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:

A backup is written to all destinations in the lifecycle.

This process can occur if the NetBackup administrator has set up a lifecycle policy that contains at least one backup destination. The policy that writes the data must indicate that the backup data is to go to a lifecycle policy.
NetBackup automatically copies the image to all duplication destinations in the lifecycle. The backup is retained on the backup destination until the retention period is met. Duplication destinations are optional and can provide another method for disk staging.
The retention type that is selected for the destinations determines how long the backup resides on the destination. Eventually, NetBackup deletes the backup from the destinations to create more disk space.