Understanding Backup Sets and Purging

When the storage media is re-writable, and the user has the right folder privileges, Genie Mail Backup can be set to delete old backup files created by the backup job, to save space. The way purging old backups works varies depending on the backup type used.

To set GMB to purge old backup files created by a backup job:

1. From the left menu in the Backup Wizard, select Settings.

2. Click Purge Settings.

3. Select one of the following options:

• Keep old backups: Do not delete old backups

• Keep only last X backups: Keep only the last X backup files and delete files produced by older backups

• Keep old backups for a period of X days: Delete any backup file older than X days

Backup Sets

To understand how purging works in Genie Mail Backup, the user needs to be familiar with the concept of Backup Sets. For the purpose of this help documentation, a backup set is the minimum collection of backup files - or folders, in the case of backup without compression - that are needed to successfully perform a restore. For example, if the user wishes to restore files that were backed up using an incremental backup job on March 23rd, then every backup file created by this backup job since that date and back to the most recent full backup before that date should be present and are considered a backup set.

Purging works with backup sets and not backup runs. if the user chooses to "keep the last 5 backups", that means that Genie Mail Backup will always keep the most recent 5 backup sets created by that job.

Purging with Full Backup

Full backup copies all the selected files each time the backup is performed. Each time a full backup is performed, a new backup set is created, and a bracketed number after the backup job name is incremented by one, to denote the backup run number.

Since each backup run creates a backup set, keeping the last X backup sets means keeping the backup files produced by the most recent X backup runs.

Ex:

A full backup is performed, job name is "My_backup", and purging option selected is "keep only last 4 backups".

Purging with Incremental Backup

During incremental backups, the first backup run performed after the backup job is created is a Full backup, subsequent backup runs are all incremental until the user elects to reset the backup job to full, either manually or automatically using the "Limiting increments" feature. GMB treats each full backup and all subsequent increments until the next full run as a complete backup set.

For each backup run that is performed, a number after the backup job name is incremented by one, when backup is switched to full, that number is reset and another bracketed number is incremented by one to denote the number of full backups performed since the backup job was created.

When purging is selected, backup rotation is forced, which means that after a certain number of incremental backups, Genie Mail Backup will automatically reset the backup type to full for one backup run, then performs another set of incremental backup runs, then resets to full again, and so on.

If the user enables purging with the option to "Keep only last X backups", Genie Mail Backup will reset backup type to full "full" X time, and on the X+1 run, it will delete the oldest backup set.

Example

An incremental backup is performed.

• Job name: "My_backup"

• Purging option: "keep only last 3 backups"

• Backup rotation: 2 increments.

* Bold denotes the creation of a new backup set.

Rotating Backups

When increment backup is used, the user can set GMB to automatically switch to full backup after a specific number of increments. Each full backup and its subsequent increments are treated by GMB as one backup set, enabling the user to purge old backup sets safely.

To set GMB to limit the number of increments for each backup set:

From the left menu in the Backup Wizard, select Settings

1. Click Purge Settings.

2. Select the Limit increments option.

3. In Number of increments, type the number of increments you wish GMB to perform before switching to full backup .