Expire after copy retention type for SLP operations
The Expire after copy retention indicates that after all direct (child) copies of an image are successfully duplicated to other storage, the data on this storage is expired. The last operation in the SLP cannot use the Expire after copy retention type because no subsequent copy is configured. Therefore, an operation with this retention type must have a child.
It is not recommended that you enable Expire after copy retention for any storage units that are to be used with SLPs with either of the following: Accelerator or synthetic backups. The Expire after copy retention can cause images to expire while the backup runs. To synthesize a new full backup, the SLP backup needs the previous backup image. If the previous image expires during the backup, the backup fails.
For VCT enabled incremental backups, the previous snapshot is required to generate the file change list with respect to current snapshot. The Expire after copy retention expires the previous snapshot after the backup associated with that snapshot is complete.
Note:
Although synthetic backups do support the use of storage lifecycle policies, SLPs cannot be used for the multiple copy synthetic backups method.
If a policy is configured to use an SLP for the backup, the retention that is indicated in the SLP is the value that is used. The Retention attribute in the schedule is not used.
Expire after copy retention type cannot be used for the snapshot operation when a sync replication stage is added in the SLP.
An image copy with an Expire after copy retention is expired as soon as all of its direct child copies have been successfully created. Any mirrored children must also be eligible for expiration.