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Retention rule
With the simple scheme, only one retention rule (p. 42) is available. Set the retention
period for the backups.
7.3.7.4
Grandfather-Father-Son scheme
At a glance
Daily incremental, weekly differential, and monthly full backups
Custom day for weekly and monthly backups
Custom retention periods for backups of each type
Description
Let us suppose that we want to set up a backup plan that will regularly produce a series of daily (D),
weekly (W), and monthly (M) backups. Here is a natural way to do this: the following table shows a
sample two-month period for such a plan.
Mo
Tu
We
Th
Fr
Sa
Su
Jan 1—Jan 7
D
D
D
D
W
-
-
Jan 8—Jan 14
D
D
D
D
W
-
-
Jan 15—Jan 21
D
D
D
D
W
-
-
Jan 22—Jan 28
D
D
D
D
M
-
-
Jan 29—Feb 4
D
D
D
D
W
-
-
Feb 5—Feb 11
D
D
D
D
W
-
-
Feb 12—Feb 18
D
D
D
D
W
-
-
Feb 19—Feb 25
D
D
D
D
M
-
-
Feb 26—Mar 4
D
D
D
D
W
-
-
Daily backups run every workday except Friday, which is left for weekly and monthly backups.
Monthly backups run every fourth Friday, and weekly backups run on all other Fridays.
Monthly ("Grandfather") backups are full;
Weekly ("Father") backups are differential;
Daily ("Son") backups are incremental.
Parameters
You can set up the following parameters of a Grandfather-Father-Son (GFS) scheme.
Start backup at:
Specifies when to start a backup. The default value is 12:00 PM.
Back up on:
Specifies the days on which to perform a backup. The default value is
Workdays.
Weekly/Monthly:
Specifies which of the days selected in the Back up on field you want to
reserve for weekly and monthly backups. A monthly backup will be
performed every fourth such day. The default value is Friday.