Can I safely delete old VRBs from a backup chain?

[cparker4486]

I'm going to make new v8 jobs to replace my legacy v7 jobs. In v7 I used forward incremental and I don't want the corresponding VRB files to remain intact forever so I plan to delete the oldest VRB each day. At some point I'll be left with just the VBK file(s) which I will send to my archive storage.

Is this safe?

[Shestakov]

Hello Chris,
To say the truth I`m a bit confused here: vrb stands for Veeam Reverse incremental Backup, and you are talking about forward incremental backup method. Could you clarify it?
In v8 recommended backup method is Forever Forward Incremental. Please check if it fits your needs.
Also, if you describe your use case in detail, it would be easier for me to give you a relevant suggestion. Thanks!

[foggy]

Also, what is the purpose of re-creating the jobs? Or do you have a separate v8 instance (not an in-place upgraded v7)?

[cparker4486]

My mistake! I did mean to say Reverse Incremental.

But now you're making me rethink my plan... The biggest motivator is that I generally like to start clean when major changes are involved, like the change between v7 to v8. Another reason was to rename the job (which, in previous versions at least, doesn't work as expected.) Having said that, renaming is not a critical change I need to make.

I have three jobs: Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3. T1 has its own Copy job to remote storage. T2 and T3 are copied through another Copy job to the same remote storage. Will I have a problem in the Copy job, that handles T2 and T3, if I change from Reverse Incremental to Forever Forward Incremental and enable encryption for T3 only?

[veremin]

Nope, you shouldn't. Thanks.

[cparker4486]

I think the Veeam UI needs to be improved such that it is clear how to enable the Forward Incremental-Forever backup type. I was about to post here saying that this backup mode was not working but found out (http://forums.veeam.com/veeam-backup-re ... 24239.html) that it's because I had "create synthetic backup" checked.

To be honest I think the UI for this is quite poor and should be changed soon. This is a big new feature but the UI does zero to indicate it.

Maybe the clearest way to solve this is for there to be three Backup Modes: Reverse Incremental, Forward Incremental-Forever, and Incremental.

[Gostev]

Chris, thing is you don't need to "enable" forward incremental forever backup, as it is the default mode. Your confusion comes from the fact that your are an existing user with existing jobs created (an good understanding of how things worked before). While UI is really aimed at the new users unfamiliar with the product.

I agree that documentation for the existing users can be improved, and I should have probably included this explanation in What's New even (although that bullet was already pretty long).

Thanks!