Data Retention
The Backup Retention default time is one week (10080 minutes). This is a global parameter, affecting all backups.
This parameter can be modified by setting the backup-lambda’s RetentionTimeMin parameter.
The retention process is governed by the backup Lambda, and executed by a dedicated EC2 instance. The instance is invoked on demand to perform the backup retention job, and terminated after the job is done.
Each backup contains the data modification from its preceding backup. For more information, see Backup Structure.
In the retention process, the data that is no longer needed (i.e., the data that is unique for the retired backup) is deleted. All metadata objects belonging to the retired backup are deleted as well.
Lightbits backups are incremental. Therefore it is important not to define lifecycle rules on the S3 bucket. This could delete data that is required for the backup, as it may invalidate the backups.