Deleting a full source copy with an incremental copy
Hello all. I installed Acronis 15 and today I am wondering by the issue of incremental backups. I have 6 backup copies on LTO4, including: - one full copy - five incremental copies.
Why did Acronis mark a full copy as "marked for deletion"? After all, without this full copy - which is the "base" for incremental backups - incremental backups are useless.
I have always done full backups every day, but you know that you can save a lot of NAS or LTO space with incremental backups.
What strategy should I adopt assuming that I am making an incremental backup on LTO4 and I change the tape to a new one every week? How to "force" the program to automatically execute a full backup after inserting a new tape? The plan assumes that the coopia is done on the NAS and the IBM LTO4 tape is the second location.
Hello Przemysław Juda,
thank you for posting on Acronis forums!
"Marked for deletion" means that the backup is marked for deletion but cannot be deleted immediately, usually because the other backups depend on it. You cannot perform any operation via Acronis Cyber Backup GUI on backups marked for deletion.
With the current Acronis Backup design, backups that have dependencies are deleted only when all the dependent backups are due to deletion.
For example, you have a full backup with a differential backup to it. When it is time to delete the full backup according to the retention rules, the backup will be marked for deletion, but will only be deleted when the differential one is removed.
Tape will be rewritten only when all backups on the tape are marked for deletion.
Unfortunately, you have not shared with us this backup plan retention rules details. However, I agree with Peter that this is a daily backup marked for deletion.
How to "force" the program to automatically execute a full backup after inserting a new tape?
A new full backup will be created according to your schedule. If there is not enough free space on a tape, this backup will fail. We recommend that you manually check free space and insert a new tape on a day when a new full is created.
I did not very much love Backup Exec, but this kind of "we know better what you need than you" attitude + all those functionality degrading bugs makes me wish, that we never changed to Acronis. If I need to delete a tape to get the next full backup on it, I want to do it and not run into a failed backup because Acronis prefers to keep some old backups on this media instead of the new one. It is my tape - so give me the choice!
Sure, some of our customers have almost never problems, mainly those, who do not use removable storage.
But for those who have problems, it takes far too long to solve those. Especially if they are reincarnating in a new build.
Best greetings from Germany
Olaf
Hello Olaf.
There are not any issues you mentioned: to work around this limitation (to delete a full backup before its dependents) you need to delete Incremental backups before the Full backup that they depend on. To do it choose cleanup By backup age and select required time for each backup set.
Hello everyone.
So as I understand correctly, these copies are only marked for deletion - until the next incremental copies are not deleted.
But why doesn't Acronis have the option to "make one full backup and only seven incremental. Then make a full backup and only seven incremental etc. etc."? While with LTO4, when inserting a new tape, the program will make a new full copy, then when I make a copy on NAS, I will have a full copy and what - several dozen incremental copies?
And where is the option to choose: incremental versus differential?An urgent matter - I made a new plan on purpose and only gave full copies. I am looking at the LTO4 "Acronis" magazine - one full and 2 incremental - why if the "fast increment" option is inactive?
Screenshots and exported plan below.
PS. Why did I not receive an email notification about the responses?
Hello Przemysław Juda!
It's not clear from your shared plan setup, what kind of backups are scheduled for Monday to Friday. Have you tried weekly full, daily incremental schedule? Then you could replace the tape before the weekly is scheduled to run.
Since I don't see a second location within your plan, is replication to NAS set as a separate replication plan? You also didn't say what's your plan with the weekly backup tapes. I.e. If you want to keep them also for 4 weeks, or have a longer retention.
Assuming your retention for the NAS location is setup the same as what you shared, and configured as above, I'd expect the NAS to have at most 4 full backup (the fulls from each week) and 6 incremental (the dailies from the current week).
And where is the option to choose: incremental versus differential?
If the backup schedule is a premade one it's straightforward from the name. If it's custom you can specify which do you need there.
Fast incremental, has no effect on the number of backups you have. It concerns how the data difference is calculated between the previous and current backup.
Also keep mind that if you explicitly run the backup plan (i.e. not scheduled), it will be an incremental by default (dropdown to select a full), but the schedule will still run based on what's set. This shouldn't be a big problem though if you don't have a retention setting based on the number of backups.
-- Peter
Hello Przemyslaw.
So as I understand correctly, these copies are only marked for deletion - until the next incremental copies are not deleted.
These copies are not deleted until the whole chain of incrementals depending on this full is not marked for deletion. The backup (full or incremental) is marked for deletion according to your retention rules. If you set to keep 7 daily and 4 weekly backups and today is a day for deletion of the 8th incremental - it will be marked for deletion until a full backup that it depends on is not marked for deletion. The same is for full backups.
