Understanding Save storage space? option

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Xyzzy
Posts: 37
Joined: Wed Dec 08, 2010 9:25 pm

Understanding Save storage space? option

Post by Xyzzy »

Hello!

I have some questions regarding the Save storage space? option:

- What is possible handling method for files that have been excluded or deleted from backup source? I see that in Mirror backup they can be deleted from backup. But for other backup types the only way to simulate that behavior is to turn on 'Yes, limit the number of backups' and un-check 'Merge backups', so that they are deleted after n-th backup. Otherwise they stay forever. Am I right?
- Say my backup schedule for a backup is Full on 1st Monday of month,Differential on all other Mondays, and Incremental all other days.
--'Yes, limit the number of backups' is active and set to 3, 'Merge backups' is disabled- that means that my backup is generally useless, because all that is available for the most of time are just some Differential and Incremental backups, no Full is available. Right? Wrong, I think the answer is here: http://www.backup4all.com/kb/using-back ... 79.html#70
--Same as above, 'Merge backup' is enabled. That would mean generally that at every backup the oldest kept copy is merged to full state, current as of date of this (oldest kept) backup?

Adrian (Softland)
Posts: 1914
Joined: Wed Dec 16, 2009 12:46 pm

Re: Understanding Save storage space? option

Post by Adrian (Softland) »

Hi,

The excluded and deleted files from a Full, Differential or Incremental backup type cannot be simply deleted from destination as for the Mirror type.
Limiting the number of backups is a solution, but please note the last Full backup is never deleted as you can see in that article you mentioned.
Merging the backups will keep the most recent version for each file. It will combine the currently created backup with the oldest backup version to be deleted.
Do you know you can monitor your backups remotely with Backup4all Monitor? You can read more here: https://www.backup4all.com/backup4all-monitor.html

rgeis
Posts: 10
Joined: Wed Feb 22, 2012 12:51 am

Re: Understanding Save storage space? option

Post by rgeis »

"Merging the backups will keep the most recent version for each file. It will combine the currently created backup with the oldest backup version to be deleted."

I am trying to understand the above response and overall how merge backups works. How does merge backup work on an incremental job with a limit backup number such as 18?

What I am trying to do is have a way to do an incremental job with a limit # ~18 and then not have it delete all the increments once the limit is exceeded.

To summarize, I want a incremental backup that perpetually has the last 18 increments. Can this be done?
Thanks for the help!

Adrian (Softland)
Posts: 1914
Joined: Wed Dec 16, 2009 12:46 pm

Re: Understanding Save storage space? option

Post by Adrian (Softland) »

Hi,

When the 19th backup version is created the limit is applied and also the merge operation. The older 2 backup versions will be merged in order to respect the limit.

miqrogroove
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat May 14, 2016 5:38 pm

Re: Understanding Save storage space? option

Post by miqrogroove »

Here is a specific example from my Backup4all 5.5 job.

Incremental backups configured with full backups when all increments exceed 50% of full backup size. Save storage space set to Yes, limit number of backups to 12. "Merge backups" is NOT selected.

After running 12 backups I have:

12. Full
11. Increment
10. Increment
9. Increment
8. Full
7. Increment
6. Increment
5. Increment
4. Full
3. Increment
2. Increment
1. Full

After one additional backup, the first two incremental jobs are automatically deleted and I have:

13. Increment
12. Full
11. Increment
10. Increment
9. Increment
8. Full
7. Increment
6. Increment
5. Increment
4. Full
1. Full

In this situation, I still have several versions of the files and the performance benefit of not merging things.

miqrogroove
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat May 14, 2016 5:38 pm

Re: Understanding Save storage space? option

Post by miqrogroove »

Continuing the example above, after two more backups the first full copy gets deleted automatically.

15. Increment
14. Increment
13. Increment
12. Full
11. Increment
10. Increment
9. Increment
8. Full
7. Increment
6. Increment
5. Increment
4. Full

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