WBADMIN Task Removes Old Backups

On our 2012 server that runs VM's we perform a backup three times a week as well as replicating the VM's to another server. Most of the time this works fine. But
once in a while (a few times in the last month) it doesn't. <o:p></o:p>
A couple weeks ago in the middle of the night there was a power outage that caused the servers to restart. This didn't impact or organization
at all, but it happened in the middle of a backup. That backup failed. The next scheduled backup failed because it thought another backup operation was running (there wasn't). I manually started a backup and that worked fine, except it took
about three times as long to run and it removed all previous backups from the backup drive. Our backups ran fine for the next couple weeks until one randomly took about three times as long as a normal one and also removed all previous backups. <o:p></o:p>
There were no errors in the event viewer for those backups. The backup drive is never more than half full. It always has at least a TB
of free space for a backup file that is about 600-800 GB. It normally saves weeks to months of old backups. My wbadmin command is below. <o:p></o:p>
START BACKUP -backupTarget:H: -allCritical -systemState -quiet
Thanks for the help.

Hi,
You mentioned “Our backups ran fine for the next couple weeks until one randomly took about three times as long as a normal one and also removed all previous backups.” After the longer backup, does the next scheduled backup still take about three times as
long as a normal one? You could use the Optimize Backup Performance dialog box and click Normal backup performance to check if you create full backups.
For more detailed information, please refer to the article below:
Optimizing Backup and Server Performance
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd759145.aspx
Regards,
Mandy
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Similar Messages

PLEASE HELP! How do I get Time Machine to remove old backups?

It is my understanding that Time Machine will never fill up the drive it's on because it will remove old backups to make room for new ones. It's not doing that for me. The drive Time Macine is backing up to has filled up & will not allow any more to be written to it, so I can't do backups. I don't see anywhere that I can change a setting to fix this problem. It would be VERY helpful if someone would walk me though how to fix this problem. I've had to turn Time Machine off because it's locking up my system trying to write to the drive.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP!!

Thank you. I've gone there & read what's at the link. I've tried going into Time Machine & for some reason I can only see backups (in Time Machine) that go back to earlier today. However, if I actually look on the disc that I'm backing up to, I see database files that go back to April of this year. I looked earlier today & I saw files that went all the way back to October of LAST year, but I just did a big installation & that must of put things over the edge.
Anyway, I'd like to say that I saw an answer to my problem at Pondini's site, but I've been there looking around since before I wrote this thread asking for help & I just don't see anything that looks like it will specifically help me on this situation.
I'm still stuck.

Time Machine does not completely remove old Backups

Hi all,
since the upgrade to SL it seem that Time Machine has problems to completely remove old backups completely. The "removed" backups do not show up in Time Machine anymore, but the backup folders and part of their contents can still be seen in Finder.
The number of expired backups not removed is growing. I know one should not fiddle around with backups in Finder or Terminal - but the system does not allow me to remove any of the files/folders anyway.
Here is part of the log:
Found partially deleted backup - trying again to delete: 2009-08-06-211832
Error -47 deleting backup: /Volumes/Drobo/Backups.backupdb/MacBook Pro HGA/2009-08-06-211832
Deleted backup /Volumes/Drobo/Backups.backupdb/MacBook Pro HGA/2009-08-06-211832: 1.75 TB now available
Post-back up thinning complete: 5 expired backups removed
Backup completed successfully.
Any suggestions?
Thank you for helping
Heinz
Message was edited by: Heinz-G?uenter Arnold

Heinz-G?uenter Arnold wrote:
since the upgrade to SL it seem that Time Machine has problems to completely remove old backups completely. The "removed" backups do not show up in Time Machine anymore, but the backup folders and part of their contents can still be seen in Finder.
Hi, and welcome to the forums.
That happens occasionally, in both Leopard and Snow Leopard, sometimes after something was deleted from the Finder, but also after an abnormal shutdown or improper disconnection of the TM disk.
Run a +*Repair Disk+* on it via Disk Utility, in your Applications/Utilities folder. If it finds errors, but can't fix them all, run it again (and again) until it either fixes them all, or can't fix any more.

How do i remove old backups to clear more space

im am trying to update my ipad to iOS5 and after 45 mins to an hour i get a message saying the backup is too large. ive deleted apps, videos, movies, music from my ipad so the backup is small... but to no avail.
here is a pic of the message.. which ties it to time machine.
anyone know how to remove old backups to clear more space?
any help would be appreciated.
thanks!

