Tips for backup management for the new guy

[MacsneilX]

I have inherited a Veeam installation never having used it before apart from simple file restores from a procedure set out by someone else and now I am looking for a few pointers for managing backups. Our default depository is now about 90% full and the 3 main backup jobs consuming all the space were never configured with GFS or any sort of retention so they have ballooned in size and they now have over 800 days of restore points each. 2 were configured reverse incremental and 1 forward. Ideally I'd like to export year end restore points from the existing chains remove all but 12 months and then enforce GFS on any new backups going forward to get them under control. As I am new to this as an inital small step I tried setting the retention policy on each to 800 days but that did not appear to clear out any restore points.
If I have to move backups I have access to other backup respositories via SMB and NFS. I'd just like to see how other people have tackled this sort of issue and what best policy should be at this point.

[HannesK]

Hello,
and welcome to the forums.

For "new with Veeam", I always recommend the quick start guide.

On the question: exporting backups for the year end is possible via "export backups" button in the ribbon. You can copy & paste the exported backup to where ever you like.

For the backup jobs: changing reverse incremental for forward with active full is possible (I say "active full", because it sounds like you use SMB / NFS repositories which are slow for "synthetic fulls" because there is no block cloning on NFS / SMB). Also you can change the GFS restore points as you like. Once you reduced the days to the number you need, the older backups (which are older than the days you configured) will be deleted and for new backups, the new retention will be applied.

As I am new to this as an initial small step I tried setting the retention policy on each to 800 days but that did not appear to clear out any restore points.

the earliest day for an 800 days retention is 801 days. Meaning a bit more then two years. Before 801 days, the backup would only grow.

Best regards,
Hannes