Retention types for storage lifecycle policy operations
The Retention type for an operation in a storage lifecycle policy determines how long the data is kept on that storage media.
Table: Operation and retention type configurations describes which retention types are valid selections for the various operations.
Table: Operation and retention type configurations
Retention type | Backup operation | Snapshot operation | Replication operation | Backup From Snapshot operation | Duplication operation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Fixed | Valid | Valid | Valid | Valid | Valid |
Expire after copy | Valid | Valid | Valid | Valid | Valid |
Maximum Snapshot limit | Invalid | Valid; SLP honors the policy setting. | Invalid | Invalid | Invalid |
Mirror | Invalid | Invalid | Valid for snapshot storage only | Invalid | Valid for snapshot storage only |
Target retention | Invalid | Invalid | Valid if the first operation in the SLP is an Import and if the storage is of the backup type. | Invalid | Valid if the first operation in the SLP is an Import. |
Capacity managed | Valid; AdvancedDisk default; set on the storage server. | Invalid | Invalid | Invalid | Valid; AdvancedDisk default; set on the storage server. |
Note:
It is not recommended to allow capacity-managed images and fixed-retention images to be written to the same volume in a disk storage unit. The volume may fill with fixed-retention images and not allow the space management logic to operate as expected.
Keep in mind the following points when configuring SLP operations or selecting the storage location for a policy:
All SLPs that write to a volume in a disk storage unit should write images of the same retention type: fixed or capacity-managed.
Do not write images both to a volume in a disk storage unit within an SLP and to the same volume (by the storage unit) directly from a policy.
Mark all disk storage units that are used with SLPs as On demand only.
Check any storage unit groups to make sure that fixed and capacity-managed images cannot be written to the same volume in a disk storage unit.