Very Large Incremental File After ABR10 Update 4
Hi,
We are experiencing very large incremental backup files after the ABR10 Update 4 update was installed. Where previously the files we between 4-5GB now they are between 17-28GB.
We are using Win 2008 R2 and nothing has changed other than the Update 4 installation. I have tried higher compression settings on the backup, but that does not make any discernible difference.
Can someone please give me some guidance?
Thanks...
Hello DukeOfAwesome,
There can be many reasons for the problem, but luckily we already have all of them described alongside with the solution in this KB article. Please follow the mentioned instructions and check whether the issue remains.
Let us know if you have any questions, we will be glad to help you.
Hi Yana,
The KB Article does not apply to this issue because auto defrag is not enabled on Win Server 2008 R2. I even checked to ensure that it wasn't.
Like I said, this issue arose after we did the Update 4 update, and I have since applied the Update 5 update. This hasn't fixed the problem either. Is there anything else I can do?
Duke
So there is no fix for this I take it? Can someone please at least acknowledge that this is an issue and a fix is in the pipeline?
Issues from here generally doesn't go into the pipeline*, unless they are easily reproduced preferably in VM. Suggesting installing ABR11 on a live server (it's a live server with 4-5 GB incremental right?) and check its incremental size vs ABR10's is a bit over, I guess, but it's probably the only way to get it fixed.
What does the server do (working applications?) What are backup plan's options (vss provider and whatever else that's not default)? What happens if you exclude System Volume Information folder from backup (I assume it's a disk/volume backup)?
* not taking into account the pipeline for ABR10 is probably stopped on U5.
Suggesting installing ABR11 on a live server (it's a live server with 4-5 GB incremental right?) and check its incremental size vs ABR10's is a bit over, I guess, but it's probably the only way to get it fixed.
Hi, thanks for your replies.
Are you saying purchase ABR11 to see whether it works? That's an awfully expensive way to test something. Like I said, this only started happening after the U4 Update, so surely I'm not the only one who has noticed this.
What does the server do (working applications?) What are backup plan's options (vss provider and whatever else that's not default)?
The server is a Win 2008 R2 RDS server with just the standard stuff like Office 2007 loaded on it. It also has one instance of SQL Server Express that runs an ACT! contacts database. But like I said, all these applications were the same before the U4 Update.
The backup is using VSS to create the snapshots and no other non-standard selections are applied to the backup task.
What happens if you exclude System Volume Information folder from backup (I assume it's a disk/volume backup)?
What implications does this have on the backup? I do not want to exclude stuff from the backup only to find when I need to restore that there is a caveat because we excluded SVI...
Any further help would be great...
Duke
Hi Duke
Reading through the history of this post I’m also not too sure why/how the incremental backups are larger since the update. I think the reason you are not getting much replies is others are most likely not having this issues.. I’ve checked all our servers that are running ABR10 and are not having any issues with ABR10 Update 4...
Checking through some of the backups of servers running ABR10 Update 4 and Update 5 backups of more static servers have incremental backups as small as 43MB in size, more active servers range from anything between 300MB – 4GB which is about correct for that servers usage.
So I think the issue you are currently facing might not be common and when it is the KB article that Yana provided generally addresses the issues which it does not seem to have in your case.
A few other things to check on your server is to check if you have things like version control in place as if this is the case when changed/editing files multiple versions of that file could be getting saved and consuming the extra space...
Also check if you have any optimisations to databases occurring such as repack/index/defragmentation..etc..etc.. anything that can move your data around or alter it will cause incremental backups to become larger.
If you are still having issues and no one else in the community forum is able to offer help it might be a good idea to log a support case with Acronis to see if they might be able to help find the cause of the issue but it does sound like something on the server might be getting changed/updated/moved/reindexed/version controlled..etc..etc
Hope that helps and that you manage to find the cause of the larger backups. All the best with it.
What implications does this have on the backup? I do not want to exclude stuff from the backup only to find when I need to restore that there is a caveat because we excluded SVI...
You can set up a separate backup plan running for several days if you can bear with additional load.
SVI , iirc, may contain some temporary snapshots from working MS VSS (btw, do you use it or Acronis VSS?) All further suggestions I will give without hesitations as if it were not a production server...
Are you saying purchase ABR11 to see whether it works? That's an awfully expensive way to test something.
There is a trial version too, and I mean only if it is ever gets fixed, it will be fixed in ABR11. Even if it is really something broken only in U4 , and ABR11 is as good as U3, it most likely will not be fixed in ABR10, and upgrade to ABR11 (that is free with active maintenance program) will be suggested. If ABR11 generates large incrementals as U4 do, it may be fixed in ABR11, but not before it's reproduced on some configuration. Preferably in a way like - create VM - install stuff - disable updates - take snapshot S1. Then, reverting to S1 each time, install U3, U4, ABR11 (u0?) and check incrementals' size. And don't forget to simulate production-like load on this VM...