incremental backups dont get removed

[andreas2012]

Hi,

I have the following configuration https://postimg.cc/gallery/Gm8C8xq
As you can see we have 30 retention points, and synt full each saturday.
We had some issues with the synthetic full, it had not been working for several months, and we fixed this this week.
I believed that when the synthetic full backup was running, it should "compress" all the incremental, and then remove the old ones (more than 30 restore points)... but we still have 121 incremental files between 2 full backups.... why ?

Thanks for reply.

/R
Andy

[Mildur]

Hi andy

Looks like the wrong picture
Can you update the link?

[andreas2012]

Hi,

Updated

[Mildur]

Thanks
Veeam cannot remove the oldest restore points, because they are needed to restore the last 30 days.
With your policy to keep the last 30 days, veeam need to be able to restore all backups since Oct 28.
If veeam would remove all older increments before the 28th, it would not be able to restore the backups between the Oct 28th and the Nov 27th.

You need to let veeam run with weekly fulls for another 3-4 weeks, only then it will be able to remove the 121 increments.

Veeam don‘t do a „merge“ option to remove older restore points. That is only available for forever incremental chains, where the second oldest restore points gets merged daily with the full restore point.

[andreas2012]

Hi,

The screenshot does not show all the incrementals, the last ones are from august... should not those have been deleted ?
https://ibb.co/WKCrck8

[Mildur]

The screenshot does not show all the incrementals, the last ones are from august... should not those have been deleted ?

If there was no full backup between august and November to start a new backup chain, veeam cannot remove the increments yet. All increments and the fullbackup are needed todo the restore of the last days (Oct 28 until Nov 28) of the Backup chain.

[andreas2012]

Hi,

Hm.... having a hard time understanding this :/

There was a synthetic full backup 7/8-2021.... then incremental all the way until yesterday we did a synthetic full again.
When will the incremental files become fewer ? Sorry have such a hard time understanding this.... may be I need to sleep

[Mildur]

If you are doing now weekly synthetic fulls, veeam will remove the 121 increments on Dec 31st or Jan 1st or Jan 2nd.

It cannot remove a single restore point of the 121 increments before that date. It‘s simply not possible without lowering the short term retention.

In your Job, you are creating a forward incremental backup chain.

This type of backup chain exists always of a fullbackup and incremental backups depending on this full backup.
If you remove a single incremental from the chain, every following incremental backup until the next fullbackup is useless.

A new fullbackup creates a new backup chain. Because you had issues in the past with that, there is no new fullbackup. The fullbackup from the august and all 121 increments since then are a giant big backup chain which cannot be deleted until you have a new (or multiple) backup chains to cover the last 30 days.

Because of that, it is not possible to remove the 121 restore points yet. You want to restore the last 30 days. You have told veeam, that you do not want veeam to delete this restore points because you need to restore the last 30 days.

You can read more about it here, how the retention works and why you have more restore points as configured:
Forward Incremental Backup Retention Policy

[andreas2012]

Hi,

Thanks for answers, I now understand.

[Mildur]

Your welcome, Andy

[foggy]

Here's a good animation that illustrates how retention works for different backup methods.