This is an archive version of the document. To get the most up-to-date information, see the current version.GFS Retention Policy
In most cases, simple backup retention policy is not enough. You cannot store an unlimited number of restore points on the target backup repository forever — it is not rational and is resource consuming. If you want to retain VM data for longer periods of time, you can enable the GFS retention policy scheme for the backup copy job.
The GFS, or Grandfather-Father-Son retention policy is a backup rotation scheme intended for long-term archiving. It lets you keep backups of VMs for an entire year and requires minimum amount of storage space.
GFS is a tiered retention policy scheme. It uses a number of cycles to retain backups for different periods of time:
- Regular backup cycle
- Weekly backup cycle
- Monthly backup cycle
- Quarterly backup cycle
- Yearly backup cycle
In the GFS retention policy scheme, weekly backups are known as ‘sons’, monthly backups are known as ‘fathers’ and yearly backup are known as ‘grandfathers’. Additionally, Veeam Backup & Replication maintains quarterly backups. Weekly, quarterly and yearly backups are also called archive backups.
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You cannot enable GFS retention settings if you use a backup repository with rotated drives as the target backup repository. |
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