Expiring backups manually

HYCU for Azure expires backups automatically according to the retention period that is set for the backup data in the policy. However, if there is a restore point that you do not want to use for restoring data anymore, you can at any time expire it manually. You can do this also for restore points whose backup status is Failed or Aborted if you want to free storage space.

A restore point represents data that was backed up at a specified point in time. Your restore point can contain one or more tiers—Backup, Copy, Archive—that can be marked as expired also individually. Keep in mind that the Catalog tier cannot be marked as expired.

t Tip  By pausing on the tier indicated by an icon in the Details section of the Virtual Machines panel, you can check the backup, copy, and/or archive expiration time.

You can mark as expired one of the following:

  • Whole restore point

    Make sure that all tiers are marked for expiration.

  • One or more tiers

    Make sure that only tiers that you want to expire are marked for expiration.

i Important  Marking a restore point or its tiers as expired cannot be undone.

To access the Virtual Machines panel, in the navigation pane, click  Virtual Machines.

Procedure

  1. In the Virtual Machines panel, click the virtual machine for which you want to expire a backup. The Details section appears at the bottom of the screen.

    n Note  The Details section appears only if you click a virtual machine. Selecting the check box before the name of the virtual machine will not open the Details section.

  2. In the Details section, select the restore point that you want to mark as expired.

  3. Click  Expire.

  4. Make sure the tiers that you want to mark as expired are selected:

    • Backup (Snapshot)

    • Backup (Target)

    • Copy

    • Archive - daily

    • Archive - weekly

    • Archive - monthly

    • Archive - yearly

    The tiers that are available for expiration are based on the options that you set in your policy. By selecting all the tiers, you mark the entire restore point as expired.

  5. Click Yes to confirm that you want the selected tiers to be marked as expired.

HYCU for Azure automatically removes the expired backup during the next retention maintenance task.