In this article, we will review Retention Policy settings in FluentPro Backup.
General overview of Retention Policy rules
The Retention Policy section allows you to manage the retention period of your Backup files. This setting helps ensure you will stay within the limits permitted by the FluentPro Backup license. Also, in case the customer organization has any specific policy for the data storage period, the Retention Policy setting helps you follow the company's internal rules.
FluentPro Backup creates backups of the project versions hourly/daily, and you can decide how many of these project versions you need to save. The rest can be deleted according to the Retention Policy settings.
Using the Retention Policy settings, you can select how many project versions you save:
- per day
- per week
- per month
- per year
Using the Retention Policy settings, you can set the rules according to which the project backup versions will be deleted after a certain time (depending on the period selected: daily, weekly, monthly, yearly):
- 7 days
- 14 days
- 30 days
- 40 days
- 50 days
- 60 days
- 90 days
- 120 days
- 365 days
- 730 days
If the number of the created project backup versions is less than the number of versions that need to be saved according to the Retention Policy rules, nothing is deleted.
For example, if two project backup versions were created per day, and according to the Retention Policy rules, 3 versions need to be saved, nothing is deleted, and the two existing versions are saved.
If the number of the created project backup versions is more than the number of versions that need to be saved, then the newest versions are saved (1,2,3 according to the Retention Policy rules).
For example, if there were 8 versions created, and there is a rule to save 3 of them, then 8 is divided into three periods (3,3,2) and the newest version is selected from each period to be saved.
On the right, you may see the versions that will be deleted according to each rule. The ones that will be deleted are displayed in grey first and then disappear in the animation.
When the version is deleted, the backup summary is updated to include only the saved versions (some of them can become empty) and will be marked as Deleted by the Retention Policy.
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On the Operation Details page, the information will also be updated accordingly.
Also, on the Retention Policy page, users can disable the Retention Policy for selected periods. Disabled periods will be completely excluded from consideration when deleting backup files based on the Retention Policy (the disabled periods will be greyed out). Only the enabled periods will be applied.
Please note: Retention Policy settings are set separately for each environment and are not shared between the environments.
It is possible to set the timezone that will be taken into account when deleting the project backup versions.
How to set up Retention Policy
Please note: When any environment is added to FluentPro Backup, the default Retention Policy settings are applied automatically.
According to the default Retention Policy settings, the deletion of project backup versions will begin 30 days after the first completed backup. Five days before the Retention Policy is applied, you will receive a one-time notification that the project backup versions will be deleted. If the Retention Policy settings are changed five days before they should be applied, for example, to 50 days instead of 30, then the first deletion will be launched in 25 days from the day when the policy settings were changed (not in 50 days).
To set up the Retention Policy for your environment in FluentPro Backup, please perform the following:
1. Log in to your FluentPro Backup account.
2. On the Home Page, click on the environment where you would like to update the Retention Policy settings.
3. In the 'Keep' section, select the number of project backup versions that need to be saved per day/week/month/year. Also, in the 'After' section, select the age of the versions to which the Retention Policy will be applied (the versions that are older than the selected number of days will be deleted).
The right section shows the versions that will be deleted and saved (in grey and green).
If needed, you can disable the periods for which you do not need to delete the files and set up only the enabled ones. Disabled periods will be completely excluded from consideration when deleting backup files based on the Retention Policy.
4. Click Save.
The Retention Policy rules will be saved and applied automatically.