Create monthly backups from client computers

[severt]

I want to be able to backup our client computers on a monthly basis and no more then 1 recovery point.
So I created a backup job, managed by agent, to a Veeam backup repository (iscsi).
For the schedule I used the "backup no more often than every 30 days"

However, each month it's adding incremental backup files to my storage.
How can I make sure there's just ONE backup file to restore without doing a complete backup every month?
Is it possible to have one full-backup file and just 1 incremental file that changes each month?

Or should I write a script to delete the incremental before the backup takes place?
I prefer to just overwrite the latest incremental of course, but perhaps I'm over complicating things.

Any suggestions?

[Mildur]

Hi Dennis

Why only once per month? When you do a restore, you have to deal with expired computer passwords (if active directory joined) or windows/application updates which needs to be redone again.
I recommend considering to run the backup more often.

Is it possible to have one full-backup file and just 1 incremental file that changes each month?

1. Disable regular full backups.
2. Configure your retention policy to keep 2 restore points.
3. Configure the scheduler to run once per month.

That should work. When the backup runs, it will create a new incremental backup and then it will merge the full backup with the first incremental. After the merge process, you will have the new full backup and the new incremental backup.
https://www.veeam.com/kb1932

Or should I write a script to delete the incremental before the backup takes place?

Not recommend. This would mess with the configuration database.

Best,
Fabian

[severt]

Thank you Mildur for your reply.

I've looked at your proposed settings but can't seem to find them.
My process is as follows:

-New job to backup a Workstation managed by Agent.
-Backup mode is the Entire Computer
-Destination is Veeam backup repository (iSCSI to our Qnap NAS)
On this "storage" screen I have stated to keep backups for 1 days (excluding days with no backup)
And the others options (keep certain full backups longer for archival purposes) and (configure secondary destinations for this job" are disabled.

Then, when clicking the advanced button the option for synthetic full backup and active full backup are disabled.
On the schedule I have selected to backup at the following events: "When backup target is connected" and "backup no more often than every 30 days.

So unfortunately I don't see the " retention policy to keep 2 restore points".

Am I missing something?

Thank you,
Dennis

[severt]

Would you mind giving me a reply Fabian?

[Mildur]

Hello Dennis

I apologize. I thought retention type "restore points" is available for such jobs but it's only available for server backup jobs. Workstation backup jobs won't have that option.

How many restore points can you see for a single workstation with your setting?

Best,
Fabian

[severt]

Thanks for your reply!

That's hard to say because it exeeds my drive capacity that I set for this.
But it doesn't stop at one or two because some computers have 1 full backup and 2 incremental already.

It seems like the only way is to delete the previous full backup and do it all over each month.
But some computers might not be online at the time of backup, or not long enough to create a full backup again.
And that makes the whole progress a hands-on thing each month, which I wanted to overcome.

[Mildur]

Hi Severt

Thanks. If it's always three, maybe our safeguard feature of the "days" retention type is responsible to keep at least 3 restore points. With retention type "days", we always keep the last three backups when the machine is still added to a job. It's possible that you could face that situation.

There is a registry key which controls this behavior. The key can lower the minimum amount of restore points to keep.
It can be obtained via a support case. Please open a case and ask for that registry key:
https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=120

Consider the following for the daily retention policy:

The minimum number of retained restore points is 3. This number does not depend on the number of days set in the retention policy. For example, the retention policy is set to 5 days. You launch the job after it was stopped for 10 days. Normally, Veeam Backup & Replication will delete all previous restore points. However, due to the minimum number of retained restore points, you will still have at least 3 restore points: the newly created restore point and the two previous ones.

You can change the minimum number of retained restore points with a registry value. For more information, contact Veeam Customer Support.

Best,
Fabian