Enabling Long-term Retention for the VPGs

Follow this procedure to enable Long-term Retention for a VPG.

Long-term Retention can be enabled at the same time when you first create the VPG to protect virtual machines.

You can also enable Long-term Retention by editing an existing VPG.

Note:  

Long-term Retention is not available when the VPG is recovered to a Public Cloud.

Before you begin

• Verify that a Repository was created where the Retention sets will be saved. Repositories are created and configured via the SETUP tab. For more information, see Creating a New Repository for Retention.

To enable Long-term Retention for a VPG:

1. Toggle Long-term Retention from OFF to ON.

The options on the screen become available.

Note: When a VPG is recovered to a Public Cloud, Long-term Retention is not available.
2. Select the Target Repository from the drop-down list. This is the name of the Repository where the Retention sets are written. The Connection Type and Path of that Repository appear after selecting the Target Repository.
3. (Optional) In the Guest Services area, click the button VM Settings to enable File System Indexing and Application-aware Retention for the virtual machines.

The Guest Services Settings window is displayed.

Specify the File System Indexing and Application-aware Retention settings for the VMs:

Set File System Indexing for all VMs

Select this checkbox to enable File System Indexing for all the VMs in the selected VPG.
VM Name

This column lists the name of the available VMs.
File System Indexing

Select this in order to select the virtual machines where File System Indexing will be performed.

(VMware vSphere only)

Application Aware Retention

Select this in order to select the virtual machine where you will enable Application-aware Retention. Only one virtual machine can be selected. . 

(VMware vSphere only)

Credentials

Click to select the Alias that matches the Credentials for the selected virtual machine. The Credentials are used by Application-aware Retention to access the VM and trigger the VSS mechanism, according to the scheduled Retention process time.

4. In Retention Summary, define the scheduling. Set the time to start the Retention process in the area Run all Retention processes at.

Note: For Amazon S3 and Microsoft Azure Storage Repositories, you might be charged with higher retrieval costs and early deletion fees when the repository is configured on top of a non-Standard storage class, and some of the data is expected to be retained for less than 30 days.
• The time is shown in UTC and is according to the Zerto Virtual Manager clock in the production site. All Daily, Weekly, Monthly or Yearly retentions will run at this time.
Note: Retention process can be triggered within 12 hours from the scheduled run time.
• Daily and Monthly retentions are toggled ON by default, and their default Retention scheduling settings appear in the rows Schedule, Type and Keep For.
• By default, all Retention processes are scheduled to run on the same day.
R

Tip:  When needed, you can manually run the Retention process ad-hoc. For more information, see Manually Running the Retention Process.

5. (Optional) Toggle the Daily, Weekly, Monthly or Yearly retentions from OFF to ON. Their default Retention scheduling settings appear in the rows Schedule, Type and Keep For.
• The Retention setting Keep For is the length of time to keep the Retention sets. For details of how this affects the number of Retention sets saved, see Storing Retention Sets.
6. To change the default settings, click the edit icon next to each Retention setting and configure the following:
Setting & Description Select...
Daily

Click the edit icon. The Daily Retention window is displayed.
• Run at: The time set to run all Retention processes. This field cannot be edited from the Daily Retention window.
• Keep For: Define the number of days to keep the Daily Retentions. A rotation of the Retention process will be performed to enforce the predefined Retention.
Weekly

Click the edit icon. The Weekly Retention window is displayed.
• Every: Run a Retention process every selected day of the week.
• Type: Select Full or Incremental from the drop-down menu.
• Full: All the data is copied to the Repository.
• Incremental: Only the changes from the last Retention process are copied.
• Run at: The time set to run all Retention processes. This field cannot be edited from the Weekly Retention window.
• Keep for: Define the number of weeks to keep the Weekly retentions. A rotation of the Retention process will be performed to enforce the predefined Retention.
Monthly

Click the edit icon. The Monthly Retention window is displayed.
• Run a Retention process on the first, second, third, fourth or last selected day of each month. For example, you can choose to run a Retention process on the last Sunday of each month.
• Or, you can run a Retention process on a specific date of the month up to the 28th and last. For example, you can choose to run a Retention process on the 12th of each month.
• Type: Select Full or Incremental from the drop-down menu.
• Full: All the data is copied to the Repository.
• Incremental: Only the changes from the last Retention process are copied.
• Run at: The time set to run all Retention processes. This field cannot be edited from the Monthly Retention window.
• Keep for: Define the number of months to keep the Monthly Retentions. A rotation of the Retention process will be performed to enforce the predefined Retention.
Yearly

Click the edit icon. The Yearly Retention window is displayed.
• Run a Retention process on the first or last selected day of the year. For example, you can choose to run a Retention process on the last Sunday of each year.
• Or, you can run a Retention process on a specific day and month of the year. For example, you can choose to run a Retention process every 12th of July.
• Run at: The time set to run all Retention processes. This field cannot be edited from the Yearly Retention window.
• Keep for: Define the number of years to keep the Yearly retentions. A rotation of the Retention process will be performed to enforce the predefined Retention.
7. For advanced settings, click Advanced. See

See also:

• Long-term Retention - Overview
• Workflow: Using Zerto’s Long-term Retention
• Creating a New Repository for Retention
• Manually Running the Retention Process
• Monitoring and Managing Long-term Retention on page 1