This is the MacBook Pro forums. You want the iPad forum:
https://discussions.apple.com/community/ipad

How to remove old backup files from time machine? Lion OSx

Hi everyone,
I am just wondering how to efficiently and safely remove the old backup files from time machine? I tried once with command, but it damaged my extra-disk... Does Lion OSx have fixed that?
Many thanks
Hong

Blue-
Time Machine will automatically delete back-ups as the need for space arises. If you want to delete a certain file (application, document, whatever) and have it gone for good you can do that as well.
The best place on the web for information about Time Machine is...
http://pondini.org/TM/Home.html
...it covers everything!
Clinton

Time Machine: removing old backups w/o redoing whole thing!

I've been using time machine for years now. In the past, when my backup disk has become too full, I've wiped the entire backup (delete) then created a brand new one. Why?? Because having a backup of what I have RIGHT NOW is all I want or need.
Now, all that said I would rather just prune all files not needed. Right now my 250gb mac HD has a 475gb backup file, and I have 100gb free on my mac's HD.
Is there any way to remove all old backups...or prune up to, say a week prior? I would have to imagine that this would be of some value. Reasons:
1. Save me (some) time of pruning/deleting vs doing a wifi backup from scratch.
2. I could potentially lose all of my data should my HD crash before my backup completes.
Help?

Greazy wrote:
I've been using time machine for years now. In the past, when my backup disk has become too full, I've wiped the entire backup (delete) then created a brand new one. Why?? Because having a backup of what I have RIGHT NOW is all I want or need.
Then Time Machine is not the right backup app for you. The backups of things you've changed or deleted can be very useful, for a number of things, but if you really don't want that, you're using the wrong app, because that's what Time Machine is designed to do.
Try CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper, to make "bootable clones." CCC is donationware; SD has a free version, but you need the paid one (about $30) to do updates instead of full replacements, or scheduling. Either is easily found via Google.
Now, all that said I would rather just prune all files not needed. Right now my 250gb mac HD has a 475gb backup file, and I have 100gb free on my mac's HD.
Is there any way to remove all old backups...or prune up to, say a week prior? I would have to imagine that this would be of some value. Reasons:
1. Save me (some) time of pruning/deleting vs doing a wifi backup from scratch.
2. I could potentially lose all of my data should my HD crash before my backup completes.
Where is your backup disk? You mention a WIFI backup, so is it an external disk connected to a Time Capsule, or Airport, or another Mac; or are you backing-up to a Time Capsule, or ??
There are ways to limit the size of TM backups, depending on what version of OSX you're on (this is the Leopard forum, but your signature says you're on Snow Leopard), and where the backups are. Once you do that, Time Machine will delete old backups automatically when it needs room for new ones.
If they're on an external HD, partition it to the maximum size you want. If they're elsewhere, tell us where, and confirm what version of OSX you're on.

My Time Capsule won't remove old backups so that it can keep backing up

My TC is associated with a few Macs and has gotten to pretty much full capacity, so not when it attempts to back up it says no more room blah blah blah. I was of the impression that it'd remove old back ups so as to maintain its backing up function. At least that's what it says on the tin.
I'm confused.
Would I be correct in "assuming" that it will only remove old back ups of the first Mac it was associated with and that it won't remove back ups so as to fit in a new Mac.
Standing by.
Regards
Gav

When you upgrade the OS it gets confused.. and it stops being able to delete old backups because which are necessary to a viable install is no longer known.
That is a very big backup that you have posted the screenshot.. and the simple fact is with multiple computers sharing the TC it may simply not be able to reduce its backup enough to fit.
Here are your choices.
1. Different backup location.. USB drive plugged into the computer or into the TC and use that.
2. Archive off the old backups and start over with erase and redo the backup of all the computers.
3. Delete just the backup of the computer you are trying to backup now assuming that will leave enough space to actually do the backup..
But it is not worth bothering unless you have at least 2x the drive space used..
4. Open the TC (assuming it is gen4 or older and replace the drive with a new one.. say 4TB)
For a really old TC this is not worth it.. but gen3 or gen4 might last a while.
5. Buy a brand new TC.. and start new backups to that. Erase and dispose of the old one.

How do I remove old backups from my iPhone?

