When a file is backed up it is bound to a Management Class. The Management Class dictates how versions and retention for the file will be handled.

See also: Policy Domains and Management Classes

See also: Includes and Excludes

Within a Management Class several settings can be specified:

• Number of versions to keep
  • If client data exists
  • If client data is deleted
• Length of time to retain extra backup version (number of days to keep inactive versions of files)
• Length of time to retain only backup version (number of days to keep the last backup version of a file that has been deleted)

A commonly used Management Class is the default Management Class in the 3VER30DAYS Policy Domain.

• Number of versions to keep
  • If client data exists: 3
  • If client data is deleted: 1
• Length of time to retain extra backup version: 30
• Length of time to retain only backup version: 30

What this means is files will have up to 3 versions if the file exists for 30 days. If the file is deleted, only the most recent version will be retained for 30 days.

NOTE: If a file exists and is backed up there will always be at least one version of the file in the backup system.

So, imagine a file is created and backed up on day 1. Then the file is edited each day for the next 4 days and backed up each night. No further changes are then made to the file until day 60. Then on day 75 the file is deleted. The following shows what is stored in Bucky Backup:

• Day 1
  • File version 1 is created
• Day 2
  • File version 1
  • File version 2 is created
• Day 3
  • File version 1
  • File version 2
  • File version 3 is created
• Day 4
  • File version 1 is now deleted from backups because it retains a max of 3 version
  • File version 2
  • File version 3
  • File version 4 is created
• Day 5
  • File version 2 is now deleted from backups because it retains a max of 3 version
  • File version 3
  • File version 4
  • File version 5 is created
• Day 6
  • File version 3
  • File version 4
  • File version 5
• ...
• Day 34
  • File version 3 is now deleted from backups because it is over 30 days old
  • File version 4
  • File version 5
• Day 35
  • File version 4 is now deleted from backups because it is over 30 days old
  • File version 5
• Day 36
  • File version 5
• Day 37
  • File version 5 is retained forever if the file exists on the node
• ...
• Day 60
• File version 5
• File version 6 is created
• ...
• Day 75
• The file is deleted.
• File version 5 is deleted from backups because only 1 version is retained of deleted files
• File version 6 is now retained for 30 days because the file has been deleted from the node
• ...
• Day 105
  
  • File version 6 is now deleted from backups because it does not exist on the node and is over 30 days old