Backup Retention

[handian.sudianto]

Hello,

I create a new VBR job from last week, the full synthetic backup always running on Saturdays and backup retention set to 3 days and i got result like this.
On Saturday i have full backup but from Sunday until Thursday i got incremental for each days, so i have 1 full backup (saturday) and 5 incremental (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday).
Why i got 5 incremental even i set retention is for 3 days?
On my mind the result should be :
Saturday is full backup and Tuesday - Thursday is incremental and should no incremental for Sunday and Monday. I'm right?

[Mildur]

Hello Handian

A forward incremental backup chain always requires the full backup from Saturday and all subsequent incremental files to restore from Thursday.
If we delete Sunday and Monday, the following backups can not be restored:
- Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday

Please see our user guide for the explanation:
https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=120

In your case, a backup retention of 3 days will keep backups for 7-10 days.

Best,
Fabian

[handian.sudianto]

what on my mind is :
Saturday is full backup, Monday - Tuesday is three 1st incremental then
incremental on Wednesday will overwrite incremental on Monday
incremental on Thursday will overwrite incremental on Sunday
incremental on Friday will overwrite incremental on Tuesday

Next Saturdays will be full backup again so on 2nd Saturdays i have
1 full backup on previous Saturdays
3 Incremental backup (Wed - Fridays)
1 Full backup on current Saturdays.

Please confirm if my mind is wrong?
Also if we need restore to Tuesdays point, VBR will restore from Saturdays full backup then restore from Tuesday incremental or VBR will restore from incremental on Monday and Sunday also?

[Mildur]

If you want to "overwrite increments" every three days, you need to disable your weekly full backup. Then you will have always a single full backup and only 3 incremental backups. A backup copy job could create the weekly full backups you still want to have.

Also if we need restore to Tuesdays point, VBR will restore from Saturdays full backup then restore from Tuesday incremental or VBR will restore from incremental on Monday and Sunday also?

The Full Backup and all incremental restore point of that chain are required.
Your Tuesday backup only contains data blocks which have changed between the backup on Monday and Tuesday. Other data blocks are stored in your full backup file and Sunday/Monday incremental file.
--> Therefore when you restore a file or entire machine, VBR will access the entire backup chain (VBK + VIB) and reads data blocks from the correct backup file as required.

Best,
Fabian

[handian.sudianto]

Hello Fabian

If we see on the https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=120 for 7 retention backup chain will contains one full backup and 6 incremental.
My job set the retention to 3 days and contain one full backup and 3 incremental, on my mind based on the article for 3 restore points i should only have one full backup and 2 incremental, am i right?

[Mildur]

Hi Handian

I deleted your other topic. Please do not create the same question twice.
For retention type „days“:
If the job only creates one incremental per day, you will see 1 full and 2 incremental. If the job creates 2 incremental backups on 1 day, you will see more.

May I ask, why you use such low retention settings? This is a bad idea (for saving disk space?).

Example:
Attacker encrypts your data on friday. On monday, the last healthy backup from friday morning is deleted. You won‘t be able to restore.

I suggest to reconsider your backup strategy. You should be able to retain at least 1-2 weeks to have an efficient first backup of your production data.

Best,
Fabian

[handian.sudianto]

Hi Fabian,

yes i have insufficient storage backup space so i decrease the retention only to 3 days.
Now i use forever incremental backup and for one backup chain the files contain 1 full and 3 incremental, with this condition i have 4 restore point and not 3 restore point.
https://pasteboard.co/SnT84SWq46eF.png
I believe the backup files will have 1 full and 2 incremental (not 3) for 3 restore points, am i right?

[Mildur]

Hi Handian

It is possible that we keep one additional day when you choose retention type "days" . Can you change retention type from "Days" to "Restore Point"? That should keep only 3 restore point.

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=120

In fact, Veeam Backup & Replication keeps restore points for the N + 1 days, where N is the number of days that you specify in the job settings. In this case, Veeam Backup & Replication applies retention policy after the N+1 days are passed. For example, if you set retention policy to keep restore points for 6 days, Veeam Backup & Replication will keep restore points for 7 days and will apply the retention policy on the 8th day. Note that the retention period may be longer depending on the specified backup method.

Best,
Fabian