Server 08-R2: Backup is eating my drive

[Guest wsxedcrfv]

Ok, I've got Server 2008-R2 on a 250 gb drive (technically, this is Multipoint Server 2010).

I have 100 gb C drive, and 112 gb D and 112 gb E drive.

The built-in backup thing is configured to use Drive C for backup. The OS itself is also installed on C.

Backup is apparently too stupid to realize when it's choking the drive - Drive C was out of space during a Windows Update session I was performing today. Backup was taking up about 40-odd gb of Drive C. The control panel for Backup tells me that it has 35 backup copies - but it won't allow me to selectively delete any of them, nor does it seem to allow me to set a max size to allocate for backup purpose. Nor does it allow anything less than 1 backup per day (I was intending to set the backup frequency to one day a week).

I suppose I could just go and nuke the backup directory, but I'd rather just see an option that says "delete all but the last backup". Is there such a thing?

Can I force it to not exceed maybe 10 gb for backup use, or for it to not create more than 1 backup copy?

Backup won't let me use drive D or E for keeping backup copies. Perhaps that's because what I'm backing up is from D and E. (?)

[todarsey]

I am having a similar issue. It would be nice if we could set some sort of limit as to the number of backups it keeps.

[iamtheky]

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc754015%28WS.10%29.aspx

wbadmin delete systemstatebackup

wbadmin enable backup also has an -addtarget argument

Edited October 12, 2010 by iamtheky

[Guest wsxedcrfv]

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc754015%28WS.10%29.aspx

wbadmin delete systemstatebackup

wbadmin enable backup also has an -addtarget argument

Wow. After 20+ years of developing a GUI-based windows OS, I have to drop to a command shell? And my choices of command arguments are so paltry compared to my simple needs? That is brutal. Any useful backup mechanism should allow me to:

- specify any backup frequency I want, including something less than 1 backup per day. This seems impossible here.

- specify a max drive space to allocate for backups. Seems that I can't do it.

- specify a max number of backup copies to make.

- let me put the backup copies anywhere I want, on any volume.

- give me full control of what-ever pathetic things it *will* all me to do in a GUI environment.

I guess something this BASIC is too much to ask a company that has 20k+ employees and 20+ years of OS development.

I'm turning this backup thing off. It's too disruptive when it runs once a day, especially on this platform (Multipoint Server) where it is the host desktop machine for several users, and it's hard drive usage can't be contained without constant minding and fiddling.

[iamtheky]

Why not just run it from a batch file that you call once a week? Instead of turning on the DAILY backup service.

Wbadmin start backup -backupTarget:\\<servername>\<sharename>\ -include:C:,D:,E: -vssFull -quiet

"If you save a backup to a remote shared folder, that backup will be overwritten if you use the same folder to back up the same computer again."

[Tripredacus]

This is interesting. When I was playing with this software, it did not let me save the backup to a system or source volume. How did you get it to do that?