01-01-2025, 10:54 AM
The documentation is quite clear on what happens when incrementals and full versions fall off the retention policy and become pruned by means of either deletion, merging in order to keep the chain intact, or a combination depending on the policy.
However, imagine the simple scenario where a monthly full backup and daily incrementals are scheduled with both full and incrementals retained for 3 months each.
My question is what happens at the beginning of the "fourth" month when the first full backup expires? Does this first full backup get merged with the first incremental, and then merging takes place each day to scoop up the incremental created the following day (3 months ago)? A merge each day sounds a bit absurd and resource costly, so I can imagine something else happens instead.
However, imagine the simple scenario where a monthly full backup and daily incrementals are scheduled with both full and incrementals retained for 3 months each.
My question is what happens at the beginning of the "fourth" month when the first full backup expires? Does this first full backup get merged with the first incremental, and then merging takes place each day to scoop up the incremental created the following day (3 months ago)? A merge each day sounds a bit absurd and resource costly, so I can imagine something else happens instead.