Job Set for 14 Mount Points - 46 exist

[veremin]

Hi, Chris,

It seems that you're using forward incremental mode. With this mode the number of restore points stored on disk at each point in time may vary. Kindly, refer to this post for more clarification how retention policy works in case of forward incremental mode.

Thanks.

[mobin.qasim]

Hi Guys,

I was testing a Veeam Backup Job, and my Job was set as following:
Retention Policy:
Restore points to keep on disk: 7
Under Advanced tab,
VM Retention
Deleted VMs data retention period: 7

These settings should show the VM restore points as 7, but it's showing 13 restore points and my repository disk is getting filled up
due to 3 VBK files instead of 2.

Can anyone help me how can I decrease the VM restore points, so I've enough space in my repository.

Regards

[Lewpy]

Are you using [Forward] Incremental or Reverse Incrementals?
How often are you doing Synthetic or Full Backups?
With Reverse Incrementals, it is easy for Veeam to keep an exact number of Restore Points.
With [Forward] Incrementals, it is much harder for Veeam, as it cannot delete a backup chain [VBK + subsequent VIB files] until the last incremental file in the chain is no longer within the retention period: that last incremental file is dependent on the whole of the backup chain.
Veeam do explain this with pretty diagrams in the user guide

[mobin.qasim]

Lewpy, thanks for th reply.

I'm using Forward Incremental and Synthetic Full Backups set on Saturday. I've only one backup Job which is showing 13 restore points, but other jobs are only showing 7 restore points. Other jobs have the same settings. So, I'm confused why only one job showing more restore points.
Is is possible if I set the restore points to keep to 3 or 4 instead of 7. Will that help?

[Lewpy]

Were any daily backups for that job missed during the week?
If so, that weeks chain would have less Restore Points, so it may be keeping the previous weeks backup chain the Repository to meet the required "7" Restore Points.
Tuning the Retention value is often useful, as sometimes having it on the exact same value as your full backup rotation causes slight "blips" in the process: Retention is done after the backup completes, so you could end up with 3 full VBK files on a Saturday (temporarily) before it deletes the last Backup Chain. If the Retention value was "6", then it should delete that last backup chain the day before the Full Synthetic is run, meaning you don't need the temporary disk space for a full image. However, you have less Retention points available, which might go against your required business backup policy.
The biggest issue is if a backup is skipped, as it throws everything out if you are trying to work to a Calendar rotation/retention: Veeam retains distinct Restore Points, not "Days/Weeks" worth of Restore Points.

[mobin.qasim]

Yes, backups were skipped for 2 days, but again those Backups were also skipped for the jobs which are still showing 7 restore points.
I did'n't want to decrease the retention policy.
I couldn't do much about it, so I just increased the repository space. :s as last night Backup (Synthetic Full) filled all the space. Hopefully tonight's backup will remove one VBK file.

Thanks for the information Lewpy.

cheers.

[foggy]

Mobin, please review the thread above for better understanding of how retention works with forward incremental backup mode.

[mobin.qasim]

Foggy, Thanks for the thread. So just to let everyone know, my issue was resolved.
As my backups were skipped for 2 days, Saturday was the Full Backup. Then Sunday's backup (Forward Incremental) removed all the extra restore points.
Now I've 7 Restore Points and I can only see 2 VBK files with a lot of free space in my repository .
Thanks for the help guys.

Cheers

[hobensovbr]

Hi Guy's,

I'm after some advice here.

I running daily Incremental backups with the synthetic full option.
I have bee storing a minimum of 29 restore points, however I have run into disk space issues.

I have since changed the job to store a minimum of only 14 restore points.
My first question is, will Veeam delete the restore points 15 to 29?

As my disk space is now critical I would like to Manually delete the VIB and VBK files to recover the space back.
My second question is, If I manually delete the files will Veeam update its database automatically and show the correct amount of restore points in the Disk View?

Any info on this would be much appreciated.

Regards,

Ben

[veremin]

My first question is, will Veeam delete the restore points 15 to 29?

