Keep backups for the past xx days option

[Chutporn]

I have a question about "Keep backups for the past xx days" option in Veeam Agent for Windows.
I've set this option to 365 days, my understand is Veeam will create 365 .vib files then start merging them to .vbk file after it hit the days i've set.

But for some reason seems like Veeam made a changes on my .vbk file eventhough it didn't hit the days i've set in "Keep backups for the past xx days" option.
Do you guys know why this happen ?

[zadrian]

Veeam Agent for Windows uses something called "reverse increment".

In normal increment backup, it will take a full backup then subsequent increments. So if you set 30 days, you will get a full backup and 30x increment where the full backup will be 30 days (unless there is a compact option).

For Veeam, the 1st will be a full backup. Subsequently incremental backups will be performed but after which it will be merged to the full backup (like synthetic full) but leaving the increment. So you will always get a "latest full backup" and a tail of increments. This can have 2 advantages....there is a verification process when the increment merges with the full backup & you get a daily full backup.

[Bond246]

Hello,

i will add nearly same question.
For my desktop PC i configured a weekly backup-job that is written to my connected NAS drive via samba. In "share folder" option i set "keep backups for past:" to 30days. In advanced settings i defined "create active full backups" to "monthly on first thursday". "Create synthetic full backups preiodically" is disabled, maintenance options too.

I created this job in february 11th. So normaly i would expect to have 4 or 5 incremental vib files and my vbk file should have a changing day not later than one month before.
But the vbk changing date is still 11th february and for every week since february i have vib files.

What have i done wrong or where is my wrong thought? I've configured this to keep the used storage by backup in a low range.

Encryption is enabled.

Best regards.

[Dima P.]

Hello and welcome to the community Bond246,

I created this job in february 11th. So normaly i would expect to have 4 or 5 incremental vib files and my vbk file should have a changing day not later than one month before.
But the vbk changing date is still 11th february and for every week since february i have vib files.

Please clarify the retention setting and which schedule is set for the backup job? Thanks!

[dreamteam]

I have the same problem.

I am using a fresh install of Veeam Agent Free v3.0.1.1039 on a new Windows 10 computer, and Veeam does not seem to remove any incrementals or do any mergers with the full backup file, even though I have set it to "3 days".

What should I check or change?

My settings
Backup type: File level
Destination: Local storage
Keep backups for the past: 3 days
No Advanced settings active (i.e. no periodical synthetic backups or full backups)

By the way, does the backup location (external disk) at all times have to have 2 x storage of the full backup, to be able to do mergers etc?

Thanks for any help!

[Dima P.]

does the backup location (external disk) at all times have to have 2 x storage of the full backup, to be able to do mergers etc?

Yes, in case you use rotated drives (multiple USB drives as a target for backups) backup chains and retention will be independent from each other? To clarify the original issue, are you using rotated drives as a target or it's a single usb drive?

[dreamteam]

Thanks for your reply, Dima! Sorry for my late reply!

It is just a single USB drive. Previously I used Agent Free v2.2 on Windows 7, and it always merged the incremental backup files into the full backup file, without problems.

With "Keep backup for the past days" set to 3, I suppose I should always have 1 .vbk and at max 2 .vib files, right?

Anything obvious I should check?

[Dima P.]

dreamteam,

It should keep backup files for X amount of days (so if you accidentally created more than one restore point for a single day - it's going to be treated as one day anyway).

[dreamteam]

@Dima P. - Sorry for my late follow up. The purging/merging of old incremental files into the full backup file started working correctly. To make it work again, I made sure I had enough space on my external drive, I cleaned out my old backup files and started from scratch. (Note: I had a LOT of space available, but maybe just not enough...?)

It seems that Veeam Agent for Windows doesn't warn if it has too little disk space to perform the merging of incremental files... maybe this could be improved?

Thanks for a great product!

[Dima P.]

Hi dreamteam,

Thanks for the update, glad to hear that you are up and running now! We've added a warning notification in case target is running out of space (should be displayed during job run), any chance you've missed it? Cheers!