Thus, we recommend that you adjust your retention rules.
But why doesn't Acronis have the option to "make one full backup and only seven incremental. Then make a full backup and only seven incremental etc. etc."?
This is possible with Weekly full, Daily incremental backup scheme 1 full, and up to 7 incrementals.
While with LTO4, when inserting a new tape, the program will make a new full copy,
In a Custom backup scheme you can set individual schedule for each type of backups and set it to start by an event. However, there is no event for tape insert. Thus, you can select another event that is bundled with tape insert:
And where is the option to choose: incremental versus differential?
The option of selecting a backup scheme is available when you create a new protection/backup plan in a Schedule section:
An urgent matter - I made a new plan on purpose and only gave full copies. I am looking at the LTO4 "Acronis" magazine - one full and 2 incremental - why if the "fast increment" option is inactive?
This option is not available for backups stored on tapes: the software will have to rewind the tape numerous times in order to compare each file which will not save backup time but only significantly increase it.
Welcome back. I don't think I understand the logic behind making these copies.
I have set weekly full + daily incremental.
Then why after 4 weeks the incremental ones are marked for deletion and are still in the tibx file? In my opinion, a full copy (30 GB) goes for 1 day, and incremental for the next 7 days (e.g. about 4 GB). After 8 days, the tibx file should not be 30+ (7x4) = 58 GB only 30 GB, so there should be only a full copy. After 8 days, I am no longer interested in incremental backups, because on the 8th day a new week starts and I have a full copy of the new week.
And in Acronis - as you can see in the screenshot - I have, for example, only full copies from February 8 and 12, 2021, and on the NAS tibx files will still take 50 and 40 GB, not only about 30 GB as they have a full backup version.
I do not understand why Acronic takes the place of incremental copies, since they are out of date and are not important to me.
The second thing. LTO tapes - I put a new tape in the plan as the second location. And Acronis made an incremental copy for me - because it probably checked on the NAS (location one) that it was full, it did not check on the LTO that there was a blank tape there. I find it incomprehensible and probably dangerous - If it turned out that, for example, tape No. 1 (tape D in my case) is damaged - and there is a full copy on it - and I put tape No. 2 (Tape 0001 in my case), Acrons does only incremental copies. And yet there is no full copy on the tape. It's not so bad if the NAS is working and I can recover a copy from it. But what if after making an incremental backup, for example, the NAS completely crashes and I only have an incremental copy on the working tape? I go back to the tape - let's call it "0" - with a copy from 2 weeks ago? A disaster!
The program should compare 2 locations when determining whether to make a full copy. Because today I tried to export an incremental copy from LTO (0001 tape) for testing and nothing like that. There is a bug
Activity 'Replication' failed. Path 'bsp: //serwer-ca.ugolesnica.local/Acronis#arl: / 30ED1EBD-1E67-46DB-A483-AD874F3F6225 / 0084691A-75F9-4DE5-B3DE-C65043507A2C / bsp: //server-ca.ugolesnica / Acronis # arl: / 30ED1EBD-1E67-46DB-A483-AD874F3F6225 / 0084691A-75F9-4DE5-B3DE-C65043507A2C / 062914E8-ABF7-4BAC-82A5-38E9E11E070F / 2752-4F49-A69.
Is it possible to change the nomenclature of the copy files at all? In 11.7 there was a file with the date in the name - it was transparent. Here, for example, when exporting an incremental copy of a folder from a given file after saving the file to disk, I do not know which copy it is for.
Dear Przemysław,
As promised, posting my answers here as well -
1)
The incremental backups will not be deleted if their full backup is there, as they depend on them; the same holds true to the full backups, that have increments aka dependencies. Only the full chain can be deleted correctly, or if you are using Only incremental scheme, the increment will be marked as full, and the unique data will be saved in one of the further backups.
One more important thing regarding the retentions on the LTO disks - these have no actual file system, which means that the backups are not erased right off, as it is done on the external USB drive. The backups are marked for deletion, and then the tape is overwritten, when everything that's on it is marked accordingly.
2)
As for the recovery from multiple tapes that are used as a secondary location, you are being asked to put in a particular tape that has a full backup necessary for the recovery.
Technically, if you are worried about the tape being consistent, you can use up to 5 secondary backup locations in a plan - https://www.acronis.com/en-us/support/documentation/AcronisCyberProtect…
(!) Please beware that the tape location has to be the last one, as you are not allowed to replicate from it!
