Retention Policy issues...

[veremin]

Sorry for keeping silence - have been investigating the issue internally.

Turned out it was a bug - that backup service account is used to apply retention regardless of the specified share credentials. The bug affects both PowerShell and UI. The bug is planned to be fixed in the next product update.

Thanks.

[aj_potc]

Hi Vladimir,

Sorry to bring up this old topic, but I'm having exactly the same issue in Veeam Free version 9.5.0.1922. I'm using a PowerShell script to run daily backups, and I've changed retention to "In2Weeks" from a previous setting of "In1Month". However, this new setting isn't being applied -- backups older than 2 weeks are not removed. My backups are going to local storage, not to a network share, so I don't suspect that permissions are the problem.

Is it necessary to manually restart the various Veeam Windows services after I've made a change to the retention settings in the PowerScript file? Or should these settings be taken automatically by Veeam each time the script is run (in my case, daily)?

Or is this problem still a known bug that hasn't been addressed yet?

Thanks very much for any feedback.

[veremin]

Since each VeeamZIP file acts as independent full backup file, changes made to new VeeamZIP files (including retention ones) don't get propagated to previous backups. Thanks!

[aj_potc]

Thanks very much for that important note. I assumed the changes would propagate to older backups, but it makes sense that they wouldn't if Veeam is creating them independently.

Is there any way I can tell what propagation settings were used in generating a particular VBK file? I'm not finding anything related to this in the Backup and Replication interface.

Thanks again!

[veremin]

If you're versed in SQL DB parsing, you can check it directly in configuration database. Otherwise, let our support team guide you. Thanks!

[vasm@verocel.pl]

Hi

I have free veeam backup 9.5.
I create task scheduler and powershell script i got from this web page:
https://www.veeam.com/blog/wp-content/u ... pdated.zip

The backup file is create but not deleted for 3 day later. How technically veeam delete this file?

[veremin]

Known issue that is fixed in Update 4; so, stay tuned. Thanks!

[Soarer18]

Hi,

I did update to 9.5.4.2615.Update4, but still the backups are not deleted on a fileshare, but the creation of the backups is working.

Thanks!

[veremin]

Then, kindly, open a case and share its number with us. Thanks!

[Soarer18]

Thanks, #03394201

[veremin]

I've just checked internally bug tracking system - unfortunately, the fix has slipped from this update (almost at last minute); should be implemented in one of the next product updates.

I apologize for providing misleading information.

[egsilva]

Hi everyone,

I've been having problems with retention of backups in the company that I work. We use Veeam Backup & Replication 9.5 (Free Edition), and we use scripts to backup. Since some days ago, the retention configured in the script is like "In2Weeks". When the script use this configuration, something wrong happens. Backup occur without any problem, but the older backups aren't deleted. By the time I configure the retention script with "Never", backup runs properly. I've already compared the script with other scripts that we have in our structure, but nothing was found. What can I do to solve this problem?

I attached the script below:

Code: Select all

# Autor: Annonymous
# Data Criação: 14/03/2017
# Alteração/Motivo:
# 
# 

##################################################################
#                   User Defined Variables
##################################################################

# Names of VMs to backup separated by semicolon (Mandatory)
$VMNames = "ABCSRV002", 
                   "ABCSRV014"

# Name of vCenter or standalone host VMs to backup reside on (Mandatory)
$HostName = "ABCHOST01"

# Directory that VM backups should go to (Mandatory; for instance, C:\Backup)
$Directory = "E:\Backup\VMs"

# Desired compression level (Optional; Possible values: 0 - None, 4 - Dedupe-friendly, 5 - Optimal, 6 - High, 9 - Extreme) 
$CompressionLevel = "5"

# Quiesce VM when taking snapshot (Optional; VMware Tools are required; Possible values: $True/$False)
$EnableQuiescence = $False

