purging old VMs

[rntguy]

If a customer has GFS restore points that go back 3 years for a job (12 monthlies, 3 yearlies) with 10 VMs in it, and 9 months in they don't need to back that VM up anymore...

my understanding is that the backups for that VM will stay on disk until the files (per vm backup files) are 3 years old and then only 1 will purge. A year later the next one will, etc.

It appears there is a way to say 'purge all backups for a single VM inside a given job' manually (on Prem and in the veeam cloud which we manage).

But (Q1) what does the feature inside the job mean to "Remove deleted VMs data after X days" - does this only apply when you remove a VM from the copy job (or backup job) and then (Q2) does it delete all backups associated with that VM? Or is that feature just to get it to stop warning you every day that a VM is missing from the job?

[veremin]

It appears there is a way to say 'purge all backups for a single VM inside a given job' manually (on Prem and in the veeam cloud which we manage).

There is no way to do that indeed.

But (Q1) what does the feature inside the job mean to "Remove deleted VMs data after X days" - does this only apply when you remove a VM from the copy job (or backup job) and then (Q2) does it delete all backups associated with that VM? Or is that feature just to get it to stop warning you every day that a VM is missing from the job?

Kindly, review corresponding section of our User Guide and ask for additional clarification if needed.

[rntguy]

There is no way to do that indeed.

If you do per-vm backup files it looks like it works. I can right click any VM inside a job and delete it.

[rntguy]

Kindly, review corresponding section of our User Guide and ask for additional clarification if needed.

Hi, I was reading it and correct me if I'm wrong, but it appears it only refers to the last X Restore points configuration, not to the archived restore points. Those won't roll off until some future data via some internal check? Keep in mind I'm using various jobs where per-vm backup files is enabled.

Thank you

[foggy]

GFS restore points are not subjected to deteted VMs retention, only to their own retention (the specified number of weekly, monthly, etc. points).

[rntguy]

thanks foggy. is there ever a way to expire and purge points based on age without running a new backup? If you have an old backup with VMs you don't use anymore and you want their backups to expire how else can you do that some point down the road?

[foggy]

In case it's a per-VM chain, you can just manually delete the files you do not need anymore.

[rntguy]

thanks

[Spex]

It seems there is no solution to get orphaned/deleted/moved vms completly removed from copyjobs that use GFS retention policies (if using single vm backups?).
The setting remove deleted vms from backup after x days does not work as expected.
Currently I have to hunt for that vms to release disk space - has anyone written a Powershell script for this problem?

[foggy]

Hi Stefan, seems you're experiencing behavior similar to discussed in this thread, so I'm merging your post.

[Spex]

I would like to have this addressed as a new feature. For an enterprise backup product it's a must have to automatic maintain deleted backup objects.

[foggy]

Your request is accepted, thanks for the feedback.