Starting a new backup chain

Challenge

You need to start a new backup chain for an existing job in Veeam Agent for Linux (VAL).

Cause

It will be necessary to remove the information about the existing backup chain from the database.

Before you begin, make sure the destination has enough storage space for a new backup chain.

Solution

1. Find the ID of the backup you would like to remove by running

veeamconfig backup list

2. Remove the backup in question from VAL database by running

veeamconfig backup delete  --id <backup ID>

Example: 

veeamconfig backup delete  --id 8bee996a-ffbf-4770-b146-067abb1ac1b1

If the job was targeted at a Veeam Backup & Replication (VBR) repository, you can also delete the backup from the database in Veeam Backup & Replication console:



Once the backup is removed from the configuration of VAL and VBR (if needed), you can run the job manually or by schedule. On the next session, the job will start a new backup chain with a full backup file. Afterwards the chain will be populated with increments as usual. If you keep the existing backup files in the same location, the job will create a subdirectory for new backups. The new backups are named based on the following pattern: "HostName JobName_N", where HostName is the name of the backup up machine, JobName is the name you gave to the job, and N is a whole number (starting with 1).

If you do not need to keep the existing backup files, you can also use the --purge flag to delete them permanently:
 

veeamconfig backup delete  --id 8bee996a-ffbf-4770-b146-067abb1ac1b1 --purge

If the job is targeted at a VBR repository, you can also delete the backup from the disk in VBR console:



If you need to keep the existing backup files but do not want a new subdirectory to be used, perform the following steps:

1.  Check where the job in question runs its backups to:


2. Navigate to destination with standard Linux command-line utilities or tools of your choice, and move the existing backup subdirectory to another location or rename it. 

On the next session, the job will re-create the backup subdirectory and start a new backup chain with a full backup file, afterwards the chain will be populated with increments as usual.