# Protect resulting backup with encryption key (Optional; $True/$False)
$EnableEncryption = $False

# Encryption Key (Optional; path to a secure string)
$EncryptionKey = ""

# Retention settings (Optional; By default, VeeamZIP files are not removed and kept in the specified location for an indefinite period of time. 
# Possible values: Never , Tonight, TomorrowNight, In3days, In1Week, In2Weeks, In1Month)
$Retention = "In1Week"

##################################################################
#                   Notification Settings
##################################################################

# Enable notification (Optional)
$EnableNotification = $True

# Email SMTP server
$SMTPServer = "192.168.10.220"

# Email FROM
$EmailFrom = "bkpvm@abc.com.br" 

# Email TO
$EmailTo = "infra@abc.com.br"

# Email subject
$EmailSubject = "BKPVMS"

##################################################################
#                   Email formatting 
##################################################################

$style = "<style>BODY{font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;}"
$style = $style + "TABLE{border: 1px solid black; border-collapse: collapse;}"
$style = $style + "TH{border: 1px solid black; background: #dddddd; padding: 5px; }"
$style = $style + "TD{border: 1px solid black; padding: 5px; }"
$style = $style + "</style>"

##################################################################
#                   End User Defined Variables
##################################################################

#################### DO NOT MODIFY PAST THIS LINE ################
Asnp VeeamPSSnapin

$Server = Get-VBRServer -name $HostName
$MesssagyBody = @()

foreach ($VMName in $VMNames)
{
  $VM = Find-VBRViEntity -Name $VMName -Server $Server
  
  If ($EnableEncryption)
  {
    $EncryptionKey = Add-VBREncryptionKey -Password (cat $EncryptionKey | ConvertTo-SecureString)
    $ZIPSession = Start-VBRZip -Entity $VM -Folder $Directory -Compression $CompressionLevel -DisableQuiesce:(!$EnableQuiescence) -AutoDelete $Retention -EncryptionKey $EncryptionKey
  }
  
  Else 
  {
    $ZIPSession = Start-VBRZip -Entity $VM -Folder $Directory -Compression $CompressionLevel -DisableQuiesce:(!$EnableQuiescence) -AutoDelete $Retention
  }
  
  If ($EnableNotification) 
  {
    $TaskSessions = $ZIPSession.GetTaskSessions().logger.getlog().updatedrecords
    $FailedSessions =  $TaskSessions | where {$_.status -eq "EWarning" -or $_.Status -eq "EFailed"}
  
  if ($FailedSessions -ne $Null)
  {
    $MesssagyBody = $MesssagyBody + ($ZIPSession | Select-Object @{n="Name";e={($_.name).Substring(0, $_.name.LastIndexOf("("))}} ,@{n="Start Time";e={$_.CreationTime}},@{n="End Time";e={$_.EndTime}},Result,@{n="Details";e={$FailedSessions.Title}})
  }
   
  Else
  {
    $MesssagyBody = $MesssagyBody + ($ZIPSession | Select-Object @{n="Name";e={($_.name).Substring(0, $_.name.LastIndexOf("("))}} ,@{n="Start Time";e={$_.CreationTime}},@{n="End Time";e={$_.EndTime}},Result,@{n="Details";e={($TaskSessions | sort creationtime -Descending | select -first 1).Title}})
  }
  
  }   
}
If ($EnableNotification)
{
$Message = New-Object System.Net.Mail.MailMessage $EmailFrom, $EmailTo
$Message.Subject = $EmailSubject
$Message.IsBodyHTML = $True
$message.Body = $MesssagyBody | ConvertTo-Html -head $style | Out-String
$SMTP = New-Object Net.Mail.SmtpClient($SMTPServer)
$SMTP.Send($Message)
}

Thanks in Advance

[veremin]

Known issue; planned to be fixed in one of the future product updates. Thanks!

[andrew@my2dollars.ca]

Same issue here. Has the plan been finalized? My VeeamZip backups using the PS script work except for retention. It has NEVER worked for me. I'm running the latest VBR and backups from months ago continue to sit in my E:\Backups folder even though I have $Retention set to delete "In1Week"