Retention rules

1. Click How long to keep.

2. In Cleanup, choose one of the following:

   • By backup age (default)

     Specify how long to keep backups created by the protection plan. By default, the retention rules are specified for each backup set A group of backups to which an individual retention rule can be applied. For the Custom backup scheme, the backup sets correspond to the backup methods (Full, Differential, and Incremental). In all other cases, the backup sets are Monthly, Daily, Weekly, and Hourly. A monthly backup is the first backup created after a month starts. A weekly backup is the first backup created on the day of the week selected in the Weekly backup option (click the gear icon, then Backup options > Weekly backup). If a weekly backup is the first backup created after a month starts, this backup is considered monthly. In this case, a weekly backup will be created on the selected day of the next week. A daily backup is the first backup created after a day starts, unless this backup falls within the definition of a monthly or weekly backup. An hourly backup is the first backup created after an hour starts, unless this backup falls within the definition of a monthly, weekly, or daily backup. separately. If you want to use a single rule for all backups, click Switch to single rule for all backup sets.

   • By number of backups

     Specify the maximum number of backups to keep.

   • By total size of backups

     Specify the maximum total size of backups to keep.

     This setting is not available with the Always incremental (single-file) backup scheme, or when backing up to an SFTP server or a tape device.

   • Keep backups indefinitely

3. Select when to start the cleanup:

   • After backup (default)

     The retention rules will be applied after a new backup is created.

   • Before backup

     The retention rules will be applied before a new backup is created.

     This setting is not available when backing up Microsoft SQL Server clusters or Microsoft Exchange Server clusters.

What else you need to know

• The last backup created by the protection plan is kept in all cases, unless you configure a retention rule to clean up backups before starting a new backup operation and set the number of backups to keep to zero.
  If you delete the only backup that you have by applying the retention rules in this way, then if the backup fails you will not have a backup with which to restore data because there will be no available backup to use.
• Backups stored on tapes are not deleted until the tape is overwritten.

• If, according to the backup scheme and backup format, each backup is stored as a separate file, this file cannot be deleted until the lifetime of all its dependent (incremental and differential) backups expires. This requires extra space for storing backups whose deletion is postponed. Also, the backup age, number, or size of backups may exceed the values you specify.

  This behavior can be changed by using the "Backup consolidation" backup option.

• Retention rules are a part of a protection plan. They stop working for a machine's backups as soon as the protection plan is revoked from the machine, or deleted, or the machine itself is deleted from the management server. If you no longer need the backups created by the plan, delete them as described in "Deleting backups".