how to merge increments first

[mcz]

Hi everyone,

there's a similar question on the VBR-Forum and the answer is: There's no automatic way to do the merge before the backup runs... In my case I'm having an external disk (for a consumer notebook) and the drive is almost full - so no way to do a backup and start merging accoring to the retention, that's why "merge first" would be needed.

Would it work if I switch from image-level to file-level backup, just backup one single folder or file and then start the backup to trigger the merge process? Or would that result in a seperate chain?

Thanks!

[HannesK]

Hello,

there's a similar question on the VBR-Forum and the answer is: There's no automatic way to do the merge before the backup runs

same for the agent. applying retention for existing without running a job is something we have on the radar, but will not be implemented in V12 (V12 only adds "apply retention" for orphaned backups on time-based retention)

Or would that result in a seperate chain?

correct, that give you a new VBK / full backup / chain

Best regards,
Hannes

[mcz]

Thanks Hannes! Is there any chance that support would provide a quick way to apply retention by calling native methods from a veeam DLL?

[HannesK]

I'm not aware of any of such methods

[mcz]

okay... what about deleting the latest restore point (to free some space for the next run), that would work, right?

[HannesK]

well, that will make the new increment bigger, as more data changed since last backup. not sure whether this really solves the problem...

[mcz]

well, depends which (identical) data-blocks have changed... the question is if veeam would ignore the deleted restore point or if it would fail...

[HannesK]

the backup would fail, because VBM / database is out of sync.

[mcz]

can I sync it then or is it another game over?

[HannesK]

you can try to fix it with support (with a test system of course).

Probably giving the user a larger disk is faster / cheaper than trying to create hacks / workarounds.

[n.koch]

just remove the vms from the backup job and let the job start. Then the merge is executed first, I have had to do this several times for the same reasons as you.

[mcz]

Thanks Niko, but I guess you're talking about B&R? Here I'm talking about the agent backup...