Step 11. Retention Policy

Specify the data retention policy whether the backup plan should use the global retention policy settings defined at the application level, or use individual retention policy.

Global Retention Policy Settings

You can specify a global retention policy for the entire application that will be applied to all newly created backup plans by default. To specify the global retention policy, switch to the Tools tab in the main application toolbar, click Options and navigate to the Retention Policy tab in the Options dialog that is invoked.

The following retention policy settings are available on this tab:

You can make a backup service delete file versions that were modified or uploaded to your backup storage more than a certain number of days ago. When enabling this option, you can also make the backup service always keep the last version of each file regardless of when they were backed up.
You can specify the maximum number of versions that a backup service should keep in the storage for each file.
You can specify a time period for which locally deleted files should be maintained in the backup storage before being purged. After these files become removed from the backup storage, you will no longer be able to restore them.

In addition, you can specify separate retention settings applied for the history that MSP360 (CloudBerry) Backup maintains on the History tab to keep track of any changes made to the local and target storages, as well as the local repository. The following retention policies are available for the backup history:

You can make the history keep records only for a certain period of time. Records will be deleted once they exceed the specified lifespan.
You can limit the maximum number of records that a history can maintain.

Specifying Custom Retention Policy Settings

You can make a backup plan use custom retention policy instead of using the default application's settings. The following retention policy settings are available on this wizard page:

You can make a backup service delete file versions that were modified or uploaded to your backup storage more than a certain number of days ago. When enabling this option, you can also make the backup service always keep the last version of each file regardless of their modification or upload date.
You can specify the maximum number of versions that a backup service should keep in the storage for each file.
You can specify a time period for which locally deleted files should be maintained in the backup storage before being purged. After these files become removed from the backup storage, you will no longer be able to restore them.

When enabling this option, you can also choose whether a backup service should prompt you before deleting such files by displaying a warning under the backup plan entry on the application's Backup Plans tab.

Clicking this warning opens a dialog window where you can choose whether to delete or keep each of these files.

When specifying the retention policy for your backup plan, consider enabling the "Save deleted data" option on the Advanced Options wizard page.

This option specifies whether or not the storage should keep locally deleted files.

When this feature is enabled for a backup, the Restore Wizard enables you to choose whether to restore copies of locally deleted files along with the rest of the recovered data.

Separate Retention Policy for the Local and the Cloud Storage

If you're creating a Hybrid backup plan, MSP360 (CloudBerry) Backup will allow you to configure a separate retention policy for both the local and the cloud storage. In this case the Retention Policy step of the Backup Wizard will feature a checkbox entitled Use different retention policy for local backup. Click it.

A retention policy configurator will pop up, enabling you to configure a separate retention policy for the local storage. When done, click OK.

From then on, MSP360 (CloudBerry) Backup will apply different retention policies to both the local and the cloud storage during the plan execution.