Data Aging - SAP for MaxDB iDataAgent

Table of Contents

Getting Started

Extended Retention Rules

Data Aging for Log Backups

Configuring Retention Rules for Backups

Configuring Retention Rules for Unlinked Log Backups

Data Aging Rules for Jobs Completed with Errors

Getting Started

Data Aging is the process of removing old data from secondary storage to allow the associated media to be reused for future backups.

By default, all backup data is retained infinitely. However, you should change the retention of your data based on your needs. Note that if you continue to have infinite retention, you will also need infinite storage capacity.

1.	From the CommCell Browser, navigate to Policies | Storage Policies.
2.	Highlight the Storage Policy.
3.	From the right pane, right-click the Storage Policy Copy and click the Properties.
4.	Click the Retention tab. Click the Retain For in the Basic Retention Rules for All Backups area. Enter number of days to retain the data. Enter number of cycles to retain the data. Click OK.
5.	From the CommCell Browser, click the Reports icon.
6.	Expand Reports and select Data Retention Forecast and Compliance.
7.	Click Run.
8.	The report will display the data to be pruned when a data aging job is run. To ensure only data intended for aging is actually aged, it is important to identify the data that will be aged based on the retention rules you have configured. Hence, ensure this report includes only the data you intend to age. If necessary, fine-tune your rules so that only the intended data is aged. Once you run a data aging job, the data will be lost.
9.	From the CommCell Console, right click the CommServe icon and click All Tasks | Data Aging.
10.	Select Immediate in the Job Initiation section and click OK.
11.	You can track the progress of the job from the Job Controller window. When the job has completed, the Job Controller displays Completed. Make sure that the job completes successfully. If the job did not complete successfully, re-run the job.

Extended Retention Rules

Extended retention rules can be used in the following circumstances:

• If you have a single drive tape library
• If you want to create a hierarchical retention scheme (grandfather-father-son tape rotation)

In all other cases, it is recommended that the Auxiliary Copy feature be used for extended storage as it actually creates another physical copy of the data, thereby reducing the risk of data loss due to media failure.

Understanding Extended Retention Rules

Extended retention allows you to retain a specific full (or synthetic full) backup for an additional period of time. For example, you may want to retain your monthly full backups for 90 days.

Extended retention rules allow you to define three additional "extended" retention periods for full (or synthetic full) backups. For example:

• You may want to retain your weekly full backups for 30 days.
• You may want to retain your monthly full backup for 90 days.
• You may want to retain your yearly full backup for 365 days.

A backup job will be selected for extended retention based on its start time. For example: If a backup job starts at 11:55 pm on August 31st and ends at 1 am on September 1st, then it will be selected as the last full backup for the month of August and will be picked up for extended retention.

Setting Up Extended Retention Rules

Right-click the storage policy copy and click Properties. Click the Retention tab. Set the basic retention rules by clicking Retain for and entering the number of days and cycles appropriate for your organization. Set the extended retention rules as follows: Click the For button. Enter the number of Days Total to retain the backup. Click the Keep drop-down list, and select the desired backup criteria (e.g., Monthly Full). Click the Grace Days drop-down list and select the number of days (e.g., 2). Repeat Step 4 to configure additional extended retention. Click OK.

Data Aging for Log Backups

The SAP for MAXDB iDataAgent uses the command line to perform the data and log backup operations. Log Backups are not considered part of the backup cycle. However, a log backup will be linked to a full data backup operation based on the type of backup job.

The following table determines the behavior and retention policy of log backups:

Configuring Retention Rules for backups

You can manually set the retention time for each command line job from the storage policy copy. The log backups will be aged according to the retention time set for its associated data backup job.

1. From the CommCell Browser, click the Control Panel button in the toolbar.
2. Double-click the Media Management icon
3. Click the Data Aging tab.
4. Select the Days to retain the jobs when cycles are ignored and retention days on copy is 0 option and set the desired number of retention days.
5. Click OK.

Configuring Retention Rules for unlinked log backups

If a full backup job is run on data and logs, then the next log backup will not be linked to this full backup job. An unlinked log backup will follow the unique data aging rules for log backups. Use the following steps to configure the retentions rules by set number of days.

1. From the CommCell Browser, click the Control Panel button in the toolbar.
2. Double-click the Media Management icon.
3. Click the Data Aging tab.
4. Select the Prune All Database Agent Logs Only By Days Retention Rule option.
5. Click OK.

Data Aging Rules for Jobs Completed with Errors

Jobs that are completed with errors are not treated as a valid full backup job and hence are pruned based on basic retention rules. However, if you require to apply extended retention rules to these jobs, you can exclude the jobs that completed with errors during extended retention calculations.

1. From the CommCell Browser, click the Control Panel button in the toolbar.
2. Double-click the Media Management icon.
3. Click the Data Aging tab.
4. Change the value for the Ignore Completed With Errors job option for Extended Retention calculations option from 1 to 0.
5. Click OK.