Many users think that once they have scheduled their backup jobs to run automatically that there is nothing further for them to do. In reality, backups grow in size over time and unless you have unlimited storage space or carve out the extra time needed to manually delete your older backups, you are missing a very important step in your overall backup strategy…backup retention.
Why is data retention so important?
Backup retention is crucial because it keeps your storage costs from skyrocketing by allowing you to purge older backups in an automated fashion. Although backup retention jobs can be created on the fly as needed when storage space is running low, it is better to establish a retention policy and create retention jobs, which are scheduled to run automatically based on the backup requirements of your company.
Data Retention Best Practices
When you start to think about your data retention requirements, you may want to diagram your backup strategy first. This will make it a lot easier to determine your retention needs. In this example (diagrammed above), full backups are being run once per week on Sunday's with incremental backups run daily on weekdays between full backups. Best practices for this backup scenario would dictate that at least two weeks of backups be maintained at all times, which means 2 full backups with a total count of 12 valid backups (2 full backups, plus 10 incremental backups; 5 per week) will be available for restore at any given time.
With NovaBACKUP, you can set up and schedule your backup retention policy in a matter of a few clicks. Here is a video on how to setup backup retention:
If you would prefer step-by-step instructions, here are instructions on how-to set up data retention for NovaBACKUP:
Step 1 – Schedule your backups. If you have not scheduled your automatic backups, do this first.
Please note: You should set this up in accordance with your company’s backup retention policy.
(The script location should be something like this C:\ProgramData\NovaStor\NovaStor NovaBACKUP\UserScripts\Bridget.Giacinto\Utility, but it should take you here automatically.)
You now have a backup retention plan in place that will run once per week and ensure that you always have 2 full backups with a minimum count of 12 valid backups stored at all times, including your incremental backups.