Retain forever & Retain as per policy options are only available on an immutable RSV

Question

Hi Team,

I am unable to get the "Retain forever" & "Retain as per policy" options in backup vault with non-immutable vaults. Are these options being only available for immutable vaults only. If yes, do we have a document for the same?

Answer 1

Immutable Vaults guarantee data integrity and prevent deletion before the retention period expires, making "Retain forever" and "Retain as per policy" meaningful options.

Answer 2

@Narendra Kandula Yes, the "Retain forever" and "Retain as per policy" options are indeed only available for immutable vaults. These options are designed to ensure data integrity and prevent deletion before the retention period expires, which is why they are meaningful in the context of immutable vaults. Please refer to the GitHub conversation on this topic - https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/azure-docs/issues/120897

Also check the official documentation - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/backup/backup-azure-immutable-vault-how-to-manage?tabs=recovery-services-vault though it is not explicitly mentioned but the instructions apply to immutable vault.

For non-immutable vaults, should you choose to stop protection and retain backup data for Azure Backup products (*MARS requiring extra steps Manage and monitor MARS Agent backups - Azure Backup | Microsoft Learn), the existing recovery points are retained indefinitely. This means the backups will be kept forever unless you manually delete them. If you choose to stop protection and delete backup data, all recovery points will be deleted immediately. However, if soft delete is enabled, the deleted data will be retained for an additional 14 days to protect against accidental deletions.

Hope this clarifies. Please tag me if you reply if you have any further questions on this.

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