Acronis Archiving Best Practice

So i made an full backup of my primary server here about 35 days ago. Residing in the backup folder are the full backup and 35 incremental backups. Well the data storage amount is getting exceptionally large and id like to either start the backup fresh to save space or remove some incremental backups while retaining the original full backup.

What would be the best practice or best way i could go about this?

Method A) delete everything, create another full backup, and then incrementals after.
- con to this is, i have to do this every month or so, id like for it to be automated.

Method B) remove some incrementals from the backup archive, and start building new incrementals off the original full backup. I think the acronis backup consolidation wizard does this.
- con to this is, i would also have to do this every month or so. Automation would be nice.

Any suggestions? Im running Acronis True Image Echo Server

 

Hello shumopper,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Server Disk Backup Software.

There is no automated consolidation feature in Acronis True Image Echo Server for Windows, so method B) would be impossible. Method A), however, can be implemented the following way:

Add a full backup scheduled to be created every month (or other chosen period) with the same name as the original full backup. When the task runs, the new full backup will overwrite the old one; and then new incrementals will be created to the new full backup, while gradually overwriting the leftover incrementals from the old full backup.

You may also want to rename/move the old full backup using Pre command with the new task (to create full backup), so in case creation of a new backup fails you still had you (renamed) original full backup. Then, a Post command (only executed if the creation was successful) would delete the old full backup and, optionally, the leftover incremental ones.

You can find more information about Pre/Post commands in paragraph 5.3.3 "Pre/post commands" of Acronis True Image Echo Server for Windows User's Guide.

Thank you.
--
Marat Setdikov

 

Over the past few years, since v6 I evolved the following backup regimen:

My drive C contains OS and program files only, no data of any kind. My Documents and Documents folders are on a separate Data partition.

I run full images of C every 7-9 days, always manually after I go to bed. They are Always stored on external HDs, of which I have two. I never keep more than three full images of C, and delete the oldest image. I never over-write.

I image the Data drive on the same schedule, also to external drives. This usually takes less than five minutes.

I prefer manual backups because I can make an informed judgement when to backup, eg after installation of a new program or a major update, or after some major change in the data files.