Do full backups count towards retention time?

[william88]

Hi,

I scheduled a backup task that triggers every last day of the month. I want to keep 6 backup points/days. On this task I also set an active full every 1st Friday of each month.
Do Friday's full saves count towards the 6 points ?

Let me explain: if we take the example of today's date (09/09/2022 dd/MM/yyyy) if the weekly full backup on Friday counts, I will have 09/02/2022, 02/09/2022, 31/08/2022 (end of the month, this is this backup that interests me), 26/08/2022, 19/08/2022, 12/08/2022 in my backup. But what I would like to have is the last day of March, April, May, June, July, August.

If the full backup doesn't count towards retention, forget my question

Thank you

[foggy]

Hi William, a full backup is a separate restore point and is counted towards retention that is based on all the restore points in the chain. Thanks!

[william88]

Hi Alexander,

Thank you.
If I understand, with a full backup every Friday, I must add more retentions days to keep the last days of the last 6 months ?
6 months * 4 or 5 fridays + 6 points for the last days of month ? So ~30 days/points ?
Is there another way to get the backups I want other than disabling full backups?
Does it work the same for synthetic full backups ?

Thanks

[foggy]

You can schedule full to be created on the last day of the month and have 6 full restore points for the last 6 months (so basically each job run will be full) or involve GFS retention logic. Just keep in mind that each GFS restore point is also a full backup.

[william88]

Thank you, I had forgotten that the option "last day of the month" existed in active full backup schedule.
I've got questions about GFS :
- Can you confirm that the GFS does not make a new active full but only reuse the existing full backups of the job ?
- Is it the same result if I configure the job to backup at the end of the month, I choose to keep a single retention point, I check the "Keep monthly full backups for 6 months (last)" than if I keep 6 restore points without GFS ?
Thanks

[foggy]

Sorry, your answer flew under my radar.

- Can you confirm that the GFS does not make a new active full but only reuse the existing full backups of the job ?

For regular backup jobs, yes.

- Is it the same result if I configure the job to backup at the end of the month, I choose to keep a single retention point, I check the "Keep monthly full backups for 6 months (last)" than if I keep 6 restore points without GFS ?

Yes.

[william88]

Sorry, your answer flew under my radar.

No problem, thank you for your help.

Have a nice day