Storage lifecycle policy overview

A storage lifecycle policy is a storage plan for a set of backups. A lifecycle policy is configured within the Storage Lifecycle Policies utility.

Essentially, a lifecycle is a list of destinations where copies of the backup images are stored, along with the prescribed retention period for each copy. After a lifecycle is configured, the lifecycle process works to create copies of the images on each destination. NetBackup retries the copies as necessary to ensure that all copies are created.

Lifecycles offer the opportunity for users to assign a classification to the data at the policy level. A data classification represents a set of backup requirements, which makes it easier to configure backups for data with different requirements. For example, email data and financial data.

Storage lifecycle policies can be set up to provide staging behavior. They simplify data management by applying a prescribed behavior to all the backup images that are included in the storage lifecycle. This process allows the NetBackup administrator to leverage the advantages of disk-based backups in the near term. It also preserves the advantages of tape-based backups for long-term storage.

A storage lifecycle operation consists of the following steps:

More Information

“To create a storage lifecycle policy”

Creating a storage lifecycle policy

Adding a storage destination to a storage lifecycle policy

Data classification option

LIFECYCLE_PARAMETERS file for optional duplication job configuration

Using the nbstlutil command to administrate lifecycle operations