Time variation protection for snapshots

Abstract

Techniques for data management are described. A monotonically increasing time source that indicates an elapsed time since a reference event may be activated. Multiple snapshots of a computing object may be generated in accordance with a schedule for backing up the computing object, where the schedule may include a retention duration for retaining snapshots. Based on generating the snapshots, timestamps for the snapshots may be stored, where the timestamps may indicate respective values of the monotonically increasing time source. As part of an expiration job, a reference value of the monotonically increasing time source may be identified based on the retention duration and a current value indicated by the monotonically increasing time source. Also, a snapshot of the snapshots may be expired based on a timestamp of the snapshot corresponding to a value of the monotonically increasing time source that is less than the reference value.