3)
As for export from tape, it is actually not supported anymore, so not quite a bug.
4)
In order to provide us with the exact information about your backup scheme, please open the plan for editing click -> click on Schedule -> take a screenshot of the actual setting and attach it to your message.
5)
As for the nomenclature, it was only possible with the format 11, i.e. with the native backup format of the version 11.7, -
https://www.acronis.com/en-us/support/documentation/AcronisCyberProtect…
Version 15 does not allow to use format 11, if you are not saving the backups to deduplication location created in one of the older versions, and if you are creating a new plan. So regretfully the nomenclature has to be kept as is.
1.
Okay, I understand how it works, but I still don't understand why it works that way.
Simple intention:
1. Full backup of the entire server made on Friday. Copy storage period - 7 weeks.
2. In addition to point 1, daily incremental backups kept for 7 days.
How should I set it up in the program? in the previous post there is an attachment 571000-213929.tar - here the C drive backup job is exported. Unfortunately, as I mentioned, incremental backups are kept in the tibx file for several weeks, not days.
Are files marked on LTO tape "for deletion" overwritten? Because more than once I have had a situation that the program did not complete the backup copy because the tape was full = copy error.
2.
Well, the point is that after inserting a new tape - as a second location - I would expect the program to make a full backup from the machine. The same as after inserting, for example, as the third location of a new, e.g. USB flash drive.
Simply put - if I have one full and seven incremental copies set, if the program does not find a full copy in some location (mother copy), the machine automatically recognizes that something is wrong with the locations and makes a full copy for safety.
3.
Wow. So what should I do to recover a backup from LTO tape? Export doesn't work - why is this feature available at all? Tape support was one of the highlights for buying Acronis!
4.
in the previous post there is attachment 571000-213929.tar - here is the C drive backup job exported
5
okay.
Dear Przemysław,
please find my answers below -
1. "Simple intention: 1. Full backup of the entire server made on Friday. Copy storage period - 7 weeks. 2. In addition to point 1, daily incremental backups kept for 7 days. How should I set it up in the program? in the previous post there is an attachment 571000-213929.tar - here the C drive backup job is exported. Unfortunately, as I mentioned, incremental backups are kept in the tibx file for several weeks, not days. Are files marked on LTO tape "for deletion" overwritten? Because more than once I have had a situation that the program did not complete the backup copy because the tape was full = copy error."
If it is a disc backup, the increments might be empty as well. The disk backup might be consolidated, as my colleague has already recommended - https://www.acronis.com/en-us/support/documentation/AcronisCyberProtect…
The increments are created that way, that they cannot be deleted if their parent full backup isn't. The way out will be to keep the full backups less.
What is also important here, is that you do not delete the old backups manually - retention rules might not work, if the backup cannot be read correctly. If you have deleted anything, please verify, that the first file in the backup chain (12kb) is present - if it is not, recreate it - https://kb.acronis.com/content/62640
If it is a tape backup, the increments will be overwritten together with the rest of the tape, when everything that is on it is marked for deletion. The markup for deletion is happening in the product database, so it is preferable, that you have enough tapes, that the backups on at least 1 tape are marked for deletion entirely, before it is put into the device.
If there are several tape plans, there are several archives with fulls and incrementals inside - all backups from all archives have to be marked for deletion on a tape that is used next for it to be overwritten.
Another way out if you are using a standalone tape device is to have a plan, that is run with the desired pace, when a tape is overwritten before a full backup - https://www.acronis.com/en-us/support/documentation/AcronisCyberProtect…
2. "Simply put - if I have one full and seven incremental copies set, if the program does not find a full copy in some location (mother copy), the machine automatically recognizes that something is wrong with the locations and makes a full copy for safety. "
It works like this with RDX drives, but it does not work like this with tapes - because the information about the archive chain is stored in the database, and because it is expected, that the tape cartridges are swapped, and because they have no file system, just the linear magnetic tape, the data is replicated as is. What you describe is suitable for other type of storage.
3. "Wow. So what should I do to recover a backup from LTO tape? Export doesn't work - why is this feature available at all? Tape support was one of the highlights for buying Acronis!"
Direct restore is possible without export - you go to Backups, select tape pool, the backup you would like to make a restore from, and select the recovery point.
Export is an option to pull a TIBX file (and archive itself) from storage and to put it somewhere else. Pulling a TIBX file from the storage that does not recognize the backup as an actual file, but as a data stream, might take a lot of time, and might require changing the cartridges, if you have a standalone tape device.
Maybe it was a naming problem, please excuse me for misunderstanding.
