Microsoft SQL Server Backup Policy Retention: Behavior and Recommendations

When a Microsoft SQL Server Backup Policy fails consistently for an extended period, restore points created by that policy may be removed if the Remove deleted items data after option is enabled in that policy.

This behavior occurs because the Remove deleted items data after option is designed to remove restore points for databases that are no longer being processed, such as those that were dropped, renamed, or excluded from the policy. For each database, the logic measures the time since the last successful backup. If that interval exceeds the configured period, the database is treated as no longer processed and its existing restore points are removed. A database that is still in the policy scope but whose backups are failing produces the same signal as one that was intentionally removed. Once the failure window exceeds the configured period, all restore points for that database are removed.

To eliminate the possibility of this issue potentially impacting deployments, customers are advised to either:

• Upgrade to Veeam Backup & Replication 13.1, in which this option has been disabled and removed from the software.
  
  or
• Reconfigure all Microsoft SQL Server Backup Policies and turn off the Remove deleted items data after setting.