Change the computer backup retention policy

Published: October 20, 2010

Updated: March 30, 2011

Applies To: Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials

Daily backups of all your computers accumulate on your server over time. To help you manage these backups, Windows SBS 2011 Essentials can help you manage the database of computer backups. You can configure how many backups to keep for all your computers.

The Backup Retention Policy determines how long a backup is kept before it is deleted during the backup cleanup process. Backup cleanup runs on Sunday each week. It deletes all the backups that fall outside the Backup Retention Policy. The defaults for the Backup Retention Policy are:

  • Retain daily backups for 5 day. The first backup of the day is retained as the daily backup. After 5 days, the oldest daily backup is deleted in the cleanup process.

  • Retain weekly backup for 4 weeks. The first backup of the week is retained as the weekly backup. After 4 weeks, the oldest weekly backup is deleted in the cleanup process.

  • Retain monthly backups for 6 months. The first backup of the month is retained as the monthly backup. After 6 months, the oldest monthly backup is deleted in the cleanup process

Note

If you stop backing up a computer, Windows SBS 2011 Essentials continues to apply the backup retention policy settings for the computer. For example, assume that the Backup Retention Policy settings are set for 3 days, 3 weeks, and 3 months. If you stop backing up a computer, Windows SBS 2011 Essentials continues to keep the last 3 daily backups, the first backups for the last 3 weeks, and the first backups for the last 3 months for that computer.

To change the computer backup retention policy

  1. Open the Dashboard.

  2. Click the Computers and Backup tab.

  3. Click Additional client computer backup tasks in the Tasks pane.

  4. On the Additional client computer backup tasks, in the Client computer backup retention policy section, make the changes to the retention policy that meet your needs.

  5. When you finish, click OK to apply the changes and close the dialog box. The updated retention policy will be applied the next time that backup cleanup runs.

Note

The updated retention policy applies to all of the client computers on your network that are configured for backup.