How to Retain or Prevent a Backup Set from being deleted

Problem

How to Retain or Prevent a Backup Set from being deleted

Solution

If a Backup Set needs to be Retained for a longer amount of time, the set can be saved with Retain function.

Within a Server Resource or Disk Target, go to Backup Sets, select the backup set to retain and select Retain in the Ribbon Bar or right click and choose Retain in the menu. Backup Exec will prompt for the Backup set retention option to be selected (Do not retain, Legal, User defined, System defined) and then ask for an Explanation.  Once selecting the proper option and writing the explanation, Backup Exec will mark the set to be kept under the Retain Column. Note: the set will not be deleted until the Retain selection is removed.  Follow the steps again and choose Do not retain to remove the retention.

Applies To

Backup Exec (BE) 2012 added a new disk management function called Data Lifecycle Management (DLM). This allows BE to correctly manage disk targets and remove expired backup data. The Backup Definition (jobs) have a setting for how long the backup data should be kept. After that timeframe has expired, DLM will delete the backup sets from Disk. DLM checks for any expired data every 4 hours by default.

DLM is only used for Disk targets. Backup to Disk (B2D), Deduplication and Cloud.
Tape targets are managed by Media Sets like the previous versions of BE.