Legitimate GFS schedule?

[ejenner]

I set this up a few months ago but was looking at it again today and was wondering about the following:

1. is it a good configuration or a bad one
2. what effect will it have on use of storage
3. what would I be able to restore after 18 months of running this schedule

[Shestakov]

Hello,
It's hard to say of it's a good configuration. That depends on your goal. I see nothing critical.
In 18 months you will have 1 full backup, 94 increments in regular chain. Plus 4 full backups: End of March, End of June, End of September, End of December. The last one will be marked as both Yearly and Quarterly.
Thanks

[ejenner]

So 5 full backups on storage in total over that time period? Would ReFS deduplication and other space saving features reduce the amount of space used for the 5 full backups?

Am I correct in thinking you could restore any day from the first quarter from a combination of incremental and full. Then if you had to go back further it would jump one quarter back at a time?

If that's a correct understanding, is there a more space efficient way to achieve the same thing?

[veremin]

So 5 full backups on storage in total over that time period?

Correct.

Would ReFS deduplication and other space saving features reduce the amount of space used for the 5 full backups?

Correct, use this tool for more precise estimations.

Am I correct in thinking you could restore any day from the first quarter from a combination of incremental and full.

Correct.

Then if you had to go back further it would jump one quarter back at a time?

Correct.

Is there a more space efficient way to achieve the same thing?

It looks like you've chosen the right and efficient strategy to cover your needs.

Thanks!

[Shestakov]

I would suggest to consider shorter regular chain with monthly backups on Sundays.

[ejenner]

Wouldn't that increase the number of full backups I'd have to store?

[Shestakov]

It will. If you set number of monthly backups to 3, you will have 2 more full backups (3rd will be de-duplicated by quarterly backup). But with shorter regular chain the total backup size will be less. But it's up to you, current plan is also decent.

[foggy]

And with ReFS these fulls will be spaceless anyway.