I have a fairly full iPhone 5. When I look at my iTunes Wi-Fi Sync, it shows backups from 2 old computers that I no longer use. I need only one of the three backup files my phone is holding. Note: I am not asking how to go into iTunes and delete old backups. I need to delete them from the actual phone.

The three backups I refer to in my original question are listed in Wi-Fi Sync as backups that are waiting to complete. The list is 3 computers my iPhone has been used with. I no longer use 2 of these computers, so I no longer need these backups. They are ONLY listed on my phone not in iTunes so I cannot delete them in iTunes. They are on my phone as backups that are waiting for me to reconnect to those computers to complete.

Can you remove Old Backup files from Time Machine sooner?

So I'm aware that the default settings state that Time Machine will start to delete old backup files from your saved destination once that destination starts to approach full storage capacity. But what if you are not looking to fill up most of your storage capacity with Time Machine backups? Is there a way where you can cut the delete threshold in half and have Time Machine delete old backup files sooner rather than later?

See Pondini's TM FAQs, for starters.

Removing old backups from earlier incarnation

After a reorg of a database and subsequently getting a new DBID in the repository, I now have a few old backups that I seem unable to reach through RMAN. I can see them on the directory, but since they belong to another DBID, I can't list them.
Am I right in believing that I have to take down the database to be able to change the DBID back to the ID of the old database, just to be able to list and delete the old backups ?
If I want to do it the right way, that is. I could of course just do a rm on the directory where they are, and forget about the whole thing, but that's not what I was aiming for.
This is in a production environment so I'd rather not take down the database unless I really need to.

There are, on disk, several more backups, belonging to one of the incarnations of DBID 2223964660, and I want to delete those the "proper way", by letting RMAN do it. That way I don't have to delete it the by the means of the operating-system, since RMAN will delete it both from disk AND catalog.
Now to the tricky part - how do I do it ?
I tried the thing that Don wrote, without much luck. First of all I need to connect to BOTH the rman-catalog AND the target-database in order to be able to do the "LIST INCARNATION". If not, it keeps telling me "NOT CONNECTED TO TARGET DATABASE".
Once connected to both of them I can list the incarnations, but I cannot do SET DBID=x (RMAN-06188: cannot use command when connected to target database). I can however connect to the RMAN-catalog and then set the DBID, but then I get the next nice error-message saying "RMAN-06189: current DBID 2223964660 does not match target mounted database (2233206566)".
I then tried to do the next command "reset database to incarnation x", which seems to go OK, at least there's no error, but I still turn up with the RMAN-06189 when trying to list incarnations.
Next thing I tried was the tip from Kristin. Logging into the RMAN-catalog (RMAN81) I found only 2 of the three incarnations:
SQL> select * from rc_database;
DB_KEY DBINC_KEY DBID NAME RESETLOGS_CHANGE# RESETLOGS_TIME
1 2 2223964660 OPXP817 1 05-OCT-2001
20208 20209 2233206566 OPXP817 1 19-JAN-2002
That ought to mean the incarnation no 20199 listed in the first "LIST INCARNATION" at the top of this reply, is a fake?
It does not exist, which in turn means that the old backups I have on my disk must belong to incarnation 2.
So, I'm back to the old problem. I cannot set my DBID to 2223964660 and reset the database to incarnation 2 and then try
to list the incarnations. It just doesn't work, and since that doesn't work, I will not be able to tell RMAN to delete the old backups for me. I could of course do what Kristin says. Uncatalog the old incarnation and delete the backups on OS-level, and it sure looks right now as if that is what I'll have to do. Unless someone comes up with a more clever idea that is.Your DBINC_KEY's for Database 2223964660 are 2 and 20199. You need to reset your key to either 2 or 20199 to delete the backups from these incarnations. Your output is kind of interesting since there are 3 entries and 2 DB_KEY's for the OPXP817 DB. It looks like you either recreated or duplicated your database and registered it in the catalog again, and that is why you see 2 entries in the RC_DATABASE view. RMAN sees your new/duplicated database as a separated one from the 2 older incarnations. Usually it would be 3 entries and 1 DB_KEY in the incarnation listing since they all have the same DB_NAME. As for the RC_DATABASE view, that view will give you the databases that are registered in the catalog NOT the incarnations of the database(s). The RC_DATABASE_INCARNATION view will show you all your database incarnations. If your DB with DB_KEY 1 is shutdown you may have to restart it to delete our backups. Hope this helps.

