Retention policy - 1 day possible?

[djxx]

Using Cloudron version 9, under Configure Backup Schedule & Retention is it possible to get an option for 1 day?

I store my backups on a ZFS pool, so I automatically get daily, weekly, and monthly snapshots of my data. Having this as 2 days causes me to spend 2x the storage space (and bandwidth) on backups.

[james]

Hello @djxx
Currently, no. The minimum is two days.
I am converting your topic into a feature request.

[girish]

This is possible via the API, just not via the UI.

[djxx]

@girish Great! Can you give an example of how, or point me to the documentation?

[james]

Hello @djxx
The API Documentation is still outdated.
But I can guide you.
Create yourself a Cloudron API Token, see https://docs.cloudron.io/profile#api-tokens

Get your backup site ID

export CLOUDRON_ACCESS_TOKEN="YOUR_TOKEN_GOES_HERE"
curl "https://my.cloudron.dev/api/v1/backup_sites?page=1&per_page=1000&access_token=${CLOUDRON_ACCESS_TOKEN}"

Example Output:

{
  "backupSites": [
    {
      "id": "3db47cce-dab7-46b6-9db3-1892ab14cd21",
      "name": "default",
      "provider": "filesystem",
      "schedule": "00 00 23 * * *",
      "format": "tgz",
      "enableForUpdates": true,
      "creationTime": "2025-10-10T08:12:57.000Z",
      "ts": "2025-11-10T11:22:44.000Z",
      "config": {
        "backupDir": "/var/backups"
      },
      "limits": {
        "memoryLimit": 1073741824,
        "uploadPartSize": 10485760,
        "syncConcurrency": 10,
        "downloadConcurrency": 10,
        "copyConcurrency": 10
      },
      "retention": {
        "keepWithinSecs": 172800
      },
      "integrityKeyPair": {
        "publicKey": "-----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY-----\nMCowBQYDK2VwAyEAZ18PRnLfQIf08IKl9bf9YkIHL7zT2eeeRJ8XuCx1+C0=\n-----END PUBLIC KEY-----\n"
      },
      "contents": null,
      "encrypted": false,
      "encryptedFilenames": false,
      "encryptionPasswordHint": null
    }
  ]
}

So the backup site ID is 3db47cce-dab7-46b6-9db3-1892ab14cd21.

Set the retention time in seconds:

export BACKUPSITE_ID="3db47cce-dab7-46b6-9db3-1892ab14cd21"
curl "https://my.cloudron.dev/api/v1/backup_sites/${BACKUPSITE_ID}/configure/retention?access_token=${CLOUDRON_ACCESS_TOKEN}" \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' \
  --data-raw '{"retention":{"keepWithinSecs":86400}}'

This will lead to a little buggy looking dashboard since there is no display option for values outside of the avaiable selections.

Normal 2 Days:

Set to 86400 seconds = 1 Day:

[djxx]

@james Thanks! This was helpful. I made this change. Looking forward to the next sync so I can see if the data has been cut in half.

[nebulon]

@djxx did this work out for you in the end?

[djxx]

@nebulon Thanks for checking! The UI change did take effect, and I do see a reduction of backup size - but it's not down to 1x the size of the backup. It's still 2x the size of the backup.

Inside the remote storage folder, I see:

• storage
• 2026-01-03-150000-664
• all other backups before

It looks like the latest backup also has a copy in "storage", which is still resulting in 2x the backup space for each snapshot being taken - because each day "storage" will change, and there will be a new folder added.

[nebulon]

This is a guess, but do you mean "snapshot" instead of "storage" ? If so yes the snapshot contains the first snapshot of the app and then the data is rotated (copied) over from there to the final destination. This does add one extra storage on disk of the same data.

To avoid having this extra copy on disk, you can use the rsync storage format with hardlinks.

[djxx]

Yes - you're right it's "storage". I have been meaning to try the rsync instead of zip, but it does warn that it's not a good idea for lots of files. I'll give it a try. Thanks!