Feature Request: Different Retention for the Last Backup

[HelioCampos]

Proposal

Feature Request: Different Retention for the Last Backup

Description:

I would like to request a feature to support different retention periods for the lastest backup in the Percona Operator backup management system. Specifically, the ability to retain the lastest backup for a longer period (e.g., 6 months) while allowing the other old backups to follow the standard retention policy (e.g., 31 days).

Proposed Solution:

• New Retention Policy Type: Introduce a new retention policy type or flag for the last backup, which can be set to a custom retention duration (e.g., 6 months).
• Dynamic Retention Adjustment: When a new backup is created, the retention policy for the previous lastest backup should be automatically adjusted to a shorter period (e.g., 31 days).

This could be configured as part of the Percona Operator’s backup settings under spec.backup.retentionPolicy.

Example configuration:

spec:
  backup:
    lastestBackupRetentionPolicy:
      type: "last_backup"
      value: "6m"  # Keep the last backup for 6 months
    retentionPolicy:
      type: "time"
      value: "31d"  # Keep other backups for 31 days

Use-Case

Currently, the Percona Operator allows setting a single retention policy for all backups. However, in some scenarios, it’s beneficial to have a longer retention period for the most recent backup, ensuring it's kept for a specific time frame (e.g., 6 months) before it’s purged. Once a new backup is created, the retention period for the last backup would automatically change to a shorter duration (e.g., 31 days), and the cycle would continue.

This feature would be helpful in the following cases:

1. Legal or Compliance Requirements: Certain backups may need to be retained for a specific period (e.g., 6 months) for compliance purposes.
2. Business Continuity: It’s important to retain the most recent backup for a longer time, ensuring that it’s available for recovery in case of a failure or other issues.

Is this a feature you are interested in implementing yourself?

No

Anything else?

Benefits:

• Provides more flexibility for backup retention, supporting both long-term and short-term retention needs.
• Helps with compliance and business continuity without manually managing backups.
• Automates retention of backups in a way that adapts to changing backup cycles.

Additional Information:

• The retention policy for the last backup should automatically adjust when a new backup is created.
• This feature could be optional and should not break existing behavior for users who prefer a uniform retention policy.

Impact:

This feature would provide enhanced flexibility to backup management, making it easier to adhere to different organizational or regulatory requirements.

[spron-in]

Hey @HelioCampos ,

I have hard time understanding the use cases and the idea behind it. Few things:

1. Why can't you set retention of 6m for all your backups if there is a compliance need?

I would assume because of the storage consumption and/or time it takes to back smth up. Will incremental backups help here?

2. If there is a need to store backups for longer period of time than existing retention, you can just take manual backups as a workaround. I would also suggest to store them in a different storage or bucket. Can this help?