Retention refers to the process of managing backup data by defining rules or policies that specify how long recovery points should be retained and when older data should be deleted. This ensures efficient use of storage resources, compliance with regulatory or organizational requirements, and streamlined backup management.
Key aspects of retention include:
- Storage Optimization: Automatically deletes outdated recovery points to free up space.
- Policy Compliance: Ensures backups are retained for the required duration based on legal or business needs.
- Automation: Simplifies data lifecycle management by applying predefined rules.
Retention policies can range from basic retention, which focuses on a specific number of versions or days, to advanced strategies like GFS (Grandfather-Father-Son), which maintains daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly backups for long-term data availability.
How can I set retention policies in BDRSuite?
You can configure retention policies in BDRSuite by navigating to the backup job settings and specifying the number of days or the number of backup versions to retain. Older backups beyond the defined retention period will be deleted automatically.
What are the types of retention policies available in BDRSuite?
BDRSuite offers two robust retention policies for VMware backups: Basic Retention and GFS (Grandfather-Father-Son) Retention, catering to both simple and advanced data management requirements.
1. Basic Retention
Basic Retention provides two options for managing VMware backup recovery points:
- Day-Based Retention: Specifies the number of days to retain incremental recovery points. For example, you can configure BDRSuite to keep recovery points for 30 days, ensuring that backups older than this period are automatically deleted to free up storage.
- Version-Based Retention: Allows you to retain a specific number of recovery points. For instance, if you configure it to keep the last 10 recovery points, older recovery points beyond this limit are automatically removed.
Use Case: Basic Retention is ideal for VMware environments with straightforward requirements, such as keeping recent recovery points for operational recovery while efficiently managing storage.
2. GFS (Grandfather-Father-Son) Retention
GFS retention takes a hierarchical approach to backup management, organizing recovery points into daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly categories:
- Daily (Son): Retains daily incremental recovery points for a specified number of days.
- Weekly (Father): Promotes one daily recovery point to a weekly recovery point, kept for an extended period.
- Monthly (Grandfather): Promotes one weekly recovery point to a monthly recovery point for long-term retention.
- Yearly: Optionally promotes one monthly recovery point to a yearly recovery point for archival purposes.
Use Case: GFS retention is best suited for VMware environments that need to meet compliance, audit, or disaster recovery requirements, where long-term backups are necessary alongside regular short-term backups.
By providing both Basic Retention (with day-based and version-based options) and GFS Retention, BDRSuite ensures flexibility and efficiency in managing VMware backups, catering to diverse storage and recovery needs.