How do I manually remove old backups from the Veeam free edition?

[bkendig]

I filled up my backup disk. I want to delete all backups and start again with a full backup. I don't see any way inside the Veeam app to delete backups. I deleted the entire backup folder from my backup drive, but the Veeam app still shows my old backups even though they no longer exist.

How do I make the app forget about all my old backups?

(I'm using the free edition of Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows 4.0.0.1811.)

Also, I have "Keep backups for:" set to 4 days. Does this mean that after I make a full backup and three incremental backups, the next backup will automatically remove them and create a new full backup? (Because it doesn't make sense to remove the first backup, which is a full, and keep the incrementals.) Or will it automatically merge the first incremental backup into the full?

[Natalia Lupacheva]

Hi Brian,

As for "keep backups for" - please refer to this description to get the details.
So,

Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows does not simply delete backup files from disk. It transforms the backup chain so that the backup chain always contains a full backup file on which subsequent incremental backup files are dependent.

If you want to check how retention works for different backup modes, please take a look at the description in this kb.

If necessary, you can remove backups manually, as it is described here.

Thanks!

[bkendig]

Thank you for the tips. I had a look at that link ("https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/agent ... tml?ver=40"), which says that "you can remove a backup file manually with a file manager," but when I do that the backups still appear in the Veeam control panel. How do I get Veeam to forget about deleted backups?

It also says that I can delete a backup with ""C:\Program Files\Veeam\Endpoint Backup\Veeam.EndPoint.Manager.exe" /deletebackup", but when I run that, it only opens a "New Backup Job" window. (Maybe that command is only for cloud backups, not local backups? The article didn't make that clear.)

[Dima P.]

but when I do that the backups still appear in the Veeam control panel. How do I get Veeam to forget about deleted backups?

Session remain in the UI, but will be pushed by new job runs eventually (UI displays only last 7 job runs).

It also says that I can delete a backup with ""C:\Program Files\Veeam\Endpoint Backup\Veeam.EndPoint.Manager.exe" /deletebackup", but when I run that, it only opens a "New Backup Job" window.

Backup job must be configured prior executing the command line. If more than one backup job is configured, you must specify the job ID in the "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000" which is available at the summary step of the backup job wizard. Cheers!

[bkendig]

Thank you again for the information. Knowing that the UI is okay with me deleting backups by hand, but that it will still always show the most recent 7 job runs (even if their backups no longer exist), explains what I was seeing.

If the UI won't let me get to any backups older than the most recent seven, then there's no point in keeping more than seven backups, is there?

I'm still unclear on the command line usage. "C:\Program Files\Veeam\Endpoint Backup\Veeam.EndPoint.Manager.exe" "deletebackup" "3a0d689c-556d-43e0-a2dd-0324598d7f47" tells me "This command is not supported for the specified backup target." (Same if I use "/deletebackup" instead.) But as long as I can delete backups by hand from Windows Explorer without confusing Veeam, I'm fine with that.

[Egor Yakovlev]

Hi Brian,

Main UI window reflects last 7 restore points and you can click those to initiate restore wizards from said restore points straight away(which in most cases suit the need of recovery), however, if you run a recovery wizard from windows Start menu(Veeam > File-level Restore, Volume-level Restore), you can select any restore point from the chain, even made years ago!

/Cheers!

[bkendig]

Thank you very much; I really appreciate the quick and detailed help!

[asdffdsa6131]

i manually prune my backup files.

i set agent to keep 730 backups, daily incremental and weekly full.
when i am low on drive space, using file manager, i will pick one full backup and its incrementals.
or i will just remove a bunch of incrementals and keep the fulls.

[Egor Yakovlev]

Ideally, you want to let Veeam handle backup chain pruning. That is, if you are low on space - reduce Retention Policy settings in Veeam and chain will be automatically pruned to satisfy new retention settings. If you delete backup chain files manually our agent is unaware of the disk content change and will still list those missing restore points under restore wizards UI(upon selecting which you will receive an error). In case with manual prunes, it is best to delete entire chain (vbk+vib).

/Thanks!

[asdffdsa6131]

Egor, thanks much for the info.

is there a way to get standalone agent to rescan the files in the backup folder?
so it will notice the missing files and upate its database

i use VBAR to control the agent on local pc.
if there a way via VBAR to force a rescan of the repository folder and update itself?

[Egor Yakovlev]

Standalone agent does not have "Rescan" functionality similar to Veeam Backup and Replication one, you will have to start new backup job if you want a clean meta without long-time-gone "leftovers" of manual pruning. However, if agent is controlled by VBR, then you can have full power of Repository Rescan paired with Forget Backup option for those restore points detected as "missing".

/Cheers!

[asdffdsa6131]

thanks again

[oyvindo]

i manually prune my backup files.

i set agent to keep 730 backups, daily incremental and weekly full.
when i am low on drive space, using file manager, i will pick one full backup and its incrementals.
or i will just remove a bunch of incrementals and keep the fulls.

How do you distinguish a full backup from its consecutive incremental backups on a file level?
In my Windows file explorer all files have the same extension; *.vib

I'm running out of space and as I no longer need the backup files from several years back, I want to delete those. But I'm afraid I may disrupt the restore feature by just deleteing files by their date stamps.
(I'm running Veeam Agent For Windows 6.0.2.1090 Free Edition)

Any advise is much appreciated.

[BackupBytesTim]

Full backup files have a "VBK" extension and incremental files have a "VIB" extension. Sorted by date, assuming a forward incremental backup scheme, you should be good to delete a VBK file and any VIB files created newer than it until the next VBK file. I've done this plenty with no negative side affects. Though technically I mostly delete from a cloud repository, but the file extensions should be the same on a local drive as well.