VBK files keep growing even after retention period

[Localizer]

Hi,

my .VBK files keep growing and I'm wondering why.

I'm using Veeam Endpoint for 2 months and I'm very impressed about it's speed. I installed it on a few PCs that only have some programs installed, so the initial backup size was around 30-40 GB only. Backup destination is a shared drive. On one of these PC I forgot to delete some huge obsolete archives, so the initial backup was about 120 GB on that PC. After the initial backup, I deleted these archives from this PC right away, hoping that some day the backup size will shrink.

Meanwhile, I reduced the number of days to keep restore points to 3 days for tests, so VIB files are merged into the VKB without problems, but the VBK keeps growing with each merge. These huge archives are no longer part of any restore point, but it seems Veeam Endpoint still keeps this data in the VBK file.

Is this really the intended behaviour?
Can I enforce a purge of the VBK file or will this happens automatically at some point?

Thanks
Frank

[Dima P.]

Hello Frank,

A file deleted from disk will be eventually removed from the backup according to retention settings of backup job. However, vbk size indeed may not compact as data blocks are not completely removed from the backup file. Instead, they are ‘marked as free’ and will be used to allocated new data blocks from another increment during merge. The recommended procedure in your case would be to start a new backup chain (point backup job to another subfolder. When old chain is no longer needed – you can remove it manually.

[Localizer]

Hi,

OK, I see.

Thanks
Frank