Reverse incr stratedgy

[rrkerr]

Hi all, I'm looking for some clarification on how many .vbk files I should have given the following backup job configuration with v6 patch3. I thought with reverse incremental I'd only ever have one .vbk file but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Reverse incremental scheduled for Mon, Tue, Wed, Thur, Fri (The schedule is set to week-days only)
On the same screen, Active Full is also enabled by default, scheduled weekly on a Sunday.
Restore points kept is default (7)

The first backup was performed on the Monday, that day I have a full backup - correct?
Thereafter (Tue-Fri) the backups are incremental only, with the incremental changes then rolled up into the vbk file; so the vbk is modified each day and the previous days backups appear as .vrb files with just that days changed data - is this correct?
On the Sunday when the active full is scheduled, does this create a new backup chain, in addition to the one started the previous Monday; therefore I will now have 2 .vbk files? This is what seems to be happening.
If yes, does this mean that the next day (Mon), when that backup runs is the incremental backup based on the Friday vbk or the Sunday vbk?

I actually thought running a periodic active full on the Sunday "refreshed" the most recent vbk file created on the Friday and replaced it space for one vbk but maybe not.

Thanks in advance.

[foggy]

Ryan, everything is correct. With active full enabled and given your scheduling and retention settings, you will always have two vbk files in place. Active full resets the current backup chain and starts it anew keeping previous restore points according to retention settings. Your Monday incremental will be based on the Sunday active full.

[dellock6]

On additional note, active full create no duplicate only if it is scheduled the same day of the "standard" full.

Luca.

[JoshRountree]

If I have the Active Full option checked, will the active full replace the reverse incremental full, or will I have 2 fulls sitting out there?

If the active full replaces the reverse incremental full do I need twice the space to do this, or can Veeam replace the Reverse Incremental full with the active full as it does it? Do I need twice the space of a full backup in order for Veeam to complete the active full?

[Gostev]

2 fulls. Active Full starts new backup file chain, so twice the space.

[JoshRountree]

Does Veeam, the company, do active fulls as part of their backup policies?

[Gostev]

No, we ourselves do not have active fulls scheduled. By the way, active fulls were added as a feature only in v4 - when we started using our product since v1.

However, active fulls do happen once every half-year or so anyway - due to various changes in virtual, storage or backup infrastructures. Or, they would be triggered manually by admins sometimes, with the purpose of shrinking VBK file after major job reconfiguration.

[JoshRountree]

Good, that's the answer I wanted to hear!

One more question regarding Synthetic fulls and transforms. Let's pretend I save 14 restore points, forward incremental, synthetic full on Saturday, and the transform option checked (so as to save only one full).

Once things get rolling how will things look on Friday? Will I have a synthetic full from last Saturday, forward incrementals from then on, but days older than Saturday will those be reverse incrementals *.vbr ?

[foggy]

Once things get rolling how will things look on Friday? Will I have a synthetic full from last Saturday, forward incrementals from then on, but days older than Saturday will those be reverse incrementals *.vbr ?

Correct. Btw, this is clearly illustrated in the user guide.