Rapid Recovery 6.3 - User Guide

Data retention and archiving

Each time your Core captures a snapshot, the data is saved as a recovery point to your repository. Recovery points naturally accumulate over time. The Core uses a retention policy to determine how long snapshot data is retained in the repository. When nightly jobs run (specifically, during the rollup process), the Core enforces the retention policy to reduce the amount of storage space consumed. The date of each recovery point is compared to the date of the most recent recovery point. The Core then rolls up (combines) older recovery points. Over time, older recovery points in the repository are continually replaced with newer ones as the oldest recovery points eventually reach the oldest age defined in the retention period.

To keep recovery points that would otherwise be combined and eventually deleted, you can create an archive from the Core Console. An archive is a file containing a copy of the full set of recovery points for machines protected on your Core at the point in time in which it was created. You can later access archived information from the Core Console. In contrast with recovery points in the repository, recovery points in an archive do not get rolled up.

Archives are useful for maintaining compliance data; backing up your Core; seeding replication data to a remote replica Core; and for saving space in your Core for retaining recent business-critical transaction while maintaining backups for a longer period of time.

For more information about archives, see Archiving.

Managing retention policies

A retention policy is a set of rules that dictates the length of time for the Core to retain recovery points before starting to roll them up. Retention policies can be set to roll up based on hours, days, weeks, months and years. You can set up to six rules (the default policy sets five rules).

Since you can back up as frequently as every 5 minutes, the first rule in the retention policy typically sets how long to retain all recovery points. For example, if you back up a machine every quarter hour, 96 recovery points are saved to the repository for that machine per day, until rollup begins. Without managing your retention policy, that amount of data can quickly fill a repository.

The Core comes preset with a default retention policy. The default policy retains:

• All recovery points for three days
• One recovery point per hour for two days
• One recovery point per day for four days
• One recovery point per week for three weeks
• One recovery point per month for two months
• One recovery point per year for X years (disabled in default policy).

Following this default policy, the oldest recovery point is typically 92 days old. Data past that origination date for a default policy is deleted.

Setting the retention policy at the Core level applies automatically to all machines that the Core protects. You can change the default policy to suit your needs.

For any machine, you can also create a custom retention policy. Setting the policy at the machine level lets you specify a different retention policy than the default Core policy. For more information about configuring retention policies, see Configuring Core default retention policy settings and Customizing retention policy settings for a protected machine.

Configuring Core default retention policy settings

1. Navigate to the Rapid Recovery Core Console.
2. On the icon bar, click (Settings), and then do one of the following:
   • From the list of Core settings on the left side of the Settings page, click Nightly Jobs.
   • Scroll down on the right side of the Settings page until you can see the Nightly Jobs heading.

   The Nightly Jobs settings for the Core appear.

3. Under Nightly Jobs, click Change.

   The Nightly Jobs dialog box displays.

4. To specify the time intervals for retaining the backup data as needed, in the Nightly Jobs pane, select Rollup, and then click Settings.

   The Retention Policy dialog box for the Core default retention policy displays.

5. To restore Core retention policy settings to the default values at any time, at the bottom of the dialog box, click Restore Defaults and then click Yes to confirm.

   All settings are restored to the default values described in the table in step 6.

6. Enter the default schedule for retaining recovery points as described in the following table. The first setting specifies the primary retention period for all recovery points saved to the repository. Each additional setting, when enabled, provides a more granular level of retention by specifying the intervals between which recovery points should be rolled up. These settings define the duration for which recovery points are maintained.

   The retention policy options are described in the following table.

   Table 148: Schedule options for default retention policy

   Text Box	Description
   Keep all recovery points for n [retention time period]…	Specifies the primary retention period for all recovery points saved to the repository. Enter a number to represent the retention period and then select the time period. The default is 3 days. You can choose from days, weeks, months, and years.
   …and then keep one recovery point per hour for n [retention time period]	If selected, this setting keeps one recovery point per hour for a time period that you specify. The default is 2 days. You can choose from days, weeks, months, and years. If you do not want to save at least one recovery point hourly, clear this option.
   …and then keep one recovery point per day for n [retention time period]	If selected, this setting keeps one recovery point per day for a time period that you specify. The default is 4 days. You can choose from days, weeks, months, and years. If you do not want to save at least one recovery point daily, clear this option.
   …and then keep one recovery point per week for n [retention time period]	If selected, this setting keeps one recovery point per week for a time period that you specify. The default is 3 weeks. You can choose from weeks, months, and years. If you do not want to save at least one recovery point weekly, clear this option.
   …and then keep one recovery point per month for n [retention time period]	If selected, this setting keeps one recovery point per month for a time period that you specify. The default is 2 months. You can choose from months and years. If you do not want to save at least one recovery point monthly, clear this option.
   …and then keep one recovery point per year for n [retention time period]	If selected, this setting keeps one recovery point per year for a number of years that you specify. The default (1 year) is disabled by default. If you do want to save at least one recovery point yearly, select this option and specify a number of years. If you do not want to save at least one recovery point yearly, clear this option.

