Patent ID: 8495315

Claim:
A method supporting compound disposition for data images, comprising: accessing a storage plan, wherein the storage plan identifies a plurality of storage destinations and one or more backup properties for each of the plurality of storage destinations, the storage plan applies to a plurality of backup operations across a plurality of volumes, the one or more backup properties comprise a backup retention policy for a backup image, the storage plan persistently retries a first backup operation of the plurality of backup operations until a determination is made that a longest retention period associated with the first backup operation has expired, if a failure of the first backup operation occurs during the first backup operation that prevents completion of the first backup operation; and the storage plan is stored in a single file or data structure separate from a backup process; performing the first backup operation, in response to the accessing the storage plan, wherein the performing complies with the backup retention policy; receiving user input modifying at least one of one of the plurality of storage destinations or one of the one or more backup properties of the storage plan for a particular copy of the backup images, wherein the modifying the storage plan produces a modified storage plan, and the modified storage plan persistently retries a second backup operation of the plurality of backup operations until a determination is made that a longest retention period associated with the second backup operation has expired, if a failure of the second backup operation occurs during the second backup operation that prevents completion of the second backup operation; and performing the second backup operation according to the modified storage plan, wherein the second backup operation is performed subsequent to the modifying, and the accessing, the performing the first backup operation, the receiving, and the performing the second backup operation are performed by a computing device implementing a backup module.