LiveVault backup retention

For each individual LiveVault policy, you can set how often data will be backed up (the Backup schedule), and the length of time that the backed up data will be retained for (the Retention period). If necessary, backed up data may then be Restored, provided it is within the Retention period.

Retention options are controlled by a subscription based on the service level you purchased from Cloud Direct. The service level you subscribed to may have more than one Retention option; common options include, 90 day, one year, or seven years. At the end of the Retention period, you can no longer restore stored files.

Important Note:
LiveVault subscription costs increase if longer backup Retention periods are selected. If you require a longer backup Retention period than your current subscription allows then please contact your account manager.

The Retention period is selected when a backup policy is set up, but may be changed later if required. The selected Retention period determines how many versions of the backed up data are retained, but this also depends upon the Backup schedule for the policy. If a Backup schedule other than Continuous (either Nightly, or Custom) is selected then fewer backup versions will be created.

The default Backup schedule is Continuous, which means that a new version of data is backed up every 15 minutes.

• After one day, there are 96 backed up versions retained (Depending to some extent on size of backed up versions, change rate to files, and bandwidth settings).
• At this point the 96 are coalesced to create one Daily version.
• The 15 minute backups continue and, after 96 further backups, a second Daily version is created. More Daily backups are created as the 15 minute backups continue.

For a 90 day retention period, 90 Daily backups are retained, plus up to 96 of the latest 15 minute versions. When the oldest backup version is over 91 days old, the baseline is shifted so that only the latest 91 days of backup can be retained (and, if necessary, restored later).

Examples of backup retention

The following examples show how LiveVault backup retention would work for a 90 day, or one year Retention period.

Example of 90 day retention period

When configuring the backup policy, the Retention policy must be set to 90 Day.

This will result in the following retentions:

• Continuous backup (every 15-minutes) copies retained for one day.
• Six hourly copies retained for seven days.
• Daily copies retained for 30 days.
• Monthly copies retained for four months.

The Retention count (total versions retained) is 159.

When the oldest backed up version is over 91 days old, the baseline is shifted so that users can restore only up to 91 days ago.

Note:
On a 90 day retention period, you would expect only three monthly versions retained. There are actually four retained monthly versions that may be restored. So it is possible to restore data from up to four months previous.

Example of one year retention period

When configuring the backup policy, the Retention policy must be set to 1-Year.

This will result in the following retentions:

• Continuous backup (every 15-minutes) copies retained for one day.
• Six hourly copies retained for seven days.
• Daily copies retained for 30 days.
• Monthly copies retained for twelve months.

The Retention count (total versions retained) is 167.

When the oldest backed up version is over one year old, the baseline is shifted so that users can restore only up to one year ago.