Copied Assets

The Copied Assets tab displays only for appliances that are receiving backup copies from another Unitrends appliance. The tab lists all assets whose backup copies are stored on this appliance. From this tab you can view, edit, and remove copied assets using the buttons across the top of the tab. See these topics for details:

1 On the Configure > Appliances page, click the Copied Assets tab.
2 Use these options to customize your view:
• Select an item from the Display list to filter the display by asset type.
• Click on any column to sort alphabetically (a to z). To reverse the order (z to a), click again.

Retention settings assure that the necessary recovery points are available on your appliance. Appliances are configured with a default backup retention policy of 30 days. This 30-day policy is applied to each protected asset. To use your own custom retention setting, the long-term data management feature enables you to quickly create policies that hold backups for a specified number of days. You can create multiple policies and customize them to achieve different RPOs and RTOs for your assets. Each policy you create can be applied to multiple assets. These policies automatically retain and purge backups as necessary to maintain a customized inventory of weekly, monthly, and yearly retention points.

Notes:   

• The 30-day default retention policy applies to appliances imaged with release 10.7.8 or higher. This default policy does not apply to appliances that were originally imaged with an earlier release. Upgrading an appliance that was imaged with a pre-10.7.8 release does not modify its retention policies in any way.
• The 30-day default retention policy ensures that 7 daily backups and 4 weekly backups are retained for each protected asset.

To start managing retention with long-term data management:

Note:  Long-term retention is not enabled on appliances that have been upgraded from a pre-10.3 release. If your appliance was originally imaged with a pre-10.3 Unitrends release, see Switching to long-term retention to enable this feature.

Step 1: Review the Long-term retention policy settings
Step 2: Add a policy as described in To add a long-term retention policy to a backup copy target appliance
Step 3: Apply the policy to assets as described in To apply a long-term retention policy to a copied asset

Long-term retention policies are configured with the following settings:

Retention setting

Description

Policy Name

Enter a name for the policy.

Set as default policy

Check the Set as default policy box on the Add Retention Policy or Edit Retention Policy dialog to designate the policy as the default policy of the appliance. Any new assets and new copied assets that are added to the appliance receive the default policy.

Notes:   

• An appliance cannot have more than one default policy at a time. If needed, edit the existing default policy to clear the Set as default policy box before designating a new default policy.
• Applying a non-default policy to an asset overrides the default policy.
• If you have designated a new default policy, you can apply it to existing assets as described in To apply a long-term retention policy to a protected asset.
• For copied assets, you can use the Set as global policy option to override the default policy. Use this method to have different default policies for local assets versus copied assets.

Set as global policy

The Configure > Copied Assets tab displays only for appliances that are receiving backup copies from another Unitrends appliance. The tab lists all assets whose backup copies are stored on this appliance.

If your appliance is receiving backup copies from another appliance, you can create or edit the policies used for copied assets by going to Configure > Copied Assets and clicking Manage Retention.

When adding or editing a policy for copied assets, you can check the Set as global policy box to designate the policy as the global policy for copied assets. Any newly added backup copy source appliance receives this policy, which determines how long its hot copies are retained. As copied assets are added for the new source appliance, this global policy is automatically applied.

Notes:   

• A target appliance cannot have more than one global policy at a time.
• Global policies are applicable to any new copied assets that are added to the appliance. (Global policies do not apply to local assets.)
• The appliance's default policy applies to any copied assets unless you use the Set as global policy box to override the default policy for copied assets.

Policy description

Enter a brief description of the policy. This can be a note regarding the policy's intended use case or a brief summary of its retention settings.

Days

All backups from the last N number of days are retained. Days end at midnight, appliance time. Or check the Forever box to retain all backups.

Check the Delete Final Backup box to automatically delete data when it reaches the end of its retention policy, even if it's the last available recovery point. Leave this box unchecked to retain the last available recovery point.

Weeks

The most recent successful backup from each of the last N number of weeks is retained. Weeks end on Sunday of the calendar week. Or check the Forever box to keep weekly backups forever.

Months

The most recent successful backup from each of the last N number of months is retained. Months end on the final day of the calendar month. Or check the Forever box to keep monthly backups forever.

Years

The most recent successful backup from each of the last N number of years is retained. Years end on the final day of the calendar year. Or check the Forever box to keep yearly backups forever.

Notes:   

• If the most recent successful backup is an incremental or differential, the complete backup group is retained.
• Redundant backups are not retained if high-frequency retention intervals are configured to overlap their low-frequency counterparts. For example, a retention policy specifying 52 weeks and 12 months does not retain a total of 52 + 12 backups for the preceding 12-month period.
• An asset must have at least one successful backup for each retention point to be considered compliant.
• A yellow alert displays in the UI if any asset is, for any reason, not compliant with its associated long-term retention policy. This alert is automatically dismissed if compliance is achieved.
• Retention compliance is not achievable if the asset's scheduled backups are less frequent than the policy's most frequent retention interval. For example, a retention policy specifying 4 weeks and 0 days cannot maintain a complete inventory of compliant retention points for an asset that is backed-up on a bi-weekly basis.
• Imported backup copies are retained for a default period of 72 hours regardless of retention settings applied to the asset from which they originated.
1 Log in to the backup copy target appliance and select Configure > Copied Assets.
2 Click Manage Retention.
3 Click Add.

