policy-creation.md

copyright	years 2025
lastupdated	2026-03-12
keywords	policy
subcollection	backup-recovery

{{site.data.keyword.attribute-definition-list}}

Policy Creation

{: #baas-policy-creation}

This section explains how to create Protection Policies on your {{site.data.keyword.baas_full}} instance.

A Protection Policy is a reusable set of rules that defines:

• When to back up your data (schedule).
• How long to keep the backups (retention).
• Advanced settings like retries and DataLock.

Policies can be applied to various sources, including physical hosts, VMs, databases, and Kubernetes clusters.

Before you start

{: #baas-policy-creation-before-you-start}

Ensure that you have the following:

1. An active IBM Cloud Platform account{: external}.
2. A deployed and accessible {{site.data.keyword.baas_full_notm}} service instance.
3. Appropriate service access privileges (Writer or Manager) to create or manage policies.

Access can be assigned by your account administrator via Identity and Access Management (IAM). {: note}

Accessing the {{site.data.keyword.baas_full_notm}} dashboard

{: #baas-access-dashboard}

To manage policies, you must first access the {{site.data.keyword.baas_full_notm}} instance dashboard:

1. Verify that your IBM Cloud Platform account{: external} has access to the required {{site.data.keyword.baas_full_notm}} service.
2. Go to Navigation Menu > Backup and Recovery.
3. On the Backup service instances page, use the search bar to find your instance by name.
4. Identify the instance with Active status and click its name.
5. On the instance details page, click Launch dashboard.

Creating and managing protection policies

{: #baas-policy-creation-config-protect-job}

Create a protection policy

{: #baas-policy-creation}

1. In the dashboard, go to Data Protection > Policies.
2. Click Create Policy.
3. Enter a Policy Name.
4. Configure the Backup Schedule (frequency and timing).
5. Set the Retention Period for your snapshots.
6. Configure the DataLock.
7. Click Create.

Your new policy is now ready to be assigned to Protection Groups.

Detailed management tasks

{: #policy-detail-task}

For more specific configurations, refer to these guides:

• Creating and configuring protection policies: In-depth steps for schedules and retention.
• Manage policies: View, update, disable, or delete policies.
• DataLock: Enable or manage DataLock settings for compliance protection.
• Extended retention: Set up long-term archival rules.

Next steps

{: #bass-policy-creation-next-steps}

Now that you have a policy, go to Protection Groups to apply it to your workloads and start protecting your data.