Archiving

by Jan 12, 2012

My question is how archiving policy works here in uptime like
if i set archive policies like

overall CPU/Memory Statistics 36months
Multi-CPU Statistics 36months
Detailed Process Statistics 36months
Disk Performance Statistics 36months
File System Capacity Statistics 36months
Network Statistics 36months
User Information Statistics 36months
Volume Manager Statistics 36months
Retained Data 36months

and if i Enable archiving.than what does that means
question
that means 36 months of data for these stats will be archived at start of every month?
will archived data be included in report generation if i give time period in which archive data falls?
if i donot enable archiving what will happen?lets say i have not enabled archiving for 3 years than do i have 3 years data always available to generate a report for complete past 3 years?