Short-Term Retention Policy

Restore points in the backup chain are not kept forever. They are removed according to the retention policy. The retention policy helps maintain the life cycle of restore points and make sure that backup files do not consume the whole disk space.

Veeam Agent for Linux retains the number of latest restore points defined by the user. During every backup job session, Veeam Agent for Linux checks if there is any obsolete restore point in the backup chain. If some restore point is obsolete, it is removed from the chain.

Removing Backups by Retention

When the obsolete restore points are removed by retention, Veeam Agent transforms the backup chain so it always contains a full backup file on which subsequent incremental backup files are dependent. To do so, Veeam Agent uses the following rotation scheme:

1. During every backup job session Veeam Agent adds a backup file to the backup chain and checks if there is an obsolete restore point.

2. If an obsolete restore point exists, Veeam Agent transforms the backup chain. As part of this process, it performs the following operations:

1. Veeam Agent rebuilds the full backup file to include in it data of the incremental backup file that follows the full backup file. To do this, Veeam Agent injects into the full backup file data blocks from the earliest incremental backup file in the chain. This way, a full backup ‘moves’ forward in the backup chain.

2. Veeam Agent removes the earliest incremental backup file from the chain as redundant: its data has already been injected into the full backup file, and the full backup file includes data of this incremental backup file.

If the backup chain contains several obsolete restore points, the rebuild procedure is similar. Data from several restore points is injected to the rebuilt full backup file. This way, Veeam Agent makes sure that the backup chain is not broken, and you will be able to recover your data to any restore point.