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Backup Scheme Cleanup: Does Delete CHAIN also delete the FULL backup "base"?

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Assume: I have an Incremental backup (and full backup every 20 incremental versions):

 

If I  choose Delete version chanis older than X days, does that also delete the full backup that the incremental's were based on??

Likewise, if I choose Store no more than X recent version chains, will it also not store the Full backup on which it was based?

 

The help file is... no help: It doesn't indicate whether the Version Chain include the base Full backup. (I would assume it does but want to clarify)

It says:

  • Delete version chains older than [defined period] (available for incremental and differential methods only) - Select this option to limit the age of backup version chains. The oldest version chain will be deleted only when the most recent backup version of this chain is older than the specified period

My Goal(if you're intersted)

 

Keep the incemental backups for the most recent full backup.

Then when it makes a new Full backup and fills up the 20 "slots", delete the previous Full versions incremental backups, but keep the Full version.

Ideally, I'd like to end up with:

Monthly FULL backup and incremtals

Previous Month's incremental's

Full Backup for each previous month.

And then maybe one full backup per year.

 

 

 

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If I  choose Delete version chanis older than X days, does that also delete the full backup that the incremental's were based on??

Yes, that's exactly how it works.

Incrementals rely on the full they were based off of. If the full was removed, no incremental could be used from that chain.  Likewise, incrementals are always dependendt upon all incrementals in the version chain that came before them so if you wanted to keep #20, but not the others, it wouldn't work.

Likewise, if I choose Store no more than X recent version chains, will it also not store the Full backup on which it was based?

Each full backup is part of it's own version chain.  If you have an incremental backup with 20 incremetals in the chain that includes the first full in that chain plus the 20 incrementals.  When the cleanup runs, it will delete the full and all icrementals associated with that full to stay in that limit.  However, it also does not clean anything up until the next full has successfully completed.  So, if you kept 2 version chains it would go like this:

chain 1 = 1 full + 20 incrementals

chain 2 = 1 full + 20 incrementals

chain 3 starts... when the full in this completes, then chain 1 will be deleted and you'll be left with all of chain 2 and will build up chain 3 until it's time for the next cleanup to take place. 

Ok, Thanks!.

 

Any suggestions for how I could accomplish the goal of having all the backups for the last month or two, then further back, just one ever month or so.

The idea is that you MIGHT need something from a year ago or a few months ago for in the last few weeks.

I guess I might need to have TWO different backup schemes going at once:

Daily and keep the last 30 days or so.

Monthly, and keep last 12 or so.

The way I was HOPING it would work was that you could cleanup (delete) JUST the incremental backups.

So you could have a full backup every month followed by incrementals daily. Then keep the last 2 months of incrementals, and delete incrementals (only)  further back than tha.

 

Thanks!

 

Clay Nichols wrote:

Any suggestions for how I could accomplish the goal of having all the backups for the last month or two, then further back, just one ever month or so.  
I guess I might need to have TWO different backup schemes going at once:
Daily and keep the last 30 days or so. 
Monthly, and keep last 12 or so.
The way I was HOPING it would work was that you could cleanup (delete) JUST the incremental backups.
So you could have a full backup every month followed by incrementals daily. Then keep the last 2 months of incrementals, and delete incrementals (only)  further back than that.

Clay, the best approach would be to have two separate backup tasks here and use the automatic cleanup rules in each according to what you want to keep and for how long/

If you go with the way you were hoping it would work, you will have to manually manage all cleanup activities and also manage the impact of manually deleting the unwanted incremental and any other files.  Each time you manually delete a file you are leaving an unresolved reference to the deleted file in the Acronis Database files, and thus you will also need to perform a Validation for your backup task(s) that created the deleted files so that the database is reconciled with the actual status of existing files.

Yeah, you're probably right.

 

It may actually be easier just to stick with TrueImage 12 (I was testing an upgrade).

Then, every so often, I can go in and:

1. Rename the old FULL install.

2. Delete all of it's Incrementals.

3. It'll just start over again.

 

Clay, the decision about which version to use is ultimately your own to make, though I would caution that there may be issues in continuing to use ATIH 2012 depending on what version of Windows OS you are running.

See KB document: 23921: Acronis True Image Home 2012: Supported Operating Systems which states:

Acronis True Image Home 2012 supports the following operating systems:

  • Windows XP SP3
  • Windows XP Professional x64 Edition SP2
  • Windows Vista SP2 (both x32 and x64 versions, all editions)
  • Windows 7 (both x32 and x64 versions, all editions)
  • Windows Home Server 2011