delete inkremental Backups after a defined time

Hello!
At the moment, I make a daily inkrementell backup (sorry for my English)
But in a certain time, these inkrementell Backups use a lot of space on the hdd. Now i describe what I want to do:
- Make a daily inkrementell Backup
- Delete all inkrementell Backups inclusive the full Backup after 2 weeks (AFTER having made a new full Backup)

You see, I want Acronis to start a NEW inkrementell Backup every 2 weeks and delete the old backups after there exists a new backup

I hope that you understand me, although my English isn't so good

mfg Frager

p.s.: Answers in German are welcome!!!

 

Can Anyone help me? Please, it is very important!!! If this question was asked here already, please give me the link that I can read it myself
mfg Frager

 

Hello Frager,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Please accept our apologies for the delay with the response.

Please note that if you are using Acronis True Image 10.0 Home you can create Backup Location and set the backup rules according to your goals. Please find the detailed instructions on how to create and configure backup location in Chapter 7. "Backup locations management" in the Acronis True Image 10.0 Home User's Guide.

For example, if you would like to create full backup every two weeks and every other day incremental/differential backup you can configure backup location the following way:

1) maximum size

Big enough to hold all the backup archives (one full backup and 13 incremental/differential backups)

2) maximum number of backups

For you particular case set it to 14 (to hold one full backup and 13 incremental/differential backups)

3) maximum storage period for the archives in a backup location.

Set this option, if needed

Then you will be able to create scheduled task to image you system to this backup location. Check Chapter 8. "Scheduling tasks" about how to create scheduled tasks. So, you can set the backup policy for the backup task according to your needs (check the attached screen shot). Please note that backup policy is implemented for Backup Locations only (no such option if schedule a task to another destination). Then set the task execution periodicity as "Daily" and specify the needed time to start the backup process.

This way at the end of two (2) weeks you will have a full backup and 13 incremental/differential backups. Next, the full backup will be recreated and all the process begins from the top automatically.

If you uses version 9.0 of Acronis True Image Home you will need to scheduled tasks to perform the same actions:

Task #1: create full backup with weekly execution and set to run every 2 weeks.

Task #2: create incremental/differential backup with daily execution.

Please note that you are free to create another scheduled tasks that suits your needs. Acronis True Image Scheduler Task Wizard allows you to create flexible scheme for scheduling.

The instructions on how to create scheduled tasks in Acronis True Image 9.0 Home is described in Chapter 7. "Scheduling tasks" of the Acronis True Image 9.0 Home User's Guide.

If you have any further questions concerning Acronis software, please feel free to submit a request for technical support or post any of them on this forum. We will certainly try to help you in resolving any issues.

Thank you.
--
Aleksandr Isakov

 

Is the new setting for maximum number of archive files going to come to TI Workstation? I sure hope so.

Even with this feature, it's hard to automate backups to preserve a structure such as N months, N weeks and N days, as is done in the commercial world. It might be possible to do this with the pre and post command options, I'll have to think about that, unless someone else has done this previously.

 

Same here, i also don't get the new backup policy screen with ATI 10, only the old ATI 9 screens, even after i have created a Backup Location, i also get errors in the Windows event viewer when i run any of the items related to the Backup Location options, check my post in the thread below for the errors listed in the Windows event viewer.

ATI 110 Archive Management -- File Quota Feature not functional

Direct link to my post containing errors in the Windows event viewer

 

Thank you, Acronis Support, for your answer.
In the next days, I will test this solution. If there is a problem, i will tell you
thank you

 

Hello, it's me again
This evening I tested the solutions. I was confrontated with 2 problems:
- The schedule task wizard doesn't appear in my program, like the other users said too

- If I want to edit the Backup Space, my changes doesn't take effect: I configured the space to make only 4 updates (which means I limitated the number). And Now? Now I have got one full backup plus 5 incremental Backups, the number "4" didn't take effect

The solution to overwrite the old Backup worked very good, but now I want to use the Backupspace...which means that these 2 problems have to be...deleted

mfg Frager

 

Hello holmes4,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Please note that you can combine the backup policies with a regular scheduling options (daily, weekly, monthly etc) to accomplish your goals. If you could provide us with an example of scheduled scheme you want to use we or other forum member would try to provide you with a solution.

Thank you.
--
Aleksandr Isakov

 

Hello shieber,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Please note that backup policies (the screen in post #3) are available when you schedule a backup task to create image archive to backup locations only.

If you do not use scheduled task but create backups using Backup Wizard and store backup to the Backup Location, the selected location will be checked and, if any limitation is exceeded, the oldest backups will be consolidated or deleted.

And as it was mentioned in another thread if you want to use the created Backup Location to store the image archive you should select the Backup Location from the drives tree (check the screen shot).

Thank you.
--
Aleksandr Isakov

 

Hello Frager,

I believe you perform the same actions like shieber and some other users of Acronis True Image 10.0 Home that leeds to this issue. Therefore, the clarification in post #9 of this thread should help you to solve it.