4. in the previous post there is attachment 571000-213929.tar - here is the C drive backup job exported
Thank you, I have used it for my previous answers.
Hello again. I am trying to recover a backup from LTO tape and none of it. I am trying to copy a folder with SQL databases or some other important folder.
The activity has failed due to a crash of Service Process.
Message
The activity has failed due to a crash of Service Process.
Additional info:
------------------------
Error code: 20250702
Fields: {"$ module": "mms_vsa64_26172"}
Message: The action failed because the service was restarted.
------------------------
Error code: 20250681
Fields: {"$ module": "mms_vsa64_26172"}
Message: TOL: Process 'service_process.exe' has failed.
------------------------
Error code: 1320721
Fields: {"$ module": "mms_vsa64_26172"}
Message: Faulting application name: service_process.exe, version: 15.0.1.26172, time stamp: 0x5fe9dfcf
Faulting module name: MSVCR120.dll, version: 12.0.21005.1, time stamp: 0x524f83ff
Exception code: 0x40000015
Error offset: 0x0000000000074a46
Faulting process id: 0x2ed0
Faulting application start time: 0x01d722273bb59d78
Faulting application path: C: \ Program Files \ Common Files \ Acronis \ BackupAndRecovery \ Common \ service_process.exe
Faulting module path: C: \ Windows \ system32 \ MSVCR120.dll
Report ID: e6ca1b7b-8e1a-11eb-a35e-d89d6713b027
------------------------
Error code: 1320721
Fields: {"$ module": "mms_vsa64_26172", "Channel": "Application", "Computer": "SERVER-CA.ugolesnica.local", "EventID": 1000, "providerGUID": "00000000-0000-0000 -0000-000000000000 "," providerName ":" Application Error "}
Message: Faulting application name: service_process.exe, version: 15.0.1.26172, time stamp: 0x5fe9dfcf
Faulting module name: MSVCR120.dll, version: 12.0.21005.1, time stamp: 0x524f83ff
Exception code: 0x40000015
Error offset: 0x0000000000074a46
Faulting process id: 0x2ed0
Faulting application start time: 0x01d722273bb59d78
Faulting application path: C: \ Program Files \ Common Files \ Acronis \ BackupAndRecovery \ Common \ service_process.exe
Faulting module path: C: \ Windows \ system32 \ MSVCR120.dll
Report ID: e6ca1b7b-8e1a-11eb-a35e-d89d6713b027
------------------------
Second errror:
Unknown error
Message
Unknown error
Additional info:
------------------------
Error code: 20250685
Fields: {"$ module": "service_process_vsa64_26172"}
Message: Command has failed. Command = File Recovery; tenantID = 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
------------------------
Error code: 20250646
Fields: {"$ module": "service_process_vsa64_26172", "CommandID": "1B6CB334-6CB5-4760-AE3C-B96A973D5A99"}
Message: TOL: Failed to execute the command. File recovery
------------------------
Error code: 20250646
Fields: {"$ module": "disk_bundle_vsa64_26172", "CommandID": "1B6CB334-6CB5-4760-AE3C-B96A973D5A99"}
Message: TOL: Failed to execute the command. File recovery
------------------------
Error code: 9568304
Fields: {"$ module": "disk_bundle_vsa64_26172"}
Message: Data recovery failed.
------------------------
Error code: 66596
Fields: {"$ module": "disk_bundle_vsa64_26172"}
------------------------
Error code: 262170
Fields: {"$ module": "disk_bundle_vsa64_26172"}
Message: An error occurred while recovering.
------------------------
Error code: 43716607
Fields: {"$ module": "disk_bundle_vsa64_26172", "function": "file_restore_run", "path": "bsp: //serwer-ca.ugolesnica.local/Acronis/arl: / 30ED1EBD-1E67-46DB-A483- AD874F3F6225 / 0084691A-75F9-4DE5-B3DE-C65043507A2C / 93582892-A0E5-406C-AAB2-0501DCD924B0 / 8043DB0B-391B-4AD5-8B31-7DCD1BDEFF5A}
Message: Unknown error
------------------------
The same copies saved on the NAS are easily recovered. I turned on the recovery of the SQL folder and for 40 minutes it has been "hanging" at 6% - I click cancel and nothing happens. This is what in the screenshot.
Dear Przemysław,
Please excuse me for the waiting time.
Let's continue discussing these issues in a separate support ticket - the forum threads are less helpful, if one has a crashing service.
The new ticket number is 04865717, I will contact you additionally using the email address I have been using in a previous ticket.