Create a backup policy

A policy bundles a schedule, a retention rule, and a storage destination – separate from any data source so you can reuse it.

In the dashboard

Open Backup policies

Open app.norcube.com, switch to Backup, and click Backup policies → New backup policy.

Fill in the form

Name – daily-7day, hourly-prod, weekly-archive. Something you'll recognise in a list.
Schedule – a 5-field cron expression. The form shows a plain-English translation as you type so you can sanity-check.
Timezone – the timezone the schedule is interpreted in. DST shifts move the schedule with the wall clock.
Retention – pick one or both:
- Keep for N days – delete backups older than N days.
- Keep last N – always keep the N most recent backups, even if they're older than the day cap.
Destination – which storage destination backup files land in. Defaults to a Norcube-managed destination; you can also pick a bring-your-own (BYO) destination you've already set up.

Save

Click Create. The policy isn't doing anything yet – it needs to be attached to a data source.

Schedule examples

Need	Cron
Every day at 03:00	`0 3 * * *`
Every 6 hours	`0 /6 * *`
Every Monday at 01:30	`30 1 * * 1`
Twice a day at 02:00 and 14:00	`0 2,14 * * *`
Every weekday at 23:00	`0 23 * * 1-5`

Edit a policy

Open the policy in Backup policies, click Edit, change any field, and save. Cron and timezone changes take effect on the next scheduling tick.

Retention changes apply to future retention worker passes – existing backups are re-evaluated under the new rules. If you tighten retention, older backups are deleted on the next pass. If you loosen it, you can't restore backups that were already deleted under the old rule.

Delete a policy

In Backup policies, open the row's action menu → Delete. Confirm.

Deletion is blocked if the policy is still attached to one or more data sources – detach it first. Job records that were created under this policy are preserved in history.