Hello,

for Netware, we keep 4 copies of each for 10 days. These numbers are
based on the restore needs we noticed in the past.
For specific directories, we do additional archive every week and month
(access db's, source programms...).

Regards, rl

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Yelle, Michael 2-3823 [SMTP:MGY4V AT HSCMAIL.MCC.VIRGINIA DOT EDU]
> Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 1998 4:25 PM
> To:   ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
> Subject:      Number of backup copies to keep
>
> Questions: What is a "reasonable and customary"  number of backup
> copies
> to keep? How long should they be kept? We are a University Hospital
> environment.
>
> Background: We use adsm to backup a number of Novell, Widows/NT and
> AIX
> boxes. We currently have 900+ gigabytes of ADSM managed data in a
> TAPEPOOL.  It is growing at about 100 gigabytes a month.  Our default
> policy currently is to keep 15 copies (VEREXISTS) of each file for 18
> months (RETEXTRA). We would like to reduce this value to control
> growth
> in the storage pool.
>
> For some of our data we have specific business requirements to keep a
> certain number of copies for a certain period of time. My question is
> not concerned with this data.  Rather it is directed at user data
> owned
> by many different people on Novell Fileservers. No specific retention
> business requirements have been mandated for this data.
>
> Any help would be appreciated.