Multiple / Random backups being deleted. Retention settings applied not being followed. Critical Issue

This issue was merged with an older similar issue I had. I am copying the info from a below reply to make it easier for anyone to catch up.

This issue started a few months ago with a few random machines but lately it is happening so much it is causing me to lose to sleep knowing the data is not protected or due to the missing backups I could not do a proper restore in case of emergency. Some of these backups can also be used for versioning with the mount image feature to pull a file. Any assistance I can get here would be much appreciated

I have 31 machines currently being backed up by URBackup onto a 16TB storage setup. I monitor the usage and and it has never reached the threshold for the force cleanup. Most machines are configured to run incremental image backups on weekends with a few that have nightly image backups. There are less than 5 machines running file backups ( and these have not been effected ). Below I will show 3 examples of missing backups that are not following any type of retention rules.

Currently running version 2.2.8

Settings for IMAGE-WEEKENDS
Interval for incremental image backups: 7 days
Interval for full image backups: 90 days
Maximal number of incremental image backups: 30
Minimal number of incremental image backups: 4
Maximal number of full image backups: 2
Minimal number of full image backups: 1

Settings for IMAGE-DAILY
Interval for incremental image backups: 1 day
Interval for full image backups: 30 days
Maximal number of incremental image backups: 30
Minimal number of incremental image backups: 4
Maximal number of full image backups: 2
Minimal number of full image backups: 1

I do weekly checks on Monday’s to ensure my backups went through and I am noticing a major issue with retentions being deleted that should not be. Not only are retentions being deleted that should not be, I am even seeing retentions being deleted only specific drives of each backup. I will show some examples below.

COMPUTER-1 (IMAGE-DAILY) | Incremental

Original full image backup of SYSVOL and C: was done on 10/13/2018
Since that time, every backup has gone correctly until last week.

When you look at the current backups that are in URBackup now you see the following dates.
09/30/2019 C: (SYSVOL backup is missing and there is no error log)
**No backups for 09/28 and 09/29 as the machine is turned off on the weekend((
09/27/2019 SYSVOL (C: backup is missing and there is no error log)
09/26/2019 C:
09/26/2019 SYSVOL
10/13/2018 C: (original backup created)
10/13/2018 SYSVOL (original backup created)

Every backup done and retained prior to 09/26/2019 is now missing. The files are also not present in the storage on the server.

Looking at the client settings by itself

Settings for IMAGE-DAILY COMPUTER-1
Interval for incremental image backups: 1 day
Interval for full image backups: 60 days (DISABLED)
Maximal number of incremental image backups: 30
Minimal number of incremental image backups: 4
Maximal number of full image backups: 2
Minimal number of full image backups: 1

By all means none of those retentions should have been deleted to the point where I have 1 usable retention of data left.

SERVER-1 (IMAGE-WEEKEND) | Incremental

Original full image backup of SYSVOL,C:, H:, D:, N: was done on 06/21/2018

When you look at the current backups that are in URBackup now you see the following dates.
09/28/2019 SYSVOL
09/28/2019 C:
09/28/2019 D:
09/28/2019 N:
09/28/2019 H:
This is a proper backup

Now when we look at the previous week backup jobs we start seeing missing backups. These backups were checked every week and were done perfect. Now when we look there are missing backups.

09/21/2019 H:
09/21/2019 N:
09/21/2019 D:
The backup entries for SYSVOL and C: are no longer present. Why are the SYSVOL and C: backups now missing? They were present when the backup check was done for that week.

09/14/2019 H:
09/14/2019 N:
09/14/2019 D:
The backup entries for SYSVOL and C: are no longer present. Why are the SYSVOL and C: backups now missing? They were present when the backup check was done for that week.

09/07/2019 H:
09/07/2019 D:
The backup entries for SYSVOL - C: - N: are no longer present. Why are the SYSVOL, C:, and N: backups now missing? They were present when the backup check was done for that week.

Now things get weirder. From 08/31/2019 back until 02/23/2019 there is an even worse discrepancy in backup retentions. The only retained backup for each week is the N: No other drive backups are retained for each week. Why were these other drives removed from the retained backups and only the N: was kept for each week?

Looking at the client settings by itself

Settings for IMAGE-WEEKEND SERVER-1
Interval for incremental image backups: 7 day
Interval for full image backups: 60 days (DISABLED)
Maximal number of incremental image backups: 30
Minimal number of incremental image backups: 4
Maximal number of full image backups: 2
Minimal number of full image backups: 1

Why is there only 1 week of a proper backup present? The few backups before are now missing backups and the older backups are missing everything but the N: Every backup is checked on Monday to confirm they were done successfully.

SERVER-2 (IMAGE-WEEKEND) | Incremental

Original full image backup of SYSVOL,C:, D: was done on 06/09/2018

When you look at the current backups that are in URBackup now you see the following dates.
09/28/2019 SYSVOL
09/28/2019 C:
09/28/2019 D:
This is a proper backup

The previous week’s backup on 09/21/2019 was done correctly as above.

Now we look at the 4 weeks of previous backups and each backup is missing a drive. All three of these backups were documented as being done correctly when they were checked on the appropriate date.

