Restore points questions

[rpatty]

I'm confused about how Veeam handles restore points and the backup files. Not sure if these are technical issues or just misunderstandings on my part.

1. Number of restore points. For one of my jobs I've got it set to 8 restore points, but when I look in storage at that folder, I see something like 15 different files, 1 per day for the past 15 days. I am running daily partials and fulls on Saturday. Do those Saturdays count outside of the 8? Even allowing for 2 of those (and shouldn't there only be 1 since it's a Thursday?) I'd expect at most 9 total backup files. Why do I have 15?

2. If I change the number of restore points, does that kick in immediately, or does each backup job have its own flag? That is to say, if I run it for a few weeks with 15 restore points and then cut it down to 8, should it clean up 7 old jobs the next time it runs, or will those old jobs still have a separate "keep 15" flag that has to age out a week later before I end up with only 8?

3. Backup files are sometimes all together with the job name, sometimes broken into different machine names. One of my jobs, with 8 machines, runs once daily and just has one large file with all the machines in it. Some of my other jobs, one with 2 machines, one with 13, will create a separate file for each machine that's part of the job, each day. Why would this be inconsistent? Is there a setting I'm glossing over that controls whether they're grouped or separate?

Thanks.

[PTide]

Hi and welcome to the community!

1. That is by design, please check the "Forward Incremental" animation in the very bottom of this article.
2. New retention settings will be applied in the end of a backup job run.
3. Yes, there is a special setting for that, it is called "per-VM backup files".

Thanks

[rpatty]

PTide, thanks for the help

2 and 3 - Got it, makes total sense.

For #1, I'm still a bit confused. I'm using Incremental backups rather than Forward Incremental, so I'm not sure if that still applies? If it does, I guess it's saying that:
* the Saturday fulls don't count
* the partials only count if they point back to a full
* nothing gets deleted until there's enough new partials to completely meet the 8 days, so ...
* it's stockpiling a whole bunch of older fulls and partials, because the whole heap of them is required to support what might just be a little bit at the tail of the week

Do I have that right? If so, does that mean it's a little more efficient to pick retention policies just under a week (6 or 13 days, say) rather than 8 or 15 days, to avoid having an "extra" week tacked on to the end? Or am I overthinking this?

Thanks.

[PTide]

I'm using Incremental backups rather than Forward Incremental, so I'm not sure if that still applies?

Yes, it still applies. Since you have weekly full backups scheduled on Saturday your backup method is called "Incremental" or "Forward Incremental" (unless you've selected "reverse incremental" radio-button).

the Saturday fulls don't count

They do.

the partials only count if they point back to a full

Right, partials (incrementals) rely on a full backup in the beginning of the chain.

nothing gets deleted until there's enough new partials to completely meet the 8 days, so ...

Exactly! In your case you get this kind of a backup chain (capitals are for FULLS):

SAT-sun-mon-tue-wed-thu-fri-SAT = 8 points in total

Now, it cannot just delete the trailing part behind the second SAT, as that would be against retention policy. The chain will keep growing until there are 8 restore points starting from the second SAT. Check this explanation.

* it's stockpiling a whole bunch of older fulls and partials, because the whole heap of them is required to support what might just be a little bit at the tail of the week

No, the trailing part before the second SAT is self-sufficient and is only required to comply with the retention settings of 8 restore points.

If you want to have exactly the amount of backup files that you've specified, you should switch to forever forward incremental backup.

Thanks

[quasardan]

Hi,
I have setting up 7 day retention policy. Why I find 15 restore points??
How can I have 7 REAL restore points?

[DGrinev]

Hi Dan and welcome to the community!

You will find answers in the discussion above.
Please try to use forum search or read the user guide articles prior asking basic questions. Thanks!

[PTide]

Hi and welcome to the community.

I have setting up 7 day retention policy. Why I find 15 restore points??

Would you provide some details about your retention settings? How many times a day do you start a backup?

Thanks