Need help with understanding backup retention policies + potential clashes

[proxymoxyabc]

Hello, I'm running proxmox VE 7.3. I currently have 2 backup schedules with the following retention policies:

1. Backup weekly, with retention keep-monthly=12, for all VMs
2. Backup daily, with retention keep-daily=15, for a special subset of VMs.

My intention is that I want retain weekly backups for all VMs for the past 52 weeks, and for a subset of the more important VMs, also keep daily backups for the past 15 days. However, it seems like my setup is incorrect, as I'm noticing that:

• rule 1 appears to be keeping only the end-of-month weekly backups for all VMs that are not in the special subset.
• in the special subset of VMs that rule 2 also applies, it seems like the backups made from rule 1 that are older than 15 days are being erased.

So, if I wanted to implement my intention correctly, what would be the correct setup? Is it this (change to rule 1)?

1. Backup weekly, with retention keep-weekly=52, for all VMs
2. Backup daily, with retention keep-daily=15, for a special subset of VMs.

But if my suspicion is correct regarding the clashing of rule 2 on rule 1 - as in, the keep-daily=15 is deleting the weekly backups - then how should I properly configure this?

Thanks

 

[Dunuin]

Hello, I'm running proxmox VE 7.3.

You should upgrade as you are running a server with unpatched vulnerabilities and bugs. At least upgrade to 7.4. But PVE 7.4 will be End-of-Life this summer too and then an upgrade to PVE8 would be required for a secure system.

My intention is that I want retain weekly backups for all VMs for the past 52 weeks

Then you should set it to keep-weekly=52 and not keep-monthly=12.

in the special subset of VMs that rule 2 also applies, it seems like the backups made from rule 1 that are older than 15 days are being erased.

You could set the retentions of the backup jobs to keep-all and then set the retention of the backup storage to keep-daily=15 + keep-weekly=52.
Or set retention of both backup jobs to keep-daily=15 + keep-weekly=52.

PS: There is also a prune simulator: https://pbs.proxmox.com/docs/prune-simulator/

 

[proxymoxyabc]

You should upgrade as you are running a server with unpatched vulnerabilities and bugs. At least upgrade to 7.4. But PVE 7.4 will be End-of-Life this summer too and then an upgrade to PVE8 would be required for a secure system.

Thanks for the reminder on upgrading proxmox VE. Will definitely do that.

You could set the retentions of the backup jobs to keep-all and then set the retention of the backup storage to keep-daily=15 + keep-weekly=52.
Or set retention of both backup jobs to keep-daily=15 + keep-weekly=52.

PS: There is also a prune simulator: https://pbs.proxmox.com/docs/prune-simulator/

Thanks, will try that out!