GFS and short-term retention policy

[scrat]

Hi, I'm sure this question has already been asked, but I can't find the solution, not even in the Veeam documentation.

Do backups with a GFS flag (Y, M or W) count towards the retention period? I mean, if I set up 12 days of retention and I have 12 daily (with Shyntetic Full once a week) and 10 weekly, which option would be saved?

A) GFS counts in the retention:
6 daily (half, since a Shyntetic Full is done every week).
10 weekly

B) GFS does not count in the retention:
12 daily
10 weekly

I know that GFS backups are not deleted by the short-term retention policy, my question is whether they count in the sum of days.

Thank you very much!
Best regards.

[Mildur]

Hi scrat

my question is whether they count in the sum of days.

GFS Backups are not counted for the short term retention. That's why they are documented under Long Term Retention in the guide. You will see Option B, but with 12-14 daily restore points.
One exception, a weekly backups counts toward the short term retention days, if it's within the short term retention period. But they don't get deleted after the short term retention is over, if they still are flagged as weekly and gfs retention is set for the weekly backups for 10 weeks. 10 weeks is longer than the 12 days you have configured So they are kept longer.

If you set a short term retention of 12 days, you will have restore points for the last 12-14 days and 10 weekly gfs restore points.
With short term retention set to 14 days, you will have restore points for the last 14-21 days and 10 weekly gfs restore points.

Thanks
Fabian

[scrat]

Thanks for the answer @Mildur!!