Veeam Retention Calculator: Understanding Daily Retention Policy

When determining whether the number of allowed days is exceeded, Veeam Backup & Replication ignores the day when the daily retention policy is applied. However, the software starts counting retention policy days only after the backup job finishes processing VMs.

It's essential to understand how Veeam Backup & Replication handles restore points and retention policies. The minimum number of retained restore points is 3, which means you will always have at least three restore points available: the newly created one and the two previous ones.

If you want to store retention points for a specific number of days, you can set up a daily retention policy. This policy keeps restore points created during the last N days, where N is the specified number of days. For example, if you select 14 calendar days, Veeam Backup & Replication will keep restore points from the past two weeks.

Another option is to specify the number of restore points to retain. In this case, Veeam Backup & Replication keeps the last N restore points, where N is the specified number of restore points. This can be helpful if you periodically create off-schedule backups and want to maintain a specific number of restore points.

To define the retention policy for a backup job, you must specify the necessary number of restore points or days in the Retention policy field in the backup job settings. After the allowed number of restore points is exceeded, Veeam Backup & Replication applies the retention policy by removing the earliest restore point from the backup chain.

The retention policy defines how many restore points you want to retain on disk and thus how far you are able to roll back. By controlling the number of restore points in the backup chain, you can ensure that your VM data is safely backed up and available for recovery in case of a disaster.

In conclusion, Veeam Retention Calculator helps you understand daily retention policy settings and ensures that your backup job meets your specific needs. With the right configuration, you can maintain a reliable and efficient backup system with Veeam Backup & Replication.

Veeam retention calculator