It depends on how many .vbk files are stored in the repository, and now many restore points you have since the latest full backup. For more information regarding the way retention policy works in case of forward incremental mode, kindly, see either answers provided above or corresponding section of our Help Center.

My second question is, If I manually delete the files will Veeam update its database automatically and show the correct amount of restore points in the Disk View?

Manual deletion of restore points won't be reflected in Backup console. So, you'd better let retention policy do its work.

Thanks.

[hobensovbr]

Thanks for your response.
Unfortunately I completely ran out of disk space, so I was forced to delete the vib and vbk files for restore points 15 to 29.

The Backup console shows the 29 restore points as being there, It's not a problem because I will just have to make a mental note that I can only go back 14 restore points from now on.

Cheers,
Ben

[dellock6]

You can also go into the repository node inside Veeam console and run a rescan, in this way your list of available restore points should be updated.

Luca.

[veremin]

The information regarding restore available restore points is stored inside the .vbm file. Manual deletion of restore points doesn't update .vbm file. So, unfortunately, backup console will stay unaware about manual actions, even after repository rescan.

Thanks.

[Ultra_Cool]

Hello,

When we take backup on our machines so we are using Incremental (Enable synthetic full) and retention policy is 14 days. I thought that it will delete old backups after 14 days but they are still there. Insted of 14 we have 20+ restore points. Is that strange or? It is eating disk space very quickly. Did I miss something in configuration or?

[foggy]

With forward incremental mode it is expected that the number of restore points in a chain differs depending on the day of the week. Please review the thread above for detailed explanation of how retention works in this case.

[samuk]

Hi,

Little unclear, can someone tell me. what i need to set the job for...

Incremental Backup

I have a 2TB VM, Full backup will run Friday night, and i want to retain 5 rollback on disk.

I have set the full backup to occur every Friday.

Can someone please tell me how many full backup files i will have? is it 2 before these start over writing?


thanks

[CaptainFred]

Hi,

I have a backup job which is almost using up all the disk space on my repository drive. It’s going to run out of space if I let it run again (disabled it for now). 56TB of 57.2TB used! I keep setting the number of restore points to keep on disk to lower and lower but it only seems to clear files when it feels like it which isn’t very often! How can I force a clear down? What will happen if it does completely run out of space? Obviously backups will fail but then I’ll be completely stuck!!

It's a backup job of 119 VMs, runs 3 times a day and is set to create a synthetic full (forever-incremental) on a Friday which results in a 7TB VBK approx. Transform previous full backups chains into rollbacks is not enabled. When I look into the Backups > Disk section it shows that I have up to 58 restore points when the job is only set to 35 now (was 45 earlier), but still hasn't helped!

Please help!

Thanks
Simon

[veremin]

Hi, Simon,

Your post has been merged into the existing discussion. Kindly, see the answers provided above for more information regarding the way retention policy works in case of forward incremental backup mode.

Thanks.

[foggy]

Can someone please tell me how many full backup files i will have? is it 2 before these start over writing?

Sam, with daily backups and full configured on Friday you will have 1 or 2 full backups, depending on the weekday. Please see the detailed explanation in this thread above. Thanks.

[CaptainFred]

I have reviewed all pages in this thread but it doesn't explain how I can get out of my current situation with only 524GB free on the drive (no other space elsewhere to use) and each backup is using something between 300-400GB!!!

[veremin]

Can you say what your current retention policy is? Also, I'm wondering how many incremental points, starting from the latest full backup (.vbk) are currently present in the given backup repository? Thanks.

[CaptainFred]

Can you say what your current retention policy is? Also, I'm wondering how many incremental points, starting from the latest full backup (.vbk) are currently present in the given backup repository? Thanks.

I have up to 57-58 restore points (for most VMs) when the job is only set to 35 now (was 45 earlier). A couple have 37, 51, 55 and 56 restore points.

