault or other object storage repositories, just configure 30 days daily retention and GFS 5 months.
Active Full is not required and will only use a lot more storage.



Best,
Fabian

[JFernandes]

But if I don't select at least the Synthetic full, the message "Enable periodic fulls, or schedule a script to create them" is displayed.

Screenshot: https://imgur.com/a/oqCN2GQ

[JFernandes]

Sorry, I hadn't selected the Vault as the destination.

[Mildur]

Hello Jonathan

All good. When you select Vault, the message "Enable periodic fulls, or schedule a script to create them" will not be displayed.
I assume everything works as expected now? Just select how many monthly backups you want to keep. No need to schedule an active full.

Best,
Fabian