PowerProtect Data Manager 19.12 Administration and User Guide

Retention locking

Retention locking prevents the deletion or alteration of data on a protection storage system for a specified period. PowerProtect Data Manager supports both governance mode and compliance mode retention locking for backups and replicas.

The PowerProtect DD documentation provides more information about each retention lock mode, including the differences between modes. Retention locking requires enablement and licensing on the protection storage system before use with PowerProtect Data Manager.

Retention locking is a two-stage process:

1. Create a storage unit on which you configure the appropriate retention lock mode. Configuration enables but does not activate retention locking.
2. Configure protection policies that both target this storage unit and activate retention locking. Toggling the retention lock setting for a protection policy activates retention locking in accordance with the configuration of the selected storage unit.

Once set, you cannot change the retention lock mode on a storage unit. To use a different retention lock mode with a protection policy, target a different storage unit. The original retention lock mode persists for existing backups or replicas that were created before the change.

The choice of retention lock mode may impact which protection policies can share a storage unit. Consider the retention lock settings when you design your storage unit architecture.