Backup Schedules and Retention
Understanding how backup schedules and retention rules work helps you balance protection coverage against storage usage. This guide explains the options available and our recommended settings for different scenarios.
Backup schedules
The schedule in your protection plan defines when backups run automatically. You can configure:
- Frequency — hourly, daily, weekly, monthly
- Time — the time of day the backup starts
- Days — for weekly schedules, which days of the week
Recommended schedules by use case
| Use case | Recommended schedule |
|---|---|
| Office workstation | Daily at 02:00, Mon to Fri |
| Always-on server | Daily at 02:00, every day |
| Critical database server | Every 4 hours |
| Development or test machine | Weekly on Sunday at 02:00 |
| Archive or reference data | Monthly on the 1st at 02:00 |
Editing a schedule
- Log in to https://cyberprotect.bamboozle.me.
- Click Plans in the left sidebar.
- Click the plan you want to edit.
- Click Edit plan.
- Expand the Backup section and adjust the schedule settings.
- Click Save.
[SCREENSHOT: Protection plan edit screen with schedule settings]
Backup schemes
The backup scheme controls how full and incremental backups are combined:
Weekly full, daily incremental (recommended)
- A complete full backup runs once per week (usually on Sunday night).
- Incremental backups run daily, capturing only data that changed since the previous backup.
- Provides a good balance between storage efficiency and restore speed.
Always full
- Every scheduled backup is a complete full backup.
- Uses the most storage but is the simplest to manage.
- Fastest to restore from as there is no dependency chain between backups.
Always incremental
- Only changes since the last backup are captured every time.
- Uses the least storage but restoring requires replaying a chain of incremental backups.
- Not recommended for critical systems due to longer restore times.
Custom
- Define exactly which days run full backups and which run incremental.
- Useful for specific compliance or operational requirements.
[SCREENSHOT: Backup scheme selection screen]
Retention rules
Retention rules define how long backups are kept before being automatically deleted. Without retention rules, your storage will fill up over time.
By number of backups
Keep only the most recent X backups. Once the limit is reached, the oldest backup is deleted each time a new one is created.
Example: Keep the last 30 daily backups.
By age
Keep backups for a defined period of time, then delete them automatically.
Example: Keep backups for 90 days.
Recommended retention settings
| Backup frequency | Recommended retention |
|---|---|
| Hourly | Keep for 7 days |
| Daily | Keep for 30 days |
| Weekly | Keep for 3 months |
| Monthly | Keep for 1 year |
[SCREENSHOT: Retention rules configuration screen]
If you need to retain backups for compliance or legal reasons, contact Bamboozle Support to discuss long-term archival storage options.
Checking storage usage
To see how your backup storage is being used:
- Click Backup storage in the left sidebar.
- The storage overview shows total usage, usage per device, and a breakdown of backup archives.
- Click on any archive to see the individual recovery points it contains and the size of each.
[SCREENSHOT: Backup storage overview screen]
Manually deleting old backups
If you need to free up storage space immediately:
- Go to Backup storage.
- Select the archive you want to manage.
- Click Show recovery points.
- Select the recovery points you want to delete.
- Click Delete.
[SCREENSHOT: Recovery points list with delete option]
Deleted recovery points cannot be recovered. Make sure you no longer need the data before deleting.
Storage quota alerts
You will receive an email notification when your backup storage reaches 80% and again at 95% of your allocated quota. To increase your storage quota, contact Bamboozle Sales or your account manager.