How does RBackup manage backup file retention and purging of old backups?

RBackup can be set to retain backups by the number of most recent versions, and by number of days. In addition there are a number of adjustments that you can make to the data retention rules.

One popular method is to tell RBackup to retain backups for a number of days. This can range from 1 day to 99999 days. Some people use longer retention periods to accomplish Archival services. For example, emails can be retained for 10 years. As backup versions age, RBackup purges the oldest ones, day by day.

Another popular way is to set a number of versions to keep. With this method RBackup retains the most recent number of versions. For example, if set to "3" this will always keep the most current three versions regardless how old they are. Like the first method, this one will purge the oldest versions as newer versions are backed up, but always keeping the most current three (or whatever you set it for.)

Both of these methods can be modified by our "Keep Latest Version" rule, which can tell RBackup to ignore the file retention periods if there is only one copy of a backup, and it is the most recent. This ensures that regardless how often backups are purged, or how they are purged, you always have at least one backup, and that it is always the most recent.

All of these rules can be applied separately to different Backup Sets. So, it's possible to (as an example) tell RBackup to keep 10 years of emails, while keeping only 30 days of MS Office backups. A separate Backup Set can (at the same time) tell RBackup to keep only the most current 3 versions of Quickbooks backups.

The system can manage an unlimited number of Backup Sets, so you can easily design a complex (or simple) file retention strategy for any company.