Thank you.
--
Aleksandr Isakov


~ Changed referenced post to #9 due to deletetion of a previous reply - Menorcaman ~

 

Hello d.chatten,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

I will post my reply in this thread you mentioned.

Thank you.
--
Aleksandr Isakov

 

Hello and Thank you for your answers
Everything you explained was correct. Sure, it will take time to test this solution, but I think it will help me. If there are other questions, I will let you know them
mfg Frager

 

Aleksandr,

I have TrueImage Workstation 9.1 (the latest available) and the "backup policy" feature is not provided. An example of what I would consider ideal is if TI could maintain for me the following set:

Each day for the last seven days
Each week for the past four weeks
Each month for the past three months

One way of doing this would be:
1. If the current full backup is seven days old, rename the full and all the incrementals to date to "last week", start a new full backup (this guarantees that I have at least seven daily backups - I might have as many as 13 depending.)
2. Take the full backup that would be replaced under rule 1 and rename it "two weeks ago" (when I say this, I mean pick names with dates), and delete its associated incrementals
3. If rule 2 creates more than four full weekly backups, rename the oldest one "one month ago"

It might be possible to do this with a clever pre and post script, but date comparisons in scripts are tricky and TI can do it so much easier. A policy could be created where the user sets the intervals and number of backups at each level to keep.

The problem with the 10.0 policy is that it defines a maximum number of backups but not a minimum, so I could find myself with only one backup and unable to go further back in time.

 

@holmes4

You could do this with ATI 10, examples below.

Rule 1) Create Backup Location, backup limit 7, then create a scheduled task to create incremenal backups daily and set the option to create a full backup after 6 incrementals, ATI 10 will not delete all archive files, you will allways be left with a full seven days of backups.

http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/1729/pic1nw3.png
http://img106.imageshack.us/img106/936/pic12od0.png
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/5267/pic5wo4.png

Rule 2) Create Backup Location, backup limit 4, then create a scheduled task to create full weekly backups, ATI 10 will not delete all archive files, you will allways be left with a full four weeks of backups.

http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/2369/pic2lq4.png
http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/4208/pic22rg9.png
http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/1116/pic42ge5.png

Rule 3) Create Backup Location, backup limit 3, then create a scheduled task to create full monthly backups,, ATI 10 will not delete all archive files, you will allways be left with a full three months of backups.

http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/7889/pic3fu2.png
http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/4853/pic22wn3.png
http://img279.imageshack.us/img279/2809/pic4qz3.png

Hope this helps!

 

d.chatten,

Thanks for the suggestion. Since I don't have TI10 (I have TI Workstation 9.1) I can't use such a feature yet.

I do see some problems with your proposal.

First, read all the text in the description of your second screen shot. While you cut off some of it, I'm sure that what it says is that when the limit on incrementals is reached and a new full is created, the previous incrementals are no longer fully usable. This means that one has as few as one day back of valid archives, even if the incrementals are still physically present.

I did not realize, though, until I just tried it, that an incremental backup can be opened on its own. That's useful.

The second issue is that your proposal creates extra backup tasks, creating a new weekly or monthly archive instead of just saving one that is already done. For some users this may not be a big deal, but if your full backups take a long time to create, it could.

I'm going to take a spin at creating a program that does the shuffle I propose as a pre-archive task. (No post-archive task is required.) If it works, I'll offer it to others.

 

When the file limit is reached a new full backup is indeed created but at the same time the new backup is created it seems like the old full backup and all incrementals are merged in to one large archive, with incrementals limited to two it seems to work something like this, (CREATE FIRST NEW FULL) > INC1 > INC2 > (MERGE & CREATE NEW FULL) > INC1 > (INC2 & DELETE MERGED) > (MERGE & CREATE NEW FULL) > INC1 > (INC2 & DELETE MERGED), and so on, i tested this with a file limit of two (for quickness) and this is how it seems worked out, it may work slightly different to this but this is what seems to be happening with the INC limit set to two, i hope this makes sense.

 

Fascinating. I'll have to wait for 10 Workstation to see how that works for me. Thanks.

 

Aleksandr,

Does this mean that on the 15th day, the whole backup location will be wiped clean of any backups both Full and inremental/differential, And then a new full backup will be created?

Or will old (invalid) incrementals still be hangin 'round.

Thanks,

:LSB

 

Hello bitman2112,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

We are sorry for the delayed response.

Please note that in this case on the 15th day, the oldest incremental backup will be consolidated with the initiate full backup and a new full backup will be created. On the 16th day, the next incremental backup will be consolidated with the initial full backup and the incremental will be created. Thus, the archive integrity will not be affected.

Thank you.
--
Aleksandr Isakov

 

Actually, the Backup Server (which is one of the 9.1 Workstation components) provides very similar functionality to the Backup Location management capabilities of ATI10 Home. Take a peek at Section 3.5 of the 9.1 Workstation User Guide.