permanent full backup every month

[doberk]

hi,

I have configured a backup job with 5 VMs and 60 restore points. The job is configured to create a Full backup every sunday.

With this configuration I can restore any VM to any day of the two previous months. but I also would like to create a permanent full backup every month and maintain it.

¿How can I do it?

Thanks in advance

[foggy]

You can either offload the full backup once a month using some external tool or use backup copy job with GFS retention to keep monthly fulls. A third option would be to create a second backup job with the same VMs and a monthly schedule.

[doberk]

Thanks for reply, foggy

I have been taking a look about GFS retention and I think it is what I need. But just one more question:

I have configured a backup copy job and checked "keep the following restore points for archival porpuses", setting 12 monthly backup and 5 yearly backup. I am assuming this configuration will save one full backup per week and, after the year is completed, it will save a yearly backup and will continue saving monthly backups deleting olders. Is correct?

And, in this case, why does exist an opcion "restore points to keep"? What is the use?

Thanks a lot.

[foggy]

I have configured a backup copy job and checked "keep the following restore points for archival porpuses", setting 12 monthly backup and 5 yearly backup. I am assuming this configuration will save one full backup per week and, after the year is completed, it will save a yearly backup and will continue saving monthly backups deleting olders. Is correct?

With 12 monthly and 5 yearly restore points (assuming weekly is set to 0), you will have a separated VBK file for each month of the year and then yearly fulls also.

And, in this case, why does exist an opcion "restore points to keep"? What is the use?

This setting is for the main backup copy incremental chain (not GFS), which contains the first restore point as a full backup (VBK) and subsequent increments (VIB). Please review the corresponding user guide section for better understanding on how GFS retention works.

Thanks.

[doberk]

With 12 monthly and 5 yearly restore points (assuming weekly is set to 0), you will have a separated VBK file for each month of the year and then yearly fulls also.

Thanks for your reply. Yes, I want a separated VBK file for each month . I have scheduled a monthly full backup to do the latest wednesday, and it made it yesterday. But the size of VBK generated is only 16,5MB (it should be around 300GB). Have I forgot anything?

[foggy]

Do you see any warning/error messages in the backup copy job session log? Actually, if you've just created your backup copy job a couple of days ago, GFS retention should not take effect, since GFS restore points are created when the latest restore point in the chain (full backup) reaches the day specified for GFS restore point creation.