EC2 Backup Retention

For image-level backups, Veeam Backup for AWS retains restore points for the number of days defined in backup scheduling settings as described in section Creating EC2 Backup Policies.

To track and remove outdated restore points from a backup chain, Veeam Backup for AWS performs the following actions once a day:

Veeam Backup for AWS checks the configuration database to detect backup repositories that contain outdated restore points.
If an outdated restore point exists in a backup repository, Veeam Backup for AWS performs the following operations:

If the backup chain contains more than 20 backups and the total size of these backups exceeds 50 GB, deploys a worker instance in an AWS Region where the backup repository is located to process a retention task. Otherwise, Veeam Backup for AWS processes the task on the backup appliance.

By default, Veeam Backup for AWS uses the default network settings of AWS Regions to deploy worker instances. However, you can add specific worker configurations. For more information on worker instances, see Managing Worker Instances.

Transforms the backup chain in the following way:

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

EC2 Backup Retention

Veeam Backup for AWS removes the earliest incremental backup from the chain as redundant — this data has already been injected into the full backup.

EC2 Backup Retention

Veeam Backup for AWS repeats step 2 for all other outdated restore points found in the backup chain until all the restore points are removed. As data from multiple restore points is injected into the rebuilt full backup, Veeam Backup for AWS ensures that the backup chain is not broken and that you will be able to recover your data when needed.

EC2 Backup Retention

If the worker instance was deployed, Veeam Backup for AWS removes this worker instance from Amazon EC2 when the retention session completes.

Note

The retention task processes only 1 backup chain.

Veeam Backup for AWS can process maximum 10 retention tasks at a time. If the number of retention tasks that must be processed on the backup appliance is more than the specified limit, the tasks exceeding this limit are queued.
Each worker instance can process only one retention task at a time. Veeam Backup for AWS simultaneously can deploy maximum 10 worker instances that process retention tasks. If the number of retention tasks that must be processed on worker instances is more than the specified limit, the tasks exceeding this limit are queued.