Time Machine - Removing Old Backups

I am using "time machine" to back up my new iMac, the disk being used also was used to back up my old iMac and I do not require those backups any more. I have deleted those files but when I want to "empty trash" I still have the related folders etc. as it is not allowing me to remove bootx and bootefi files - need to use the option key - but this is not working...
can anyone assist in how i can clean out my trash (and 1st step confirm which is the option key on the new wireless keyboard)?
thanks Neil

You should be sure your TM backup drive has been partitioned GUID and reformatted before initiating any new TM backup for your new computer. I would do the following:
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (for Intel Macs) or APM (for PPC Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
+BTW, this is the Tiger forum. TM is not available in Tiger, so please post Leopard related questions in the appropriate Leopard forum. Thanks.+

Time Machine - strange behavior while deleting old backups

Not sure if this is the right place, because this is actually not on Time Capsule, but on a Time Machine on an external USB drive.
In any case, I searched the web for "time machine delete old backups" and found many discussions of various aspects of this task. My objective is to clean up a partition on a the external drive that I no longer use for active TM backups, but to retain a small set of backups in case I need to go back to them. The partition now has other uses and I need the space. My main TM backup is now on a separate Time Capsule.
So again my objective is not to remove all backups, but just most of them.
It appears that the well-discussed procedure is the following:
Go into Time Machine.
Select the Macintosh HD.
Go back to one of the oldest backups.
Click on the Gear > click Delete Backup.
This procedure will remove one Backup at a time, and it seems to take 5 - 10 minutes for each backup.
Here is what I noticed that was "strange":
You could delete a selected backup using the above procedure.
For the first selected backup so deleted, there is a confirmation dialog with a warning message that it is not undoable.
After clicking OK on the warning message, the display backs up to the "Present" backup, and the administrative password is requested.
After the administrative password is entered, the backup starts but control is passed back to the user interface, and another backup can be selected to be deleted.
However, after the second backup is selected and deleted, there is no warning dialog, and no request for the administrative password. At this point the user interface is busy and nothing more can be done until the backup delete is completed. Except that the Time Machine can be exited by first pressing Escape, then Cancel on the lower left of the screen.
If the time machine is exited, there is a Delete Backups progress dialog with a progress bar for each backup so far requested. If the second backup was requested, as in the steps above, there would be two backups.
I discovered by playing around that either you had to wait within Time Machine for the deletion to complete, or alternatively exit Time Machine. While I was not sure what was going on, I kept starting one backup, then exiting Time Machine and re-entering Time Machine and requesting another delete operation. Each time after entering Time Machine, the warning/admin password sequence occurred and I was able to exit. And then immediately re-enter Time Machine and request another backup. Only by exiting and re-entering could another delete request be made.
When out of Time Machine, I thus saw the Delete Backups dialog with any number of concurrent "Delete One Backup" progress bars.
Because of the nature of the hard links used to indicate backups, I was wondering if these multiple delete operations could possibly be hung in a deadly embrace, so I decided to only do one at a time. Some further study to see if the multiple delete operations were all able to complete would be needed to know if this would be a good way to "queue up" multiple delete requests.
Bottom line: seems like kind of an odd implementation. Would be really nice if you could select many (say 30) individual backups and delete them all at once, rather than taking 5 - 10 minutes each. Again, this is because I am trying to reclaim disk space, but not delete all the backups from a Time Machine backup set that is not in active use.
Also, the method of "queuing up" backup delete requests is kind of odd, but seems to work, with the proviso that I have not yet confirmed that doing more than one at a time actually works.

Heinz-G?uenter Arnold wrote:
since the upgrade to SL it seem that Time Machine has problems to completely remove old backups completely. The "removed" backups do not show up in Time Machine anymore, but the backup folders and part of their contents can still be seen in Finder.
Hi, and welcome to the forums.
That happens occasionally, in both Leopard and Snow Leopard, sometimes after something was deleted from the Finder, but also after an abnormal shutdown or improper disconnection of the TM disk.
Run a +*Repair Disk+* on it via Disk Utility, in your Applications/Utilities folder. If it finds errors, but can't fix them all, run it again (and again) until it either fixes them all, or can't fix any more.

