This is an archive version of the document. To get the most up-to-date information, see the current version.Retention Policy
Backups created by backup jobs are not kept forever — they are removed according to retention policy settings specified while creating the jobs as described in section Creating Backup Jobs.
Retention policy is specified in restore points, which means that the backup chain can contain the allowed number of restore points only. If the number of allowed restore points is exceeded, Veeam Backup for RHV removes the earliest restore point from the chain.
To track and remove redundant restore points from a backup chain, Veeam Backup for RHV performs the following actions:
- During every successful backup session, Veeam Backup for RHV adds a new incremental backup file to the backup chain.
- If Veeam Backup for RHV detects that the number of restore points in the backup chain exceeds the allowed number, it transforms the backup chain in the following way:
- Rebuilds the full backup file to include there data of the incremental backup file that follows the full backup file. To do that, Veeam Backup for RHV injects into the full backup file data blocks from the earliest incremental backup file in the chain. This way, the full backup ‘moves’ forward in the backup chain.
- Removes the earliest incremental backup file from the chain as redundant — this data has already been injected into the full backup file.
