Pruning Backups for non-existant servers

[nhiorns]

Is there an automatic way to prune backups of servers that no longer exist?

We had a file server and this was migrated to a new file server (new name and OS). The old file server has been deleted but we still need to keep the contents for 2 years, however, as the server no longer exists it is not in the backup and so its backup files are no longer being pruned once it is greater than 2 years in age.

Is there a way to do this automatically or does it need to be done manually?

[Mildur]

Yes, you need todo a Veeam Backup File Compact Operation. Veeam will recreate the vbk file without the old deleted backup data blocks.

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=100

Removal of Deleted VMs Data

During the compact operation, Veeam Backup & Replication does not copy all data blocks from the VBK file to the newly created file. It copies only data blocks of VMs whose information is stored in the configuration database. For example, if the VM is removed from the backup job, its data is not copied to the new full backup file. This approach helps reduce the size of the full backup file and remove unnecessary data from it.

[Dima P.]

Hello Neil,

You can enable the retention for the deleted items in the vm backup jobs (for agents it's possible as well). Such retention will force the job to remove the backup files for the deleted VMs. Cheers!