A retention range is the duration of time for which the data should be available for recovery. DPM retains recovery points for the duration specified in the retention range. Any day that the replica is not consistent does not count toward the retention range. When DPM protection is stopped temporarily because the replica is inconsistent, DPM does not delete expired recovery points until protection resumes.
For example, if you specify a retention range of 10 days, on day 1, recovery points are created. On day 2, the replica becomes inconsistent. On day 3, the scheduled consistency check runs and the replica is made consistent. Because the replica was inconsistent for one day, the recovery points from day 1 are not deleted until after day 11.
Retention Range for File Data
For file data, using the Create New Protection Group Wizard, you can select a retention range between 1 and 64 days for short-term disk-based protection, up to 12 weeks for short-term tape-based protection, and up to 99 years for long-term tape-based protection. DPM can store a maximum of 64 recovery points for each file member of a protection group.
For example, if you select to synchronize before each recovery point, schedule 6 recovery points daily, and set a retention range of 10 days, recovery points for the files in that protection group would never exceed 64. However, if you choose a combination of settings that exceeds the limit of 64 recovery points, DPM warns you during the configuration process so that you can modify your selections; you cannot configure a protection configuration for files that exceeds the 64-recovery-point limit.
Retention Range for Application Data
For application servers, you can use the Create New Protection Group Wizard to select a retention range between 1 and 64 days for short-term disk-based protection, up to 12 weeks for short-term tape-based protection, and up to 99 years for long-term tape-based protection.
For example, if you select to synchronize every 15 minutes and you set a retention range of 10 days, those recovery goals would result in a protection plan that maintains 960 recovery points for application data in that protection group after the initial 10 days of data protection.