5.0.3 free agent: reducing "keep backups for" does not delete old backups?

[cosmik]

[Case #05336868]

I've got an external usb taking backups of my Windows 10 rig, using the free agent. Version is 5.0.3. When I had initially configured the backup job, I had set the "Keep backups for:" field to 15 (IIRC). Since I'm taking a backup once per 2-3 months, this means that my backups dated back to 2020.

USB disk space was running somewhat low so I re-configured the "Keep backups for:" field to 7 (ie 7 backups). What I am seeing is that a backup does take place successfully (with a grunt that the usb device is running low on available disk space), but the 7-day backup rule is not held: looking into the backup directory on the usb device I can see 10 incremental backups, plus the initial full one. I expected 7 backups to exist instead of 11.

Not sure if I am missing something here or not, your advice will be appreciated.

[mp37c4]

I had the same problem understanding the retention periods of backups. Please see the user documentation, there it is clearly explained what "keep x restore points" means and how it is working. In your case, it will never shrink unless you have a new second full-backup point plus 7 incrementals. When you reach "new full + 7 inc" it should delete the old "1full + 10inc" chain.

[cosmik]

Are you sure about that? I mean, if I do not take a full backup, then the number of incrementals will just keep growing!

How does the introduction of a new full backup change things?

EDIT: Specifically, I'd expect the older full backup to merge with the next 2-3 incrementals, in order to create a new synthetic full and adhere to the policy.

[cosmik]

To prove me right (ie that it should have consolidated the backups), today after taking another backup veeam has started merging the images! Without taking any new full backup, just incrementals from the very first backup. So it has started doing its jobs, albeit with a 4 backup delay!

I don't know what scares me most: something that does not work at all, or something that decides on its own when it should work.

I'll check on how many backups are left after the merging completes and report back.