Thin out large old backup file

[geets]

Hello,

we have a large backupfile that contains about 50 VMs. Size is about 10 TB. It's not a per-vm backup but one large file.
The backup file is not part of a running job anymore. It merely lays on disk and can be imported by our veeam server.

We now realized we only need to keep the backups of a small subset of VMs that are contained in this backupfile and we would like to save space by deleting VM data of the other 90 percent we don't need.

Is it possible to delete restore points from imported backups? If I simply delete them in veeam console - EVEN IF 'DELETE FROM DISK' is selected, the actual data isnt altered. The 'deleted' restore points / VMs are just removed from configuration and no space on disk is freed up.

I thought about restoring the VMs to keep and then backing them up again. Afterwards deleting the old backup file - But I'd rather not do that.

Thanks in advance

[HannesK]

Hello,
additionally to restore, export backup or backup copy job sound like an easy alternative to me.

It's impossible to delete parts of a backup file. "Delete from disk" really deletes data from disk. If that does not happen for you, please post the case number.

Best regards,
Hannes

[Roof]

I admire this would be good.

Imagine: you have a backup job where you have 50 VMs and you modernize your infrastructure, so you remove for example your old fileserver and insert your new fileserver into backup.
Removing the old fileserver from disk inventory does not free up space, as ggets and HannesK mentioned. The only way to free up space is by deleting the whole Job-Folder, so that VBR is creating a whole new .VBK and .VBM.

Second in this: export single VMs to other repositories would be nice. Actually when you export your backups, it does it automatically into the same repository, as the backupsfiles are already in.

[HannesK]

The only way to free up space is by deleting the whole Job-Folder, so that VBR is creating a whole new .VBK and .VBM.

"delete from disk" deletes everything from disk in a working setup. Something must be wrong in your environment if that does not work. "Delete from disk" deletes things from disk

The old fileserver example should be no problem if the "remove deleted items data after" checkbox is checked https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=100 . Actually I also do not understand, why anyone is using per-job chains. They only have disadvantages (the little deduplication argument is irrelevant for me)

Export to other repository... there should be an existing thread on that feature request.

[soncscy]

Maybe I'm wrong, but won't Compact Fulls help with this?

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=100

I get VM takeout only helps with a single point, but shouldn't it do what's necessary here? (with the need for a full of course...)

[geets]

"delete from disk" deletes everything from disk in a working setup. Something must be wrong in your environment if that does not work. "Delete from disk" deletes things from disk

If you select a certain VM from a per-job Backup and you right-click it, you are presented the option to "delete from disk".
Selecting that will definitely not delete anything from disk. Here's the passage from helpcenter:

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=100
" [If per-VM is disabled] Veeam Backup & Replication only marks data block that belong to the deleted VMs as empty — the size of backup files does not change. However, Veeam Backup & Replication will use these data blocks during such operations as merging backup files. To reduce the size of full backup files in forever forward incremental and reverse incremental backup chains, you can compact full backup files. In forward incremental backup chains, files with block marked as empty will be deleted by retention.

On the next run of the job, Veeam Backup & Replication will create full backups for VMs whose backup files were deleted. Note that full backups of these VMs will be stored in an incremental file. For all other VMs, Veeam Backup & Replication will create incremental backups."


Hence my original question. What options do I have to thin out an old backup file, If there won't be any "next job run"?

Thank you

[HannesK]

ah, I clicked on the job name, not on the VM. sorry for the confusion.



the options are the same as mentioned above. get the data you need (backup copy job, export backup) and then delete the whole backup file with "delete from disk".

Veeam does not modify existing backup files. compact full would help in the cases mentioned above. but as you do not run backups anymore... see my initial answer as workarounds.

[geets]

Hello,

thank you for hanging in there I appreciate it.

additionally to restore, export backup or backup copy job sound like an easy alternative to me.

Unfortunately "export backup" is greyed out. I don't know why, because other imported backups can be exported.
Could you elaborate what you meant by using a backup copy job please?

Im not able to point a backup copy job to those imported backup files. Do they need to be in an active repository maybe?

Viele Grüße
Alex

[HannesK]

good point with the backup copy job.

then I have the extract utility as last resort (I was thinking about it in my first answer, but skipped it as the result is not native veeam backup format anymore). It gives you the VMDKs and you can save the plain VMDKs somewhere. https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=100

[geets]

Thank you. That will have to do it.

[foggy]

There are a couple of workarounds. Here's why the Export option is greyed out and hints on how to get it available. As for the backup copy option, you just need to create a dummy backup job to point the backup copy to it as a source - then you will be able to copy out the required VMs. I believe Export is a more straightforward option.