Getting iTunes restore to recognize an old backup

Hi,
I am hoping that you can help me: I want to get iTunes to recognise an old backup of my iPad so that I can restore it onto the iPad and retrieve some files that are precious and would otherwise be lost. Afterwards, I will want to restore my iPad's current settings.
Explanation:
I accidentally deleted my apps from my iPad while trying to back it up onto my Mac. I thought it was a good opportunity to reorder the apps so downloaded only the ones I really wanted and reorganised them. I then realised that the data for my journal for the last two years and the flashcards application into which I had laboriously typed 1000 Mandarin words and phrases had been deleted. I tried restoring from backup but found that iCloud only holds the last one or two backups but some days had already passed and my old data had been overwritten. I then looked at the iTunes backup and didn't have one; I'd asked my son's Mac expert friend to clear some space on the iMac so he had removed old backups. For a while I thought I had no chance then I remembered that my Timemachine kept old backups so I looked at this forum to find out where iTunes backups are stored and searched my Timemachine archive for the files. I have now restored the data from the mobilesync directory from a few months ago but I found that I had to create the ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/ directory. I put the backup files into this but the backup did not appear in iTunes. Is there a way I can get iTunes to see the backup files and restore them or is there something that will let me view the files directly?
Thanks!
Tim

Hi
I have the same problem. the back up file I want to use to restore my iphone will not "show up" in itunes. I know where to find the file (and have made a copy of it) and I know where itunes places the backup files each time itunes makes a new (incremental) backup.
What /i dont know (and WISH i did know) is how to force itunes to "see" the backup file I want it to use....
What I've tried so far:
1 moving all the "wrong" back up files out of the mobilesync folder and leaving onle the "correct" backup file in the folder - but ituness "sees" nothing, i.e. the mobilesync folder appears to itunes to be empty.
2 moving the "correct" backup file to a different folder and then copying it back into the the mobilesync folder - but itunes still won't "see" the correct backup file.
It's really really sad and frustrating. I spent from 2pm till 2 am on it yesterday ...
My mishap was caused by a failed backup due to insufficient space on my hard drive... this meant that itunes aborted the backup, I then had to make space on the hard drive and try again. I had to do this several times... anyway, I know where the "correct" backup file was eventually placed, have copied etc (as above) but nothing I do results in itunes being able to "see" it and therefore allow me to use it as the source file from which to backup my iphone.
If there's anyone out there who thinks that can help me.........???? - I'd be truly impressed and deeply grateful.

After formatting my HD and eventually restore my system from a backup on Time Capsule, will I still have access to my old backups as normally used to do via Time Machine?

I have a Time Capsule (4th Gen) and my backups on it, I need to completely erase my hard drive. My question is: after formatting my MacBook HD and eventually restore my system (OS X 10.6.8) from a backup on Time Capsule, will I still have access to my old* backups as normally used to do via Time Machine?
*(-and to the newer backups- if I had not restored my system from the last backup).
THANKS

That's a good question. Technically, Time Machine should make a new backup but not erase any old backups. But if there isn't sufficient space on the backup drive, then I'm not sure if Time Machine will simply warn you or just go ahead and remove old backups to make room for the new ones.
In any case, the new backup should have a different backup folder on the backup drive. That's my understanding. You can learn more at pondini.org.

Time Machine does not erase old backups

Hi,
I have a problem using Time Machine on my MacBook Air. I use a LaCie 500GB Rugged All-Terrain Hard Drive for backup. The external drive has 3 partitions, one of which is dedicated to time machine and measures 128 Gb. It happens very often that I receive an error message saying that Time Machine cannot complete backup as there is not enough space and that I should manually remove old backups. Time Machine is supposed to do that automatically. The backup partition is of the same size as the internal flash drive which is not even full so I don't see why there should be a problem.
I also have a MacMini with an external Iomega drive and same setup (3 partitions on the external drive and the Time Machine dedicated one of the same size as the internal drive) and I never had an issue with the Time Machine not erasing old backups to make room for the new ones.
How can I fix the problem on the MacBook Air?
Many thanks in advance,
Igor

How much space is currently in use on the volume TM is backing up from? If it needs to do a large backup for some reason, there may not be space to do so without deleting so much that you are left with less than a full backup. TM needs the backup drive to be a minimum of 2-3 times larger than what is being backed up.

WBADMIN Task Removes Old Backups

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