Correct GFS setup

[Mario Rossi]

Hello, I'm new to Veeam and I'm trying to setup a GFS Backup Job but I'm not sure of the parameters.
I'm probably confusing the real meaning of full, differential, incremental and GFS.

With old, simple backup software I used to setup jobs like this:
Do a full backup every first Sunday of the month and keep 12 backups (so you can go back a year).
Make a differential backup every Sunday (obviously excluding the first one which is covered by the full backup) and keep the last 8 backups
Make an incremental backup every day and keep the last 30 days.
Differential backups are children of the latest available full backup.
Incremental backups are children of the latest available differential backup.

I attach a summary calendar of what I want to achieve:


I attach screenshots of the configuration that I believe will help me achieve my goal:


Then I'll set up a second job that replicates the last month on the cloud.
1 monthly - full
3 weekly - differentials
6 daily - incremental

Can you tell me if my configuration is correct or possibly tell me where I'm wrong?

Thank you.

[david.domask]

Hi Mario,

I think your idea mostly works here, just a reminder that Veeam does not utilize the differential backup method.

https://www.veeam.com/calculators/simple/vbr/machines

You can use this calculator here to get a visual representation as well as estimated space utilization to meet what you're looking for; your calendar graphic looks correct, but I would double-check it with the calculator and make sure it meets your expectations, but I do believe this should work for your intended retention.

[Mario Rossi]

Thanks for the reply and the link to the calculator.
So Veeam only does full and incremental backups, with the incrementals being children of the last full one preceding them.
The complete is not deleted as long as there are child incrementals present.

With my configuration I would get a full backup every Sunday and an incremental backup every day resulting from the full backup on Sunday.
Full backups that are not made on the first Sunday of the month are kept for 8 weeks.
The daily ones I have seen that it is better to go in multiples of 7.
So not 30 days but 28.


The gray part of the bar on weekly and monthly backups is not clear to me.

[david.domask]

Hi Mario,

You're very welcome and hope that it's helping with your planning.

> So Veeam only does full and incremental backups, with the incrementals being children of the last full one preceding them.

Correct, you can read how the retention works in our User Guide pages for each retention mode, and also an animated example for each in the KBs on this page. The grey represents the total estimated space savings from various operations (for example, deduplication/compression),