Avamar: Backup retentions are longer than expected due to the "minimal retention" setting
Summary: Setting the "minimal retention" causes backups to be retained longer than expected.
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Symptoms
Client (or group) backups have a longer expiration than the set retention period.
For example, the retention is set to 14 days, but the backups are created with a longer expiration such as 60 days.
The configuration has been verified as correct.
Cause
The "Minimal Retention" setting is active and is set to retain backups longer than the retention period chosen for the client or group.
Information about the "Minimum Retention" from the Administration Guide:
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Enables you to enforce a minimum basic retention setting across an entire site
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For example, you can keep all backups for at least 90 days regardless of what other retention policies specify
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This feature is intended to address the need of some enterprises to enforce site-wide minimum retention standards regardless of what individual organizations might decide to implement with other retention policies
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The Minimal Retention policy is a global system object that controls only the minimal retention setting. Therefore, you cannot assign the Minimal Retention policy to a group
Resolution
1. Check the minimal retention setting in the UI:
(Tools, Manage Retention Policies, Minimal Retention, Edit):

2. If it is higher than the required retention, either decrease the value or disable the setting.
Additional Information
The backup expiration can be reviewed in various places:
- Backup and Restore interface
- MCCLI:
mccli backup show --name=/client/clientname.domain.com
- Avtar log (
avtarInfo "<7539>" message)
2015-04-12 12:25:35 avtar Info <7539>: Label "test-1asw1429800813", scheduled to expire after 07/11/15 (2015-07-11 11:23:20 UTC)
Affected Products
AvamarProducts
AvamarArticle Properties
Article Number: 000038468
Article Type: Solution
Last Modified: 14 Nov 2025
Version: 9
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