Setting Synthetic Full after Backup Chain Created?

[aaron@ARB]

Hi all,

Just a quick question.. Can you select the Synthetic full backup option after a backup chain has been created? I am currently in the middle of rebuilding my test environment so I cannot check at the moment. I remember in one of the previous versions once the chain was created the option was not adhered to unless it was set prior to the chain commencing.

Just checking if that was still the case or can you have normal incrementals running and then set the Synthetic Full option for a day (say today) and then run the job and have it create a synthetic full backup and then roll up the changes into a new single new 'synthetic' VBK?

Cheers,
Aaron

[Shestakov]

Hi Aaron, yes you can set the synthetic full option even if the job has a chain of backups.
Thanks

[aaron@ARB]

Great thanks, ill test this later today

[aaron@ARB]

Hi Aaron, yes you can set the synthetic full option even if the job has a chain of backups.
Thanks

I tested this and it didn't work.

The process for testing this was

1) I run an active full backup
2) Run 3 incremental backups

3) Set option to run Synthetic Full on Monday

4) Start job again..... it just runs an incremental not a synthetic full.

Please advise.. I will log a support ticket also

[Mike Resseler]

I'm not sure if this is the case, but you already have a full (I know it is an active full and not a synthetic). Normally there is only once a day a synthetic full created so I feel this might the issue. I would change the synthetic schedule to Tuesday and see if tomorrow a synthetic is taken. Also note that it first takes an incremental, and then it builds a synthetic full (see here for the explanantion: https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... tml?ver=95)

[Shestakov]

Mike is correct, you need to wait for a day to check if the option works.
Synthetic full should be the first job run of the day.
Thanks!

[aaron@ARB]

Thanks Mike & Nikita for clearing that up for me, ill report back tomorrow but im certain it will be perfectly fine!

Reading that Doco link Mike, Is there a way to roll up all the incrementals into a new backup chain and start again? So for example, I have a full VBK and 6 incrementals (for a total of 7 restore points), then once the synthetic is taken, it starts again at 1?

The reason for this is that we use tape and cycle them through weekly, and I dont want to store more than 1 full backup on the tape.

[Shestakov]

Yes, if you enable Transform previous full backup chains into rollbacks check box, the older full backup will be eliminated in accordance with retention.

[foggy]

You can also set retention to keep just a single restore point, in this case the first full with corresponding increments will be removed right after creating a new full. This setup is not typically recommended, though.