Here's the files:

Code: Select all

 Directory of G:\Backup\Backup Job - All

18/03/2014  05:03    <DIR>          .
18/03/2014  05:03    <DIR>          ..
18/03/2014  16:32        27,450,093 Backup Job - All.vbm
18/03/2014  16:15 7,556,563,571,712 Backup Job - All2014-02-14T205532.vbk
18/03/2014  16:15   325,108,718,080 Backup Job - All2014-02-16T050301.vib
18/03/2014  16:15   297,933,811,712 Backup Job - All2014-02-16T180239.vib
18/03/2014  16:15   209,673,455,104 Backup Job - All2014-02-17T050300.vib
18/03/2014  16:15   296,678,289,920 Backup Job - All2014-02-17T120240.vib
18/03/2014  16:15   198,027,153,920 Backup Job - All2014-02-17T180300.vib
18/03/2014  16:15   257,689,157,120 Backup Job - All2014-02-18T050252.vib
18/03/2014  16:15   275,040,489,984 Backup Job - All2014-02-18T120239.vib
18/03/2014  16:22 1,252,071,490,560 Backup Job - All2014-02-18T180241.vib
18/03/2014  16:23   520,972,313,600 Backup Job - All2014-02-19T120241.vib
18/03/2014  16:23   221,488,623,616 Backup Job - All2014-02-19T182359.vib
18/03/2014  16:23   319,162,023,424 Backup Job - All2014-02-20T050257.vib
18/03/2014  16:23   308,954,123,264 Backup Job - All2014-02-20T120249.vib
18/03/2014  16:23   189,358,546,432 Backup Job - All2014-02-20T180252.vib
18/03/2014  16:23   283,377,579,008 Backup Job - All2014-02-21T050252.vib
18/03/2014  16:23   334,673,603,072 Backup Job - All2014-02-21T120247.vib
18/03/2014  16:24 8,603,846,197,248 Backup Job - All2014-02-21T211500.vbk
18/03/2014  16:24   590,336,915,456 Backup Job - All2014-02-23T050246.vib
18/03/2014  16:24   260,051,445,760 Backup Job - All2014-02-23T180245.vib
18/03/2014  16:24   305,986,919,424 Backup Job - All2014-02-24T050733.vib
18/03/2014  16:24   296,755,404,288 Backup Job - All2014-02-24T120249.vib
18/03/2014  16:24   438,231,608,320 Backup Job - All2014-02-25T050245.vib
18/03/2014  16:24   294,535,845,888 Backup Job - All2014-02-25T120249.vib
18/03/2014  16:24   171,660,759,040 Backup Job - All2014-02-25T180257.vib
18/03/2014  16:24   356,151,250,432 Backup Job - All2014-02-26T050249.vib
18/03/2014  16:24   309,850,786,304 Backup Job - All2014-02-26T120250.vib
18/03/2014  16:24   353,336,000,512 Backup Job - All2014-02-26T224953.vib
18/03/2014  16:24   182,457,086,464 Backup Job - All2014-02-27T050304.vib
18/03/2014  16:24   355,368,576,000 Backup Job - All2014-02-27T120252.vib
18/03/2014  16:24   453,189,027,840 Backup Job - All2014-02-28T050249.vib
18/03/2014  16:26 8,619,375,188,992 Backup Job - All2014-02-28T234233.vbk
18/03/2014  16:26   677,967,437,824 Backup Job - All2014-03-02T050301.vib
18/03/2014  16:26   317,019,359,744 Backup Job - All2014-03-02T180300.vib
18/03/2014  16:27   631,496,372,736 Backup Job - All2014-03-03T120236.vib
18/03/2014  16:27   587,082,884,096 Backup Job - All2014-03-04T050252.vib
18/03/2014  16:31   535,559,180,800 Backup Job - All2014-03-04T180254.vib
18/03/2014  16:31   326,012,853,760 Backup Job - All2014-03-05T050255.vib
18/03/2014  16:31   569,938,648,576 Backup Job - All2014-03-05T180300.vib
18/03/2014  16:31   392,848,419,328 Backup Job - All2014-03-06T050305.vib
18/03/2014  16:31   544,940,325,376 Backup Job - All2014-03-06T180254.vib
18/03/2014  16:31   371,321,357,824 Backup Job - All2014-03-07T050303.vib
18/03/2014  16:31 6,459,710,822,912 Backup Job - All2014-03-08T023646.vbk
18/03/2014  16:31 2,640,345,800,192 Backup Job - All2014-03-09T050345.vib
18/03/2014  16:31   758,201,716,224 Backup Job - All2014-03-10T120247.vib
18/03/2014  16:32   452,443,066,368 Backup Job - All2014-03-11T050306.vib
12/03/2014  19:40   672,415,861,760 Backup Job - All2014-03-12T101907.vib
13/03/2014  08:16   464,389,066,752 Backup Job - All2014-03-13T050228.vib
13/03/2014  14:36   277,885,921,280 Backup Job - All2014-03-13T120251.vib
13/03/2014  20:30   303,349,495,296 Backup Job - All2014-03-13T180235.vib
14/03/2014  07:54   287,880,677,888 Backup Job - All2014-03-14T050240.vib
14/03/2014  15:22   369,934,223,360 Backup Job - All2014-03-14T120244.vib
15/03/2014  22:05 7,756,568,482,304 Backup Job - All2014-03-14T223958.vbk
16/03/2014  09:45   505,445,777,408 Backup Job - All2014-03-16T050245.vib
16/03/2014  22:34   192,505,839,104 Backup Job - All2014-03-16T180244.vib
17/03/2014  07:51   348,263,914,496 Backup Job - All2014-03-17T050303.vib
17/03/2014  14:57   355,545,153,536 Backup Job - All2014-03-17T120236.vib
17/03/2014  20:40   259,392,703,488 Backup Job - All2014-03-17T180244.vib
18/03/2014  07:58   189,084,400,128 Backup Job - All2014-03-18T050303.vib
              59 File(s) 61,685,483,175,149 bytes
               2 Dir(s)  563,333,726,208 bytes free

