WORM retention policies

Problem

The Flex WebUI, when it asks for the Minimum and Maximum retention periods for the WORM storage defines a month as 30 days.  NetBackup, however, defines a month as 31 days.  Because of this difference, when NetBackup configures, for example, a 3 month retention policy it fails because it wants to keep the image for 93 days (31 X 3), but the WORM storage if it was configured with a Maximum retention period of 3 months (as it defined a month as 30 days), the max would be 90 days.  This mismatch in retention period definitions will cause backup failures if the NetBackup retention period equates to a longer number of days than the WORM definition of a month (or a multiple thereof). 

Error Message

Backups will fail.

Cause

Retention period definition misalignment between Flex's WebUI's definition and subsequent configuration of the WORM retention periods and NetBackup's definitions.

Solution

Choose retention periods that are longer than the NetBackup retention periods, if you want 3 months (NetBackup policy), then select at least 93 days in the configuration of the WORM container in the Flex WebUI.

Alternatively SSH into the WORM storage with msdpadm and set the values (in seconds) from there with the following command:

setting WORM set-max worm_max=XXXXXXXX

Example command: setting WORM set-max worm_max=8640000 (100 days in seconds)

{Note: If NetBackup policy retention is less than WORMstorage server maximum retention, then backup data will not reside on WORMstorage till the maximum retention is reached.}