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Immutability for Archive Tier

Note

Currently, the immutability feature is available only for Amazon S3 Glacier object storage repository. Microsoft Azure Archive storage does not support immutability.

Veeam Backup & Replication allows you to prohibit deletion of data from the archive extent by making that data temporarily immutable. It is done for increased security: immutability protects your data from loss as a result of attacks, malware activity or any other injurious actions.

To make the data immutable, Veeam Backup & Replication uses the Object Lock technology provided by Amazon and some S3-compatible providers. Once imposed, the object lock prohibits deletion of data from the archive extent until the immutability expiration date comes. Keep in mind that in order to use immutability, you need to enable the Object Lock and Versioning features on your S3 bucket at the time you create the bucket. For more information, see Preparing to Use Immutability.

You can enable the immutability feature when adding or editing an Amazon S3 Glacier object storage repository as an archive extent, at the Bucket step of the Adding Amazon S3 Glacier Storage wizard.

When you enable immutability for the archive tier, keep in mind that only the settings of the Amazon S3 Glacier repository will be taken into account. The settings of the capacity tier repository and of the original data blocks will be ignored.

For Amazon S3 Glacier, all the types of files that are suitable for archive storage can be made immutable:

Backup files with GFS flags assigned: in case GFS retention is extended in the backup job or backup copy job settings, the immutability period for existing backup files will be prolonged at the end of the archiving session. For more information about GFS retention policy, see Long-Term Retention Policy (GFS).
VeeamZIP backup files with specified retention (deletion date). For more information, see Creating VeeamZIP Backups.
Exported backup files with specified retention (deletion date). For more information, see Exporting Backups.

The immutability period of a backup file will be equal to its retention period at the moment of archiving. If the retention period is not specified for VeeamZIP backup files or exported backup files, such files will not be made immutable.