Question about backup copy retention

[martin_nz]

Hello,

I have a backup copy job that goes to NAS using a repository that i use for tape backups as the source. This runs each hour and is working fine. i also have 50 retention points set up on my backup copy job as i want this to be the location that the onsite admin can use to quickly restore data as the long term backup repository.

One thing I have been noticing is that I have 4 full backups at the beginning of my incremental chain:

19 March
23 March
27 March
4 April

I am trying to get my head around why these are created. They are obviously created once a week but the only retention settings i have turned on are to have a weekly retention carried out at 22:00 on Sunday and none of these seem to tally in with this or does the 22:00 setting on Sunday take the latest restore point (from the night before) and turn that into a full backup?

[Shestakov]

Hello Martin,
What is your source backup job schedule of full backups?
Behavior of weekly backup cycle of backup copy jobs is described here. Please get familiar.
Thanks.

[martin_nz]

Hi there
My source backup job has 21 restore points and is not set to do active full backups.

I did read over the behaviour document but it didn't make much sense.

[martin_nz]

Oh, FYI, my source backup job is a reverse incremental one as it goes to tape each weeknight

[foggy]

Source backup job mode does not matter.

What if you right-click this backup under the Backups node and open its properties? Do you see these full restore points there and how they are labelled?

[martin_nz]

Yes I see the full restore points and they are labelled as Full.

[veremin]

And they don't have GFS labels, such as "W", "M", "Q", "Y", correct?

[martin_nz]

Correct yes

[veremin]

May be there is compact full backup operation specified (Backup Copy Job -> Target -> Advanced -> Compact full)? Also, the screenshot of "target" settings will be helpful. Thanks.

[martin_nz]

Nope, there is no compact full backup set. the option is greyed out.

Here are my settings on the Target tab

[veremin]

Hmm, this looks strange, indeed. My guess would be that retention has been previously lower than it's now, and those points have been created as GFS files. However, the fact they don't have corresponding labels makes my theory untenable.

You can open a support ticket for closer investigation. Chances are, those points can be deleted smoothly, but let support team confirm that.

Thanks.