   
   

   The oldest recovery point is determined by the retention policy settings.

   The following is an example of how the retention period is calculated.

   Keep all recovery points for three days.

   …and then keep one recovery point per hour for three days

   …and then keep one recovery point per day for four days

   …and then keep one recovery point per week for three weeks

   …and then keep one recovery point per month for two months

   …and then keep one recovery point per month for one year

   In this example, the oldest recovery point would be one year and three months old.

7. When satisfied with your retention policy settings, click Save.

   The Retention Policy dialog box closes.

8. In the Nightly Jobs dialog box, click OK.

   The Nightly Jobs dialog box closes. The retention policy you defined is applied during the nightly rollup.

   You can also to apply these settings when specifying the retention policy for any individual protected machine. For more information about setting retention policies for a protected machine, see Customizing retention policy settings for a protected machine.

Customizing retention policy settings for a protected machine

1. From the Protected Machines menu of the Rapid Recovery Core Console, click the name of the machine that you want to modify.

   The Summary page for the selected machine displays.

2. Click the Settings menu.

   The Settings page displays, showing configuration settings for the selected machine.

3. Optionally, click the Nightly Jobs link to scroll down in the Settings page to view nightly jobs settings.
4. Under the Nightly Jobs heading, click Change.

   The Nightly Jobs dialog box displays.

5. To specify the time intervals for retaining the backup data as needed, select Rollup and then click Settings.

   The Retention Policy dialog box displays.

6. If customizing retention policies settings for a replicated machine, and if you see a caution notifying you to perform an Integrity Check on your repository, proceed with this step. Otherwise, skip to step 7.
   1. If you are prepared to perform the job, click Check Integrity
   2. Click Yes to confirm the Integrity Check job.

      NOTE: Running this job could take a substantial amount of time, based on the size of your repository. During this time, you can perform no other actions (snapshots, replication, virtual export, and so on) in the repository. For information about this job, see About checking the integrity of DVM repositories.

   Once the Checking Repository job completes all child jobs successfully, return to this procedure and continue with the next step.
7. In the Retention Policy dialog box, do one of the following:
   • To use the default retention policy for this protected machine, select Use Core default retention policy, and then click Save. The default policy is applied to this protected machine.
   • To define a custom retention policy for this agent, select Use custom retention policy, and then continue with the next step.
   The Retention Policy dialog box expands to show custom retention policy information.
8. Enter the custom schedule for retaining recovery points as described in the following table. The first setting specifies the primary retention period for all recovery points saved to the repository. Each additional setting, when enabled, provides a more granular level of retention by specifying the intervals between which recovery points should be rolled up. These settings define the duration for which recovery points are maintained.

   Table 149: Schedule options for custom retention policy

   Text Box	Description
   Keep all recovery points for n [retention time period]…	Specifies the primary retention period for all recovery points saved to the repository. Enter a number to represent the retention period and then select the time period. The default is 3 days. You can choose from days, weeks, months, and years.
   …and then keep one recovery point per hour for n [retention time period]	If selected, this setting keeps one recovery point per hour for a time period that you specify. The default is 2 days. You can choose from days, weeks, months, and years. If you do not want to save at least one recovery point hourly, clear this option.
   …and then keep one recovery point per day for n [retention time period]	If selected, this setting keeps one recovery point per day for a time period that you specify. The default is 4 days. You can choose from days, weeks, months, and years. If you do not want to save at least one recovery point daily, clear this option.
   …and then keep one recovery point per week for n [retention time period]	If selected, this setting keeps one recovery point per week for a time period that you specify. The default is 3 weeks. You can choose from weeks, months, and years. If you do not want to save at least one recovery point weekly, clear this option.
   …and then keep one recovery point per month for n [retention time period]	If selected, this setting keeps one recovery point per month for a time period that you specify. The default is 2 months. You can choose from months and years. If you do not want to save at least one recovery point monthly, clear this option.
   …and then keep one recovery point per year for n [retention time period]	If selected, this setting keeps one recovery point per year for a number of years that you specify. The default (1 year) is disabled by default. If you do want to save at least one recovery point yearly, select this option and specify a number of years. If you do not want to save at least one recovery point yearly, clear this option.

   The following is an example of how the retention period is calculated.

   Keep all recovery points for three days.

   …and then keep one recovery point per hour for three days

   …and then keep one recovery point per day for four days

   …and then keep one recovery point per week for three weeks

   …and then keep one recovery point per month for two months

   …and then keep one recovery point per month for one year

   In this example, the oldest recovery point would be one year, 3 months old.

9. Click Save.

   The Retention Policy dialog box closes.

10. In the Nightly Jobs dialog box, click OK.

    The Nightly Jobs dialog box closes. The retention policy you defined for this machine is applied during the nightly rollup.