PowerScale OneFS 9.2.1.0 CloudPools Administration Guide

Retention parameters

The following archive policy retention periods affect the deletion date:

• Cloud Data Retention Period specifies the retention time of cloud data beyond the time when an associated local SmartLink file is deleted. The default setting is one week.
• Backup Retention Period for NDMP Incremental Backup and SyncIQ specifies the retention time of cloud data whose SmartLink file is backed up by an incremental NDMP backup, or replicated by a SyncIQ operation. If a local SmartLink file is deleted, you can restore the SmartLink file copy, and access the cloud data. The default setting is five years.
• Full Backup Retention Period for NDMP Only is the retention time of cloud data whose SmartLink file is backed up by a full NDMP backup. If a local SmartLink file is deleted, the SmartLink file copy is restored from the backup, and users can access the cloud data. The default setting is five years.

When a SmartLink file is replicated to a secondary cluster and is then deleted from the primary cluster, CloudPools considers all those settings to determine when to delete the associated cloud objects.

• CloudPools first determines which workflows affect the deleted file. CloudPools considers only the settings that apply to the relevant workflows. For example, if an NDMP file was never fully backed up, CloudPools does not consider the Full Backup Retention Period for NDMP Only parameter to determine when to delete associated cloud objects for that file.
• CloudPools uses the longer of all the appropriate durations to determine when to delete cloud objects.

If you delete a SmartLink file on the secondary cluster (because the primary cluster is temporarily unavailable), the deleted state remains in cache. When you fail back to the primary cluster, CloudPools deletes the SmartLink file. CloudPools uses the retention settings to determine when to delete the associated cloud data.

You can view retention values using the following command:

isi filepool policies view <policy-name>

For example:

# isi filepool policies view my-policy
   .
   .
   .
              Cloud Data Retention: 1W
Cloud Incremental Backup Retention: 5Y
       Cloud Full Backup Retention: 5Y

Deletion date calculations

Each retention parameter is a delta time in seconds. When certain events happen, one of the retention values is added to the current time to create an absolute future time. That time is compared to the file deletion date. If the new time is farther in the future, it becomes the new deletion date.

The new deletion date is calculated as follows:

• When SyncIQ or NDMP copies a SmartLink file, either the Backup Retention Period for NDMP Incremental Backup and SyncIQ or Full Backup Retention Period for NDMP Only value is used to calculate the new deletion date.
• When the file is recalled, the Cloud Data Retention Period value is used to calculate the new deletion date.
• When the file is deleted, the appropriate retention period as described in the previous topic is used to calculate the deletion date.

Garbage collection occurs after the deletion date. The cluster that has cloud access to the cloud account that archived the file performs the garbage collection. See the isi cloud access add command.

Attempts to read a SmartLink file whose cloud data was garbage collected fail. For example, a SmartLink file on a SyncIQ target cluster does not work if the cloud data was deleted. Similarly, a SmartLink file that is restored from an NDMP backup does not work. This situation typically occurs only if the policy on the SmartLink file uses small values for the retention parameters.