Understanding active full

[Massimo]

Hello,
I have a problem with a backup job. The support told me I should start a new active full.
Before to do that I need to understand what means create a new active full.

Some information about my system:
- The full backup .vbk is about 6.5 TB.
- The backup job has 18 VM.
- The error is on the biggest VM - about 85% of the whole data.
- A full backup on tuesday with rollback.
- Incremental for the rest of the week.
- The last 6 incremental are about 1.5 TB
- The last 6 rollback are about 150 GB

I don't have enough space for an active full if I don't convert the last incremental to rollback.
What is the correct way to do it using the least disk space?

If I remove the VM from the job and I create a new job with only the VM with the error, it could be a good choice?
The others VMs will be backup with the actual job, and tomorrow it will be created the new full and then all the incremental will be reverted.
In the meantime a new job will create a new full backup of the server with problems.
Will it work?

Thank you.

ID# 00712381

[Vitaliy S.]

Hi Massimo,

I don't have enough space for an active full if I don't convert the last incremental to rollback.
What is the correct way to do it using the least disk space?

Convert restore points to rollbacks or switch to forever forward incremental backup mode (new mode in v8)

If I remove the VM from the job and I create a new job with only the VM with the error, it could be a good choice?

In this case you will have a backup for that VM, obviously it is a good thing

The others VMs will be backup with the actual job, and tomorrow it will be created the new full and then all the incremental will be reverted.
In the meantime a new job will create a new full backup of the server with problems.
Will it work?

Yes, do not see any reasons why two separate jobs will not work.

Thanks!

[Massimo]

Hi Vitaly and thanks for the answer.

Convert restore points to rollbacks or switch to forever forward incremental backup mode (new mode in v8)

I let veeam create the rollbacks after the new weekly full backup.
Is it possible to do it anytime?

Yes, do not see any reasons why two separate jobs will not work.

I'm sure it works, but my doubts are about the savings of disk space.

Thank you.

[Massimo]

If I remove the VM from job A and I create a new job B with that VM, will I be able to restore the VM from the old restore points of the job A?

If I want to go with the active full, will all the old .vib files be reversed?

[veremin]

If I remove the VM from job A and I create a new job B with that VM, will I be able to restore the VM from the old restore points of the job A?

Correct.

If I want to go with the active full, will all the old .vib files be reversed?

The previous restore points will be converted, if you use not active but synthetic full backup and enable corresponding option.

Is it possible to do it anytime?

This script should allow you to run synthetic full on demand.

Thanks.

[Massimo]

Thanks for all the answers.

This script should allow you to run synthetic full on demand.

I don't see the script.

I never used script with veeam. Is it enough a simple double click?

[veremin]

I've updated the link already. It's simple powershell code that can be executed either manually or automatically via Windows Scheduler. Thanks.

[Massimo]

Great! Thanks.

This evening is planned the weekly synthetic full.
If I launch a full synthetic backup now what will happen this evening?
Will it be created a new synthetic backup?

[veremin]

The .vibs will be injected inside .vbk file. With corresponding option being enabled, the previous restore points will be converted to rollbacks. Thanks.

[Vitaliy S.]

Massimo,

BTW, why don't you want to switch to forever incremental without synthetic/active fulls and delete all "expired" restore points according to the retention policy settings? Are you on v8?

[Massimo]

v7