Backup job doesn't overwrite old backup file

[karoliss]

Hi There,

I am fairly new to Veeam software, so please bear with me.

We are running Veeam Agent on MS Server 2012R2. That server hold backups of our VM's and it all add's up to about 1.4TB and we use 5 (in rotation) 2TB USB drives.
When the initial backup runs, it is all fine and good, but then the next backup a week later will fail due to the fact that the backup is not overwriting the old backup file.

I have "Keep backups for the past 1 days when the computer was running", which I think it is the retention period.

I would appreciate any help.

[wishr]

Hi Karolis,

There was a similar question some time ago. Could you please take a look and let us know if you have any additional questions.

Thanks

[Dima P.]

Hello Karolis.

When the initial backup runs, it is all fine and good, but then the next backup a week later will fail due to the fact that the backup is not overwriting the old backup file.

Looks like you are running out of free space, is that correct? What's the error in the job session?

I have "Keep backups for the past 1 days when the computer was running", which I think it is the retention period.

Correct, that's retention value for the agent backup, please clarify how the backup schedule is configured (are you using any backup events or it's just a daily backup)? Any chance you are running periodic full backups? Thanks!

[karoliss]

Hi wishr, thank you, I have just read that thread, thank you. It didn't fully clear everything for me.

Dima,
Yes the backup target is 2TB and backup itself is 1.6TB, so it cannot fit 2 copies of the job, we also don't need more than one copy on the drive anyway.

It is just a daily backup:
Monday to Monday drive, Tuesday to Tuesday, drive, etc. I have disabled active full backup, chose optimal compression, chose local target as Storage optimization and set to "Keep backups for the past 1 days when the computer was running".

Thanks.

[wishr]

Hi Karoliss,

Could you please explain the drive swap each day you mentioned above in more details? How this is done?

Thank you

[karoliss]

Hi Wishr,

It is just usb 3.0 drives that are used as backup locations. They are used as physical off-site backups and are rotating in a weekly manner.
Monday=Monday drive, Tuesday=Tuesday drive, Wednesday=Wednesday drive, etc. Over the weekend there is 1 backup drive (Friday).
We have our backups run from 08:00 AM then when it finishes, we just change the backup drive and wait the next day.

Thanks.

[Dima P.]

Karolis,

Thank you for the clarification. For forever forward incremental backup retention restore point is going to be created first and then merged into full backup. I assume job fails when next incremental restore point should be created due to the lack of free space (thus you do not see the merge process but you see the incomplete restore point on disk).

If you need to overcome this limitation you can script a standalone full backup creation and simply delete the older full backup from your USB drive prior taking the full backup. Cheers!

[karoliss]

Dima,
Ahhhh, am I right in thinking, that it would need to have at least 2x space for 2 backups to complete and then merge into 1?

Cheers.

[Dima P.]

Karolis,

Incremental restore point is usually smaller than full backup as it contains only the blocks that were changed since the fist full backup job run. Since you are rotating USB drives and the every job run will land different device I'd recommended to keep the free space equal to the fist full backup.

[karoliss]

Hi Dima,

Thank you. I will do that.

Cheers all for your help.