Configuration of Immutable Backupcopys to Datadomain

[halllowien]

Hello,

i have a Question for Immutable Backupcopys to Datadomain.
As i understand the Immutable days have to be set in the Repo.

If i set the Repo to 30 Days immutable and the Job to 7 days, will the Backupfile be Immutable for 30 days or 7 days?
If it is Immutable for 30 days, how will Veeam do retention for this?

in addition is there a possibility to don't make the GFS immutable? as i understand veeam will Change the Immutable value for GFS to the longest Possible value from Datadomain.
If i delete the Backup/Backupcopy job, does Veeamchange this date too or only if the Job runs?
(example i have a GFS with one year and Immutable with 30 Days and Datadomain range between 15 and 60 days, veeam says in documentation that it will change the date to a newer one)

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... mutability

"If the long-term retention period configured in Veeam Backup & Replication is greater than the maximum retention period configured in Dell Data Domain, Veeam Backup & Replication keeps backups immutable for the period configured in the Veeam Backup & Replication settings but resets the expiration of the backup immutability flag during each job run. While the actual number of days that the backup must be kept immutable is greater than the maximum, Veeam Backup & Replication sets the expiration period equal to the maximum."

Greets
halllowien

[Dynamic]

Hi halllowien,
i have such an environment at a customer site.

Keep in mind, the only option with a DataDomain is Retention Lock in Compliance Mode!

And you have to configure the min- and max- retention on the DD for example by this CLI command:
• mtree retention-lock set min-retention-period 56day mtree /data/col1/VeeamBackup
• mtree retention-lock set max-retention-period 185day mtree /data/col1/VeeamBackup

My customer needs a Retention at a minimum of 56 days (short term) and a maximum of 6 months (set by GFS). In my scenario both the Retention within the job, and the immutability is set to 56days.
But if you would set the retention within the job, for example to 7 days (as you mentioned) the Files are still immutable for 56 days!

And from my site, no your GFS backups would be also immutable for the entire duration - i don't see any option (or reason) why they shouldn't be aware of the immutability feature.
If you want some GFS points, which are not immutable - you propably should go with another mtree on your DD (which are not retention locked).

Hope i could help you with your request.
Best, Markus

[halllowien]

Hello Markus,

thank you verry much for your quick and detailed answer!

do you have tested that your GFS are Immutable after 57 Days?

Greets
halllowien

[Dynamic]

Hi halllowien,

no Problem
This can help you as well: https://www.veeam.com/kb4501

My GFS backup sets are around 6 months immutable.. wasn’t that easy to handle it, after the customer has more new data, that was in our sizing and the DD itself was running out of space

Best, Markus

[halllowien]

Hello Markus,

thank you for this artikle, i have problems to understand this correct because:

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=120

"If the long-term retention period configured in backup job settings lies outside the range between the minimum and maximum retention periods configured in Dell Data Domain, the immutability period for backups with GFS flags is set equal to the nearest range value. For example, if the backup is stored for 1 year, but the range for immutability in Dell Data Domain is set to from 2 to 6 months, the backups will be immutable for 6 months."

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... mutability

"If the long-term retention period configured in Veeam Backup & Replication is greater than the maximum retention period configured in Dell Data Domain, Veeam Backup & Replication keeps backups immutable for the period configured in the Veeam Backup & Replication settings but resets the expiration of the backup immutability flag during each job run. While the actual number of days that the backup must be kept immutable is greater than the maximum, Veeam Backup & Replication sets the expiration period equal to the maximum."

Does this say if i have 2 Years of GFS, 2 Years of GFS are Immutable or does this say, it is immutable as Long as the Immutable Value of the Backup Storage (where i can configure the days of immutablity).

Greets and Thx
halllowien

[foggy]

As mentioned, Veeam B&R 'resets the expiration of the backup immutability flag during each job run', moving the period forward to the '2 years' moment so to speak. It will be doing so until reaching the date you want the backup file to be immutable, so in the end your backup will be immutable for the exact period specified in the job (2 years in your example).

[halllowien]

Hello foggy,

thank you, that means that gfs ignores the Immutable config from repository and Datadomain and gfs is immutable for the whole configuration of GFS (Weeks/Months/Years).

Greets
halllowien

[foggy]

Well, it doesn't ignore it completely - as it is not able to set the required period right away due to the value configured on the array. But it uses a 'workaround' described above to deliver what you're after.

[Dynamic]

Thanks foggy for your explanation.
Do you have some questions left, halllowien? If you need some advice regards to the DataDomain configuration, just ping me.

[halllowien]

Thank you all

@foggy with "gfs ignores the Immutable config from repository and Datadomain" i try to say that it will be longer Immutable as set on the Repository (for the FUll time of retentions)