[veremin]

Kindly, open a ticket with our support team, as, at least, restore points from 2014-02-14 to 2014-02-21 should have been deleted, according to the specified retention policy. Thanks.

[edocom]

Hi,

I have a Job who backups all hour two vm Server.
At the Retention policy i have say 24 Restore Points.
But on the phyisikal Disk, i have a Fullbackup and 33 Incremental?

Why?

My Version: 7.0 R2

[veremin]

Hi,

What backup mode is being used? Forward incremental? If so, then, please see the explanation provided above on how retention policy works in case of forward incremental mode.

Thanks.

[samuk]

Foggy,

One more question:

I have configured the incremental backup. Restore Points to keep on disk 5.

Selected the 2 options:

"Enable Systhetic Fulll (forever-incremental) - Create on Friday
"Transform previous full backup chains into roll backs"

Should i still select & configure "Preform active full backups periodically"??

I would like somnething like this:

Friday 1: Full
M: Incremental
T: Incremental
W: Incremental
T: Incremental
Friday 2: Full
M: Incremental
T: Incremental
W: Incremental
T: Incremental
F: Incremental
Friday 3: Full to overwrite Friday 1 backup.

[foggy]

Active fulls is a bit different story, however it is recommended to periodically perform them. Please see this thread for more details: How often do I need a full backup?

However, with your current settings (even without active fulls) you will achieve exactly what you're after.

[digitlman]

I have the same setup as samuk except I also run inc on S&S.

I have the job set to keep 25 restore points, yet 28 exist. 4 of those are Full.

Can I expect the oldest Full to be overwritten tonight?

[veremin]

Can you tell how you chain looks like? Is it similar to the following?

M: Full
T: Incremental
W: Incremental
T: Incremental
F: Incremental
S: Incremental
S: Incremental

In this case, you will have to wait until Wednesday for the oldest restore points to be deleted.

Thanks.

[digitlman]

M - Inc
T - Inc
W - Inc
T - Inc
F - Full
S -Inc
S - Inc