Manually deleting old full backup and incrementals

[AS86]

Hi.

Im using Veeam backup v11 on Windows Servers.

I have a retention policy of 31 restore points, and do a full backup each last friday of the month.
Backup is set to run every weeknight.

My backup repository is almost at 100%, so ive had a look and have a full backup vbk file on 25/06 (24 inc files),30/07(19 inc files), 28/08 (1 inc file)

Can I manually delete the oldest VBK (25/06) and the 24inc files in the Veeam UI to free up the space I need?

Thanks

[Mildur]

Hi AS86

It's not recommended to delete backup files manually from the disk. It can lead to data loss if you remove the wrong ones.
I recommend to lower the retention setting of a job to remove the oldest restore points. If you don't have the storage to keep 31 restore points with monthly full backups, then a shorter retention could be required. Seeing your retention policy, you will need the space of 3 Fulls and 40-60 incrementals at all time, if you want to change that retention.

May I ask how much space a full backup and an incremental backup require and how much backup storage you have?
What type is your backup storage? Probably I can recommend you a better retention setting with this knowledge.

If you still want to remove the oldest backup files, you can do that. Just do not forget to rescan the repository and remove the missing backups from the Veeam configuration. Be careful when you delete the files manually.
https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=110

Thanks
Fabian

[AS86]

Thanks for your reply.

Yeah im currently at 47 restore points on the job set to 31 points.

We have multiple jobs going to the same backup storage, full backups are around 6TB each, incre vary from around 200gb-250gb depending on day of the week.

Storage is just local SAS disks.

So I can delete the oldest VBK and VIB files in the Veeam UI and then mark them as forget in Veeam?
I could reduce retention but im assuming that wont get assigned until the job next runs tonight which means todays other current running job will fail as I will be out of storage.

[Mildur]

Are this SAS disks connected to a physical windows server 2016 or later? Have you configured this SAS disks with a REFS filesystem?
This will give you space less synthetic fulls.

If changing the retention is not possible, try that:
1) Delete the oldest chain with windows explorer
2) Rescan the Veeam backup repository --> https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=110
3) Remove the missing backups from the configuration --> https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=110

Then change the retention to a lower value or buy additional backup storage. I assume, you will be again out of storage in one month.

[AS86]

Physical server, on OS Server 2012.

Im going to drop the retention to 23/24, hopefully that clears some of the older files when the job runs again tonight.
Else like you say it will just fill up again in a month.

If it doesnt then I might have to look at manually removing the older backups and then rescan the repo to clear it up for now.