Backup management groups

Creating backup management groups enables you to designate various levels of backup retention, which facilitates your database backup strategy. The backup management group neither depends on nor enforces how often backups are performed. Backup management groups are only a backup labeling convention that you can assign to a backup set.

You can identify and group backups according to the operations to be performed on them: manual deletion, automatic deletion, and database verification.

When you explicitly delete multiple backups, you can specify that only backups belonging to a certain backup management group be deleted.

When you run or schedule a backup, you can specify how many of the most recent backups in a group you want to retain. Only backups of the specified backup management group are deleted.

When you run or schedule a database verification separate from the database backup operation, you can limit the number of backups you want to verify by specifying a particular backup management group.

The database Snapshot copy names and SnapInfo directory Snapshot copy names reflect the management group to which you assigned the backup.

• Backup management group assignments
  You can assign a backup to a Standard, Daily, or Weekly backup management groups. When you start or schedule a database backup, the Backup wizard and the Backup and Verify window use the Standard management group by default.
• Example using backup management groups
  You can use backup management groups to perform simultaneous backups, on a schedule that you can customize. You can schedule backups on a Standard, Weekly, or Daily basis using the backup management groups.
• Assigning a backup set to a different backup management group
  You can use the dialog box Change Backup Management Group to change the backup management group to which a backup set belongs.