RETENTION POLICIES FOR UNSCHEDULED REPLICAS IN BACKUP, SNAPSHOTS, AND REMOTE REPLICATION

Example embodiments of the present invention relate to methods, systems, and computer program products for determining replicas for removal from a plurality of replicas. The method includes identifying a set of user conditions associated with time windows as defined in a data retention policy. The method further includes, for each user condition, determining a plurality of replicas satisfying the user condition having a time value in the associated time window and, if the plurality of replicas exceeds a maximum for the user condition as defined in the data retention policy, removing extraneous replicas from the plurality of replicas so the plurality of replicas does not exceed the maximum for the user condition.