5 1 0:Customizing Global Retention Policy

Welcome to the latest SEP sesam documentation version 5.1.0 Apollon. For previous documentation version(s), check documentation archive.

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You can configure global retention settings to customize the default backup retention behavior, such as to allow increased retention time of different media pools for migrated savesets, decrease retention time for failed backups, and change the automatic retention of the last successful backup and/or migration.

Migrated savesets: If savesets that belong to a backup chain (FULL/DIFF/INCR) are migrated to different media pools, their retention time is the same as the retention time of the original backup. The retention policy settings configured when creating a media pool also apply to migrated savesets. To change the retention time of migrated savesets, you can insert or modify EOL-related keys in the global settings in the GUI, as described in the section Allow increased retention of another media pool for migrated savesets.

Failed backups: You can also specify the desired retention length for failed backups; by default, the backup retention policy (retention time of media pool) is applied equally to successful and failed backups. This means that a failed backup is retained for as long as the retention time (of a media pool) specifies. To shorten the retention time for failed backups, use the special key eol_for_failed_backups, as described in the section Set retention for failed backups.

Last successful backup/migration: SEP sesam automatically retains the last successful backup or migration saveset when the next backup/migration fails. This behavior is enabled by default and can be changed by setting the values of the respective keys, as described in the section Modify automatic retention of last successful backup/migration.

Customizing the retention policy

To change the retention policy, you can add or modify the keys associated with retention: in Web UI, in the navigation menu click 'System Configuration and then System Settings (in GUI, click Configuration in the SEP sesam menu bar, and then Defaults -> Settings).

	Note
	Some keys may not be supported in earlier SEP sesam versions, see Managing EOL in versions 4.4.3-4.4.3 Grolar for details.

All EOL-related keys are listed in the table Global retention keys. In Web UI you can use search functionality to limit the displayed system settings.

Allow increased retention of another media pool for migrated savesets

Typically, a chain of backup savesets is migrated to one media pool. You may want to migrate savesets of one backup chain (FULL/DIFF/INCR) to different media pools. There are two ways to change the retention time of migrated savesets.

You can enable extended retention for migration by using a specific GLBV:

 <tt>'gv_adjust_eol_migration_increases_eol_on_other_pool'</tt>

You can enable migration to increase the EOL of referenced savesets on other media pools (not just on the target media pool) by adding (or modifying) the following key in the global settings in the Web UI:
1. In the navigation menu, click System Configuration -> System Settings and search for EOL-related keys.
2. Click [+ New] to add the following key to the global settings (or modify the key value, if it already exists): eol_adjust_migration_on_other_pool|1|sesam
  where value=1 means that the key is active and sesam is the user name.

Set retention for failed backups

By default, the backup retention policy (retention time of media pool) is applied equally to successful and failed backups. A failed backup is retained as specified by the media pool retention time. To free up repository space and shorten the number of days to retain failed backups, you can specify the desired retention period for failed backups in days.

To specify the desired length of retention for failed backups, use the following keys: eol_for_failed_backups, eol_for_failed_not_file_system_backups.

Open the global settings in the Web UI: In the navigation menu, click System Configuration -> System Settings and search for EOL-related keys.
Click [+ New] to add the following key to the global settings (or modify the key value if it already exists): eol_for_failed_backups
where value=<no> means the number of days for which failed backups will be retained and sesam is the user name.
- For example, 3 means that SEP sesam will automatically delete all failed backups after 3 days.
- 0 (default) means that all failed backups are retained according to the media pool retention time.
You can also specify the desired retention specifically for all non-filesystem (non-Path) type backups by adding (or modifying) the key eol_for_failed_not_file_system_backups where value=<no> means the number of days for which all failed non-filesystem backups will be retained and sesam is the user name.
- For example, 3 means that SEP sesam will automatically delete all failed non-filesystem backups after 3 days.
- 0 (default) means that all failed non-filesystem backups are retained according to the eol_for_failed_backups parameter if set to > 0, or according to the media pool retention time if none of the eol_for_failed... parameters is set (value 0).

Modify automatic retention of last successful backup/migration

SEP sesam automatically retains the last successful backup or migration saveset if the next backup/migration fails to ensure that at least one successful backup is retained. This behavior is enabled by default and can be changed by setting the values of eol_adjust_failed_backup and eol_adjust_failed_migration to 0.

To change the automatic retention of the last successful backup/migration, open the global settings in the GUI: In the navigation menu, click System Configuration -> System Settings and search for EOL-related keys.
Click [+ New] to add the following key to the global settings (or modify the key value, if it already exists): eol_adjust_failed_backup
, where value=1 (default) means that the key is active and the last backups are automatically retained; to disable this behavior, set the value to value=0
You can also specify the desired behavior for retaining the last succesful migrated savesets by adding (or modifying) the key eol_adjust_failed_migration, where value=1 (default) means that the key is active and the last migrated savesets are automatically retained; to disable this behavior, set the value to value=0.

Global retention keys

Value	Description	Available from version	Note
`eol_adjust_migration_on_other_pool`
1 (allow) 0 ( disable)	Allow increased retention time of another media pool for migrated savesets	4.4.3 Beefalo
`eol_adjust_failed_backup`
1 (enable) 0 (disable)	Automatic retention of the last successful backup saveset	4.4.3.47 Tigon V2
`eol_adjust_failed_migration`
1 (enable) 0 (disable)	Automatic retention of the last successful migration saveset	4.4.3.47 Tigon V2
`eol_for_failed_backups`
0 (use media pool retention time) > 0 (specify retention time in days, e.g., 3)	Set retention time (in days) for failed backups	4.4.3 Beefalo V2	By default, a failed backup is retained for the number of days specified by the media pool retention time. If you want to free up space on the storage repository and shorten the number of days to keep failed backups, specify the desired length of retention for failed backups in days. For example, 3 means that SEP sesam will automatically delete all failed backups after 3 days. 0 (default) means that all failed backups are retained according to the media pool retention time.
`eol_for_failed_not_file_system_backups`
0 (use media pool retention time) > 0 (specify retention time in days, e.g., 3)	Set the retention time (in days) for all non-filesystem (non-Path) type backups, e.g., SAP Hana, Exchange Server, VMware vSphere etc.	4.4.3 Beefalo V2	The only difference with the previous parameter (eol_for_failed_backups, see above) is that you can specify the desired retention specifically for all non-filesystem (non-Path) type backups. For example, 3 means that SEP sesam will automatically delete all failed non-filesystem backups after 3 days. 0 (default) means that all failed non-filesystem backups are retained according to the eol_for_failed_backups parameter if set to > 0, or according to the media pool retention time if none of the eol_for_failed... parameters is set (value 0).

The screenshot shows the table with the EOL-related paramaters that can be accessed in GUI from the menu bar, by clicking Configuration -> Defaults -> Settings.