| Tier | Frequency | Copies | Per backup | Storage (raw) | Storage (net) | Coverage | Copy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| {{ row.tier }} | {{ row.frequency }} | {{ row.copies }} | {{ row.sizePerBackup }} | {{ row.rawStorage }} | {{ row.netStorage }} | {{ row.coverage }} | |
| Total | {{ totalBackups }} | {{ totalStorageRawReadable }} | {{ totalStorageReadable }} | {{ coverageHorizon }} |
Use these observations to prioritise storage remediation or policy tweaks.
No insights yet—adjust retention or compression to surface guidance.
Backup retention schedules are layered sets of incremental and full copies that preserve recent changes and keep longer history as space allows. Many teams use them to balance recovery speed, coverage length, and storage cost.
The model helps you reason about grandfather father son backup rotation planning with concrete numbers. You provide typical change volume and a full copy size, then choose how many daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly copies to keep. The result estimates storage after compression and deduplication and reports how far back you can roll.
A common setup might keep two weeks of incrementals with four weekly fulls and a year of monthly fulls. With modest compression and a small growth rate, the footprint often lands well below a raw sum and the longest window still reaches many months.
Results depend on your inputs and policy choices, so revisit them whenever data growth accelerates or retention targets change. Use consistent units and comparable periods so trends are clear across reviews.
The planner models two quantities: the size of each stored backup and how many copies you retain over a time window. Incremental backups capture changed data since the last point, while full backups capture the entire dataset. Compression reduces each backup before storage, and global deduplication removes repeated blocks across all copies. Grandfather–Father–Son (GFS) is treated as a layered policy of daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly tiers.
For each tier, an effective per‑backup size is computed from the base measurement and a compression ratio. A simple growth factor inflates sizes for older tiers to reflect increasing data volume over time. Net storage is then the raw tier total after a deduplication savings percentage is applied.
Results include totals for raw and net storage across all tiers, the number of stored copies, and the maximum protection window (“coverage horizon”) implied by your daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly selections. Comparisons are most meaningful when the same units and growth assumptions are used between runs.
| Symbol | Meaning | Unit/Datatype | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entered size values | MB, GB, TB | Input | |
| Binary exponent for unit | 2 for MB; 3 for GB; 4 for TB | Constant | |
| Compression ratios | dimensionless (≥ 1) | Input | |
| Monthly change rate | percent (0–50) | Input | |
| Coverage days per tier | days | Derived | |
| Copies retained per tier | count | Input | |
| Global dedupe savings | percent (0–80) | Input | |
| Effective size after compression | bytes | Derived | |
| Raw and net storage per tier | bytes | Derived |
Repeat the same steps for weekly, monthly, and yearly tiers to obtain raw and net totals and the longest coverage window.
| Field | Type | Min | Max | Step/Pattern | Placeholder/Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daily incremental size | number + unit | 0 | — | 0.1; MB/GB/TB | Pre‑compression change volume |
| Full backup size | number + unit | 0 | — | 0.1; MB/GB/TB | Pre‑compression full footprint |
| Daily incrementals retained | integer | 0 | — | 1 | Copies |
| Weekly full backups | integer | 0 | — | 1 | Copies |
| Monthly full backups | integer | 0 | — | 1 | Copies |
| Yearly archives | integer | 0 | — | 1 | Copies |
| Monthly change rate | slider | 0 | 50 | 1 | Percent |
| Full compression | number | 1 | — | 0.1 | Ratio |
| Incremental compression | number | 1 | — | 0.1 | Ratio |
| Global dedupe savings | slider | 0 | 80 | 1 | Percent |
| Preset | select | — | — | Custom, GFS, Compliance, Cloud snapshot | Applies tested recipes |
| Input | Accepted Families | Output | Encoding/Precision | Rounding |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sizes & counts | Numeric fields with units | Table totals & coverage | Binary multiples (B–EB) | 0 or 1 decimal as above |
| Exports | CSV, DOCX, JSON (optional) | Structured breakdown | Locale‑neutral text & JSON | Stable formatting |
Computation, exports, and charting are performed in the client. No data is transmitted to a server or stored beyond your explicit file downloads.
Time and memory scale with the number of tiers (four fixed layers). The calculator is deterministic: identical inputs produce identical outputs.
Backup retention sizing from inputs to interpreted totals.
Example: 60 GB incremental, 500 GB full, 14 daily, 4 weekly, 12 monthly, 2 yearly, 5% growth, 30% dedupe. The model returns multi‑terabyte raw storage and a lower net footprint with a months‑long window.
No. Calculations, charts, and exports are generated locally. Nothing is sent to a server; files save only when you choose to download.
Clipboard and download permissions depend on your browser.The model applies constant compression, a global dedupe percentage, and linear monthly growth by average age. It is a planning estimate, not a capacity guarantee.
Binary multiples are used for conversion and display. Values scale from bytes through exabytes, with 0 or 1 decimal shown as described above.
Once the page is open, calculations and exports work without a network connection. Refreshing may require network access depending on how the page was loaded.
Select the matching preset or set 7 daily incrementals, 4 weekly fulls, 12 monthly fulls, and 2 yearly archives. Adjust compression, growth, and dedupe to fit your environment.
It is the longest protection window implied by your tiers. For example, 12 monthly fulls yield roughly one year, even if daily or weekly tiers are shorter.
Use CSV for tables, JSON for programmatic use, or DOCX for a formatted brief. Clipboard copy is available for quick pastes into tickets or notes.
No licensing terms or pricing are included in this package. Treat the output as informational planning material unless governed by your internal policies.