How do I remove old snapshots from file based backup sets?

[riposter]

Is there a way to specify how many snapshots to maintain for a given backup set, and is there a way to remove (very) old snapshots from a backup set, or preferably a group of backup sets all at once? As far as I can tell, there isn't and the media (in this case a RAID) will just continue to fill until full.

 

This is for Retrospect Server 6.1.230.

 

Thanks

[Mayoff]

The Mac typically tracks the most recent snapshot for each source, but you can "add snapshot" to see older snapshots.

 

Retrospect X will include Disk Grooming to purge out old backup data/snapshot from hard disk sets.

[riposter]

yeah...it's the add snapshots option that's the concern. I have some going back several years, while I only really need to maintain a couple weeks worth at most. what's the planned release data for RetroX?

 

Thanks

[CallMeDave]

it's the add snapshots option that's the concern. I have some going back several years, while I only really need to maintain a couple weeks worth at most

.

 

You have a File Backup Set stored on a RAID that you've been writing to for several years? For true?

 

Retrospect has behaved this way for many years; forever, in fact. Many of us have found ways to work around this, for example have two parallel Backup Sets on the same physical media where you can Recycle one and then the other at regular intervals. Or add an additional physical storage location for keeping your secondary (and tertiary) Backup Sets so you can maintain only the depth of recovery that you want.

 

Yes, it requires more Full backups then having disk grooming requires. But if your storage location is filling up now, you'll need to come up with a solution that doesn't leave you without a backup, even for a short window of time.

 

Dave

[Maser]

I'm not sure if I've read this anywhere, but...

 

Will Retrospect X be able to "groom" existing Retrospect 6 data sets?

 

Or will we need to start over with "X" to get grooming?

 

 

(I'm guessing the latter is true, but I thought I'd ask...)

[CallMeDave]

I don't think it's been said by anyone from EMCInsignia, but I seriously doubt it.

 

It's likely that the data storage format is going to be different, and that they'll probably handle it they way they handled the 5.x -> 6.x transition; Retrospect X will be able to read/Restore from older Backup Sets, but not write to them in any manner.

 

Just my expectation; not based on anything other then history.

 

 

Dave

[rhwalker]

I'm not sure if I've read this anywhere, but...

 

Will Retrospect X be able to "groom" existing Retrospect 6 data sets?

 

Or will we need to start over with "X" to get grooming?

 

(I'm guessing the latter is true, but I thought I'd ask...)

yes and no.

 

Because Retrospect X has been announced as cross-platform, with both versions being able to handle the other's backup sets, and because Retrospect X is being based on the Windows code base, which currently creates backup sets that are unreadable by the Mac Retrospect, the answer would seem to be "no". However, because Retrospect Mac has always preserved the ability to read old (prior incompatible format) backup sets even when the backup set format changes (as it has several times) (and Retrospect wouldn't be much of a backup program if it couldn't read your old backups - we still occasionally retrieve files from backup sets on DAT tape made back about 1992 with Retrospect 2.0), you could, if you wanted, use the "Transfer" command to transfer the old backup set to a new backup set with the new format, and then groom that. In that sense, the answer would seem to be a qualified "yes", in that you could groom a transferred version of the old backup set.

 

Russ

[CallMeDave]

Will Retrospect X be able to "groom" existing Retrospect 6 data sets?

 

Russ got me thinking about what I wrote, and a better, more snarky way for me to have answered might have been:

 

Retrospect does not have "data sets," Retrospect has Backup Sets. There are multiple Types of Backup Sets available, with different features available on Windows and Macintosh.

 

The only Type of Backup Set that supports grooming is the Disk Backup Set; this Type of Backup Set does not exist on the current Macintosh version, so even if the new version supports writing to older Backup Sets, no existing Backup Set from a Macintosh version of Retrospect prior to Retrospect X could possibly provide for disk grooming.

 

Transferring from a File or Removable Backup Set to a Disk Backup Set would be the only thing you could do.

 

Dave