The lifecycle of a backup set indicates the retention period of backup data that is stored in Database Backup (DBS). DBS dumps and clears backup sets based on the lifecycle rules that you specify. This topic describes lifecycle rules and how to manage the lifecycle rules of backup sets.
Lifecycle rules
The lifecycle of a backup set ranges from seven days to 3,650 days (10 years). DBS automatically deletes the expired backup sets from a backup schedule
if the backup schedule contains more than three full backup sets. If this condition is not met, DBS does not delete the expired backup sets.
You can wait for the next scheduled backup or manually back up data based on your business requirements. If the number of full backup sets exceeds three, the cleanup policy is triggered.
Manual backup: On the Full Data page, click Start Full Data Backup in the upper-right corner.
If you continue to manually delete full backup sets and the number of full backup sets is less than or equal to three, the cleanup policy for backup sets is not triggered. This causes that incremental backup sets are continuously stored in DBS, which occupies storage space. If you no longer need incremental backup, you can manually disable this feature. For more information, see Enable or disable incremental log backup.
If you modify the lifecycle of a backup schedule after the backup schedule is created, the new lifecycle rules apply to new backup sets and existing backup sets.
Modify and apply lifecycle rules
For more information, see Modify the backup policy of a backup schedule or Modify the lifecycle of a backup schedule.
Related operations
For more information about how to modify the lifecycle of a backup set by calling an API operation, see ModifyStorageStrategy.
For more information about how to view the backup size and reduce the number of data backups, see View and reduce the size of backup data.
For more information about how to manually delete a full backup set, see Delete a backup set.
FAQ
Q: The lifecycle of my backup schedule is set to seven days. Why are backup sets not deleted after they expire?
A: If the number of full backup sets in a backup schedule is less than or equal to three, the cleanup policy for backup sets is not triggered. In this case, expired backup sets are not automatically deleted.
Q: Why does an expired incremental backup still occupy storage space?
A: You may have manually deleted full backup sets. As a result, the number of full backup sets is less than or equal to three, and the cleanup policy is not triggered. For more information, see the Lifecycle rules section of this topic.