When does reducing backup retention free up disk space?

[itomic]

Hi All,

I've got 4 cPanel/WHM servers all backing up to a single dedicated backup server.

The backup is set to retain copies for 7 days, 7 weeks, 7 months (21 in total).

But we've run out of disk space on our backup server, so the daily backups aren't running anymore.

I've reduced the retention to 5 days, 5 weeks, 5 months... but after 36 hours there's no sign of disk space being automatically freed up on the backup server.

Should I expect disk space to be freed up on the backup server if I reduce the number of copies being retained from 7 to 5? If not, how can I safely free up space on the dedicated backup server to reflect the fact that now I'm only retaining 15 backups, not 21?

Thx!

[JetAppsTrenton]

Hello itomic,

Thank you for your patience! To safely remove backups, please lower the retention value on the backup job, and JetBackup will automatically remove the oldest backups based on the modified value. Since you already decreased the value, you should be able to see the change once the next backup is run. For more information on removing backups, please refer to our documentation found below.

https://docs.jetbackup.com/v5.3-EDGE/ad ... -jetbackup

Best Regards,

Trenton V
JetApps, LLC.
JetApps.com | JetBackup.com

[itomic]

Thanks for that reply.

I've tried manually reindexing the destination backup server, from each of the 4 source servers, after reducing retentions down to 5 days/weeks/months (from 7), but it doesn't appear that any disk space is being freed up on the destination backup server.

https://docs.jetbackup.com/v5.3-EDGE/ad ... estination

Not sure what to try next.

[JetAppsTrenton]

Hello itomic

Sorry for the confusion! You can specify how many backups to keep by modifying the backup retains on the schedule settings. To do this, go to JetBackup 5 >> Backup Jobs >> Manage Schedules >> Backup Retain = 5. You will see the changes on the next Backup Job run.

You can find more information on managing schedule settings here:
https://docs.jetbackup.com/v5.2/adminpa ... #schedules

Best Regards,

Trenton V
JetApps, LLC.
JetApps.com | JetBackup.com

[itomic]

Yes, I've reduced the backup retentions from 7 days/weeks/months to 5 days/weeks/months on all 4 servers that are backing up to the target server, but this is not causing the target server to release the disk space, i.e. the backups (21-15=6) that are no longer required are not being auto-purged as I expected/hoped they would be.

Screenshot 2023-11-04 145722.png (50.99 KiB) Viewed 3661 times

[JetAppsTrenton]

Hello itomic,

Sorry for the inconvenience that this has caused you. We have a technical support team available 24/7/365 to help you with your JetBackup-related support issues! You can submit a ticket in your Client Area or email support@jetapps.com

Best Regards

Trenton V
JetApps, LLC.
JetApps.com | JetBackup.com

[itomic]

Thanks, I've emailed support@jetapps.com

[itomic]

fyi, more info/ideas suggested by support@jetapps.com:

Manual backups to retain: 14
Manual backups TTL: don't delete

I've now changed this to the following on the 4 source servers:

Manual backups to retain: 10
Manual backups TTL: 60

https://docs.jetbackup.com/v5.2/adminpa ... tings.html

It doesn't matter if I lose some old backups in the short term if it just means we can get fresh backups made asap.

[JetAppsKevin]

Hello itomic,

Thank you for the update. We recommend that you update to our latest JetBackup v5.3.5 EDGE.

JetBackup v5.3.5 is currently our stable candidate and is expected to release to stable by the end of Q4 2023. v5.3 is our largest release yet with hundreds of resolved cases that include bug fixes, new features, improvements, new supported destinations,etc -- along with significant changes to our jetindex backup engine to increase performance and reliability. (used for S3, FTP, Google Drive, Dropbox, and SFTP destinations in v5.3).

Additionally, you will be able to set how often you wish the Backup Cleanup and Integrity Check to run. This feature would help reduce the time it takes for JetBackup to check and delete backups marked for deletion (minimum 1 days).

For more information, please refer to our documentation: https://docs.jetbackup.com/v5.3-EDGE/ad ... 20Schedule

Best Regards,

[itomic]

Thanks, we'll give EDGE a go, because this problem we've experienced with JetBackup NOT gracefully freeing up space when the target server is full has caused us lots of grief!