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Summary



Tape retention period settings in DPX determine how many days must pass before backup job data is deleted from the catalog and the tape used for that backup expires. DPX stamps the tape with the retention period and does not overwrite the data on that tape until the retention period passes and the tape is freed for use by a catalog condense operation.

Resolution



The number of days before a tape expires and the backup data is deleted from the catalog can be set in several ways:

  • You can change the number for a specific backup job that has already run.
  • You can change the number for future uses of an existing job definition.
  • Set the number as a default for job definitions created later.

 

To change the tape retention period setting for a specific backup that has already run:

  1. From the Administrator Menu, click the Catalog button.
  2. On the Catalog Menu, click the Catalog Job Functions button.
  3. Select the appropriate job from the Catalog Job screen. Note that jobs starting with capital letters are sorted before jobs starting with lower case letters. For example, Xyz would appear before abc.
  4. Click the Retention button.
  5. Change the number of days in the Retention Period field.
  6. Click OK.

The changed setting will apply only to that specific job in the catalog. (Note that the countdown of days will run from the original date of the job, not from the day you edit the retention period.)

 

To change the tape retention period setting for future uses of an existing backup job definition:

  1. From the Administrator Menu, click the Backup button.
  2. On the Backup screen, click the Load Definition button (or select Open Backup from the File menu).
  3. From the dialog, select a backup definition to load.
  4. Click OK (or double-click the definition in the list).
  5. After the definition is loaded, click the Destination Options button (or select Destination Options from the Backup menu).
  6. From the drop-down list, select the Backup Type for which you want to change the tape retention period. (You can set a different time period for each of the three backup types - base, incremental, and differential.)
  7. In the Tape Retention field, enter the number of days after which a tape must expire and backup data must be deleted from the catalog.
  8. Repeat steps 6 and 7 for the other backup types, if necessary.
  9. Save the job definition with the same name.

The changed setting(s) will apply only to future jobs for which you use this job definition.

 

To set the default tape retention period for backup definitions not yet created:

  1. From the Administrator Menu, click the Configure button.
  2. On the Configuration Menu, click the Defaults button.
  3. On the Job Defaults menu, click the Backup Options button.
  4. On the Backup Global Options dialog, select the Destination radio button.
  5. From the drop-down list, select the Backup Type for which you want to set the tape retention period default. (You can set a different time period for each of the three backup types - base, incremental, and differential.)
  6. In the Tape Retention field, enter the number of days after which a tape must expire and backup data must be deleted from the catalog.
  7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 for the other backup types, if necessary.

These defaults will apply to all jobs defined later, unless the defaults are overridden in the job definition itself.

Notes:

  • DPX checks for retention period expiration as part of the catalog condense operation. If you do not perform a catalog condense, then expired tapes will not be freed for use and backup destination data will not be deleted from the catalog. Perform catalog condenses on a regular basis to make expired tapes available, to reduce the disk space required to store the catalog, and to reduce the time it takes DPX to search the catalog during various operations.
  • If you append data to a tape, the appended data can have a different retention period than the rest of the tape. Consequently, the data preceding the appended data can expire first. In such a case, DPX avoids using the expired portion of the tape (even after a catalog condense) to preserve the integrity of the unexpired data.