Yes, that is what Retain Extra Versions means, but only if you set the
Backup Versions to Keep to No Limit.

In the GUI interface for the Backup Copy Group, if you set Backup
Versions to Keep to 7, and set Retain Extra Versions to 180, the result
is that a user can have up to 7 backup versions of a file, but they can
only be up to 180 days old.

If a user creates a file and changes it 6 days, there will be one active
and 6 inactive backups.  The next time the user changes the file it gets
backed up again, and the oldest backup copy goes into the bit bucket.
There are still 7 backup versions.

If the user stops changing the file, the extra backup versions age up to
180 days.  As each of the inactive copies gets to be 181 days old, it
gets deleted as well.

The active (most current) backup version is never deleted.

We have found that using the two parms together is the most effective,
and generally gives the users what they want.  In your scenario, a user
can never get back a delete file that is more than 5 weeks old.

In my example, they can get back a deleted file up to 180 days old, but
never have more than 7 copies outstanding.


> ----------
> From:         Richard
> Walls[SMTP:Walls_Richard_C/cpslo_employee1 AT polymail.cpunix.calpoly DOT edu
> ]
> Sent:         Friday, August 08, 1997 12:50 PM
> To:   ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
> Subject:      Backup Strategy
>
> We are just beginning to implement ADSM and already we are losing
> control of our tape pool. Our users would like to be able to retrieve
> data as far back as six months as well as have seven generations of
> backups. It seems to be possible to have *180 copies* of a file that
> gets changed every day if Retain Extra Versions is set to 180! Is that
> correct?
>
> What I would really like to do is something similar to the way we do
> mainframe backups. A full volume backup on Sunday followed by
> incrementals Monday - Saturday. The incrementals (6 GDG's) are rolled
> by
> the next Sunday backup. Weeklies kept 5 generations.
>
> Is this possible in ADSM by using a combination of backup and archive
> copy groups? Is anyone doing anything like this?
>
> Any advice is appreciated.
>
> Rich
>