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When to configure a custom Snapshot policy

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If the default Snapshot policy is not appropriate for a volume, you can configure a custom policy that modifies the frequency, retention, and name of Snapshot copies. The schedule will be dictated mainly by the rate of change of the active file system.

You might back up a heavily used file system like a database every hour, while you back up rarely used files once a day. Even for a database, you will typically run a full backup once or twice a day, while backing up transaction logs every hour.

Other factors are the importance of the files to your organization, your Service Level Agreement (SLA), your Recovery Point Objective (RPO), and your Recovery Time Objective (RTO). Generally speaking, you should retain only as many Snapshot copies as necessary.