Re: [BackupPC-users] Timing out full backups

[Craig B. <cba...@us...>]

Michael writes:

> > Michael Mansour wrote:
> >=20
> > > I have servers which have multiple full backups and incrementals, b=
ut neither
> > > is removed.
> >=20
> > I don't think they are removed until the replacements are completed.
> >
> > > Is there a way I can just manually delete some of the backups (incr=
ementals
> > > and fulls) to start this process again? as I can't seem to do anyth=
ing while
> > > the disks are full and the timeout processes are not working.
> >=20
> > Yes, you can go to the pc directory and 'rm -rf backup_number' for=20
> > what you want to delete.  The space won't actually be released until=20
> > BackupPC_nightly runs and then only for files that are not linked by=20
> > other backup runs.  Some of your web displays will be wrong for a=20
> > while after deleting things this way but it will eventually correct i=
tself.
>=20
> Ok, I have started deleting and will kick off some manual incrementals a=
fterwards.

You should be *really* sure you know what you are doing when
you manually delete backups.  At a miminum you should remove the
corresponding line in the backups file.

Your stats suggest you have 1 or 2 fulls per host.  That's typically
the minimum number, since subsequent incrementals require the baseline
full to be kept.  For example, even if you specify $Conf{FullKeepCnt} =3D=
 1,
you will often have two fulls because the subsequent incrementals need
it kept:

 oldest ->   #0 Full
             #1 Incr
             #2 Incr
             #4 Full
             #5 Incr
             #6 Incr
             #7 Incr
 newest ->   #8 Incr

=20
This is a very common situation.  If you remove full #0 then you have
rendered backups #1 and #2 invalid and useless.

The only three options to reduce the number of backups in this case is:

    - remove incrementals #8, #7, #6, #5 (in that order)

    - remove incrementals #2, #1 (in that order)

    - remove full #0, and incr #1 and #2 (all or nothing).

I'd really recommend against manually remove backups unless you either
really know what you are doing or you are starting over after running
a temporary or test setup.

You can accomplish the same effect as above by setting $Conf{IncrKeepCnt}=

to 4 or less.

But even then there will still be cases where there are 2 full backups
kept.  The additional storage is much less than you expect because of
hardlinking.

Craig