How Incremental Forever Backup Handles the Retention Settings (explanation)
How Incremental Forever Backup Handles the Retention Settings; this is a high level overview of how retention works in NovaBACKUP 21, for the two 'Local Backup' and 'Cloud Storage' S3 device types (as the only backup scheme that can be utilized with those two newer device types).
Incremental forever backup strategies are designed to optimize storage usage and simplify the backup process. However, understanding how these backups handle retention settings is crucial for ensuring data integrity and efficient storage management. This article delves into how retention policies are managed within incremental forever backup systems.
What is Incremental Forever Backup?
Incremental forever backup starts with a single full backup. After this initial backup, only the changes made since the last backup are saved in subsequent backups. This method contrasts with traditional full and differential backups, which require periodic full backups and differential backups that capture all changes since the last full backup.
Retention Settings in Incremental Forever Backup
Retention settings dictate how long backup data is stored before it is deleted or overwritten. These settings are essential for managing storage space and ensuring that old, unnecessary data does not consume valuable resources.
Handling Retention with Incremental Forever Backup
Initial Full Backup:
The process begins with a full backup, which serves as the baseline for all future incremental backups.
Incremental Backups:
Each subsequent backup captures only the changes since the last incremental backup.
Retention Policy Application:
When the retention period is reached, files or versions of files that are no longer within the retention policy are removed from backups that are outside of the retention policy.
Example of Retention Policy Implementation
Consider a scenario where the retention policy is set to 30 days:
Day 1: A full backup is created.
Day 2-30: Incremental backups are created daily.
Day 31: The system detects that the retention period for the first incremental backup has been reached. Instead of simply deleting the oldest incremental backup, any data that is outside the retention policy is removed from the backups. This process ensures that the files and versions of files that are outside the retention policy are not retained thus freeing up space.
Benefits of This Approach
Space Efficiency:
By removing old versions of files and files no longer in the protection retention policy, the system significantly reduces storage requirements, and the need to have to do multiple full backups.
Data Integrity:
The retention process ensures that all changes are captured within the retention policy and retained within the backups, maintaining data integrity and continuity.
Simplified Management:
Administrators do not need to manage multiple full and differential backups. The incremental forever approach simplifies backup management by maintaining a single full backup that is continuously updated.
Conclusion
Incremental forever backups offer a sophisticated solution for managing data retention efficiently. By removing old data via the retention process and policy, these systems ensure that storage space is used optimally while maintaining data integrity. This method simplifies backup management and provides a reliable way to meet retention policies without the overhead of managing multiple full backups.
Last updated