Data Aging and Storage Policy Copies

Primary Copy without Synchronous Copies

If data aging can be performed on a primary copy and there are no secondary copies defined, the data on the primary copy can be aged provided the data has exceeded its specified retention criteria.

If a storage policy is associated with an incremental storage policy, the retention period of the primary copy of the storage policy must be greater than or equal to the retention period of the primary copy of the incremental storage policy.

Primary Copy with Synchronous and Selective Copies

Data aging can be performed on a storage policy with synchronous and/or selective copies defined. Data is aged according to the primary copy retention rule only when all data eligible to be aged is copied to all active copies during an auxiliary copy operation.

If a storage policy is associated with an incremental storage policy, the retention period of the primary copy of the storage policy must be greater than or equal to the retention period of the primary copy of the incremental storage policy.

Secondary Copy

The data aging of a secondary copy is dependent on the selected retention criteria set for that copy.

It is recommended that secondary copies have a retention period that is greater than or equal to that of the primary copy.

Incremental Storage Policy Copy

Full and incremental backups running to different storage policies are not linked. Data on a storage policy where the full backup is run is aged based on the retention set on that storage policy. Similarly, the data on the incremental storage policy is aged based on the retention rules of the incremental policy.

If the incremental storage policy is also being used as a regular storage policy (and has full backups), the full backups will also age according to any retention rules that are set on the policy

It is recommended that the retention rule for the full storage policy is greater than the incremental storage policy. Data on incremental policy will be aged earlier if it has shorter retention than the full storage policy. Full backups are retained until the incremental jobs on the incremental storage policy are retained.

Source Copy that is not a Primary Copy

Data Aging can be performed on data copied during an auxiliary copy operation from a non-primary copy source.

The rules for data aging on source copies are as follows:

• Data can be aged from the primary copy when there are To Be Copied jobs and the primary copy is not the source copy.

• Data can be aged from a secondary copy that is a source copy once all of its data is copied to the secondary copy.

  The following examples illustrate how data is aged from a storage policy that has three copies; primary copy Primary_01, Secondary_01, and Secondary_02. Secondary_02 uses Secondary_01 as a source copy. The retention rules for each copy are as follows:

• Primary_01 = 30 days and 2 cycles

• Secondary_01 = 1 day and 1 cycle

• Secondary_02 = 30 days and 2 cycles

Spool Copy

Allows you to use a primary copy as a temporary holding area for protected data until it is copied to an active synchronous copy. Once copied, the data on the primary copy is aged.

This copy has a retention rule of 0 days and 0 cycles, and hence, once an auxiliary copy operation is performed, all data on this copy is aged when Data Aging is run.

Synchronous copies can not be deleted when a primary copy has the Spool Copy (no retention) option enabled, and there is no coverage for all of the subclients in the secondary copies. Instead, users are prompted with a warning message to change the retention period of the primary copy or to create another synchronous copy.

The rule for data aging from spool copies is as follows:

• The data must be copied to an active synchronous copy. The way in which data is aged is also contingent upon the following:

  • Whether the data protection operation was successful, killed, or failed.

  • Whether the storage policy has secondary copies and whether they are active.

  • Whether jobs are disabled on the storage policy copy.

  • Whether jobs still need to be copied to secondary copies.

Incremental and Differential Copies

Incremental and differential copies are retained based on the rules defined for their associated storage policy copy. However, you can configure data aging to age intermediate incremental and differential copies preceding a new differential. This is useful to minimize wasted disk space.

Note that this configuration will also consider the retention days set on the storage policy copy for incremental or differential jobs. If the differential job is run, then incremental or differential jobs before the last differential in a cycle are pruned once the retention day criteria is met. For example, if your jobs ran in the following pattern:

• 1^st cycle: Full, Incremental_01, Incremental_02, Differential_01, Incremental_03, Incremental_04, Differential_02

• Retention: Set to 7 days and 2 cycles.

  Assuming that Do not retain intermediate incremental and differentials before a new differential option is selected and from the intermediate jobs between Full and Differential_02 once these jobs (Incremental_01, Incremental_02, Differential_01, Incremental_03, Incremental_04) meets the days retention criteria then these jobs will be aged, even if these jobs haven't met the cycle criteria.

  Use the following steps to configure data aging to age intermediate incremental and differential jobs:

• From the CommCell Browser, expand Policies | Storage Policies | <Storage Policy>.

• Right-click the appropriate storage policy copy and then click Properties.

• Click the Retention tab.

• Select Do not retain intermediate incremental and differentials before a new differential check box.

• Click OK.