4 Enter the retention policy settings. For details, see Long-term retention policy settings
5 Click Assign to Source.
6 Select the local appliance in addition to any source appliances you wish to assign the policy to. An assigned policy can be applied to the source's copied assets. If desired, you can designate the policy as the source's default policy by double clicking the adjacent value under the Default column and selecting Yes.

Note:  Assigned policies are only applicable to assets that reside on the target appliance. This includes the source backup appliance's copied assets and the target appliance's local protected assets, but not the source appliance's local protected assets.

7 Click Okay.
8 Click Add. The long-term retention policy is created.

1 Log in to the backup copy target appliance and select Configure > Copied Assets.
2 Select the desired asset.
3 Click Edit.
4 Select a policy from the Retention Policy dropdown.

Note:  If the selected policy will delete one or more of the asset's backups, a dialog listing these backups displays. Click Close to continue.

5 Click Save. The long-term retention policy is applied.

1 Log in to the backup appliance and select Configure > Protected Assets.
2 Click Manage Retention.
3 Select the policy you wish to edit.
4 Click Edit.

5 Modify the retention policy settings. For details, see Long-term retention policy settings
6 Select the Note checkbox.
7 Click Save. Changes to the policy are committed.

If your appliance was originally imaged with a pre-10.3 Unitrends release, the appliance utilizes legacy asset-level retention until the switch to long-term retention is manually performed. Long-term retention policies provide a more precise, granular, and space-efficient alternative to legacy asset-level retention settings. A long-term retention policy automatically retains and purges backups as necessary to maintain a customized inventory of weekly, monthly, and yearly retention points. A Unitrends appliance can maintain multiple long-term retention policies that can each be applied to multiple assets.

Note:  Long-term retention is enabled by default on appliances that were originally imaged with release 10.3 or later. Do not run the To switch to long-term retention procedure if your appliance was originally imaged with release 10.3 or later.

To switch to long-term retention, review the Considerations for switching to long-term retention, then run the To switch to long-term retention procedure.

Once you have switched to long-term retention, set up retention policies as described in Managing retention of copied assets with long-term data management.

Migrating from legacy asset-level retention to long-term retention impacts a number of Unitrends features, which are detailed in the table below. Carefully review the considerations in the table before switching to long-term retention.

Warning!     Once the switch to long-term retention is performed, it cannot be reversed from the web UI.

Feature

Details

Legacy asset-level retention settings

The switch to long-term retention nominally voids all legacy asset-level retention settings; however, any backups held in accordance with these settings remain preserved in a legal hold state. When applying a long-term retention policy to an asset that previously used legacy asset-level retention settings, the keep all backups value of this new policy must be equal to or greater than the keep backups for value specified in the original retention settings.

SLA policies

Following the switch to long-term retention, all SLA policy retention settings are voided and the SLA policy feature loses its retention functionality. An asset can be assigned both a long-term retention policy and an SLA policy.

GFS

If GFS is enabled on your appliance, the switch to long-term retention directly translates your GFS retention settings into a default long-term retention policy titled Migrated policy. If you are using legacy asset-level retention policies in addition to GFS retention settings, ensure that these policies specify backup hold periods shorter than or equal to the daily GFS setting. Switching to long-term retention is not permitted unless this condition is satisfied.

Notes:   

• On target appliances, the migrated policy is both global and default.
• The weeks setting of the migrated policy is set to 4 by default.

Backup-level holds

Holds applied to individual backups in the Backup Catalog are not impacted by the switch to long-term retention.

Cold backup copy retention

Job-level cold backup copy retention settings are not impacted by the switch to long-term retention.

Appliances upgraded from a pre-10.3 release do not have access to long-term data management functionality until the switch to long-term retention is manually performed. Long-term retention is enabled by default on all appliances that were originally imaged with version 10.3 or later.

Caution!      Before proceeding, ensure that you have reviewed the Considerations for switching to long-term retention and understand how your assets may be impacted.

1 Log in to the backup appliance and select Configure >Protected Assets.
2 Select Manage Retention.
3 Select Switch to Long Term Retention.
4 Click Save.
5 If you are sure you want to switch to long-term retention, click Confirm.

Notes:   

• This retention scheme is not available on appliances that have switched to long-term retention.
• Sharepoint, Oracle, and Cisco UCS assets are not compatible with this retention scheme. To customize retention options for these asset types, see Managing retention of copied assets with long-term data management.
1 Log in to the backup copy target appliance.
2 On the Configure > Appliances page, click the Copied Assets tab, select the copied asset.
3 Click Edit > Manage Retention.

4 Modify retention settings and click Save. (See the table below for descriptions of each setting.)

Retention setting

Description

Minimum Retention

Minimum retention settings.

Keep backups for N days

Number of days backups must be retained. Backups that are younger than N days are not purged for any reason, including at the expense of new, incoming backups. The age of a backup is determined by the last backup in the group, e.g., the last incremental before a new full.

Warn when less than N days of backups remain

Use this option to receive an email notification if this asset has less than N days of backups stored on the appliance.

Maximum Retention

Maximum retention setting.

Delete backups after N Days

Number of days after which the appliance will delete backups. Backups are eligible to be deleted once the full has exceeded this limit. At this point, the full and all associated incrementals and differentials in the group are deleted.
1 Log in to the backup target appliance.
2 On the Configure > Appliances page, click the Copied Assets tab.
3 Select the copied asset.
4 Click Remove.
5 Click Confirm.