09/21/2019 SYSVOL
09/21/2019 C:
D: backup is no longer showing

09/14/2019 SYSVOL
09/14/2019 C:
D: backup is no longer showing

09/07/2019 SYSVOL
09/07/2019 C:
D: backup is no longer showing

08/31/2019 SYSVOL
08/31/2019 C:
D: backup is no longer showing

Prior to 8-31-2019, all of the backup retentions are now missing. The next backup in the list is the original backup created on 06/09/2018

Looking at the client settings by itself

Settings for IMAGE-WEEKEND SERVER-2
Interval for incremental image backups: 7 day
Interval for full image backups: 60 days (DISABLED)
Maximal number of incremental image backups: 30
Minimal number of incremental image backups: 4
Maximal number of full image backups: 2
Minimal number of full image backups: 1

There are other instances where backup retentions are missing. These backups are verified on schedule and then randomly disappear as time goes on and I notice it in future backup checks. This creates a very bad situation with data loss. Some backup retentions are being deleted completely and some retentions are only having random drives in the backup being deleted.

Check and make sure maximum number of full file backup and maximum number of incremental file backup value is set to higher value.

This issue started a few months ago with a few random machines but lately it is happening so much it is causing me to lose to sleep knowing the data is not protected or due to the missing backups I could not do a proper restore in case of emergency. Some of these backups can also be used for versioning with the mount image feature to pull a file. Any assistance I can get here would be much appreciated

I have 31 machines currently being backed up by URBackup onto a 16TB storage setup. I monitor the usage and and it has never reached the threshold for the force cleanup. Most machines are configured to run incremental image backups on weekends with a few that have nightly image backups. There are less than 5 machines running file backups ( and these have not been effected ). Below I will show 3 examples of missing backups that are not following any type of retention rules.

Currently running version 2.2.8

Settings for IMAGE-WEEKENDS
Interval for incremental image backups: 7 days
Interval for full image backups: 90 days
Maximal number of incremental image backups: 30
Minimal number of incremental image backups: 4
Maximal number of full image backups: 2
Minimal number of full image backups: 1

Settings for IMAGE-DAILY
Interval for incremental image backups: 1 day
Interval for full image backups: 30 days
Maximal number of incremental image backups: 30
Minimal number of incremental image backups: 4
Maximal number of full image backups: 2
Minimal number of full image backups: 1

I do weekly checks on Monday’s to ensure my backups went through and I am noticing a major issue with retentions being deleted that should not be. Not only are retentions being deleted that should not be, I am even seeing retentions being deleted only specific drives of each backup. I will show some examples below.


COMPUTER-1 (IMAGE-DAILY) | Incremental

Original full image backup of SYSVOL and C: was done on 10/13/2018
Since that time, every backup has gone correctly until last week.

When you look at the current backups that are in URBackup now you see the following dates.
09/30/2019 C: (SYSVOL backup is missing and there is no error log)
**No backups for 09/28 and 09/29 as the machine is turned off on the weekend((
09/27/2019 SYSVOL (C: backup is missing and there is no error log)
09/26/2019 C:
09/26/2019 SYSVOL
10/13/2018 C: (original backup created)
10/13/2018 SYSVOL (original backup created)

Every backup done and retained prior to 09/26/2019 is now missing. The files are also not present in the storage on the server.

Looking at the client settings by itself

Settings for IMAGE-DAILY COMPUTER-1
Interval for incremental image backups: 1 day
Interval for full image backups: 60 days (DISABLED)
Maximal number of incremental image backups: 30
Minimal number of incremental image backups: 4
Maximal number of full image backups: 2
Minimal number of full image backups: 1

By all means none of those retentions should have been deleted to the point where I have 1 usable retention of data left.

SERVER-1 (IMAGE-WEEKEND) | Incremental

Original full image backup of SYSVOL,C:, H:, D:, N: was done on 06/21/2018

When you look at the current backups that are in URBackup now you see the following dates.
09/28/2019 SYSVOL
09/28/2019 C:
09/28/2019 D:
09/28/2019 N:
09/28/2019 H:
This is a proper backup

Now when we look at the previous week backup jobs we start seeing missing backups. These backups were checked every week and were done perfect. Now when we look there are missing backups.

09/21/2019 H:
09/21/2019 N:
09/21/2019 D:
The backup entries for SYSVOL and C: are no longer present. Why are the SYSVOL and C: backups now missing? They were present when the backup check was done for that week.

09/14/2019 H:
09/14/2019 N:
09/14/2019 D:
The backup entries for SYSVOL and C: are no longer present. Why are the SYSVOL and C: backups now missing? They were present when the backup check was done for that week.

09/07/2019 H:
09/07/2019 D:
The backup entries for SYSVOL - C: - N: are no longer present. Why are the SYSVOL, C:, and N: backups now missing? They were present when the backup check was done for that week.

Now things get weirder. From 08/31/2019 back until 02/23/2019 there is an even worse discrepancy in backup retentions. The only retained backup for each week is the N: No other drive backups are retained for each week. Why were these other drives removed from the retained backups and only the N: was kept for each week?

Looking at the client settings by itself

Settings for IMAGE-WEEKEND SERVER-1
Interval for incremental image backups: 7 day
Interval for full image backups: 60 days (DISABLED)
Maximal number of incremental image backups: 30
Minimal number of incremental image backups: 4
Maximal number of full image backups: 2
Minimal number of full image backups: 1

Why is there only 1 week of a proper backup present? The few backups before are now missing backups and the older backups are missing everything but the N: Every backup is checked on Monday to confirm they were done successfully.


SERVER-2 (IMAGE-WEEKEND) | Incremental

Original full image backup of SYSVOL,C:, D: was done on 06/09/2018

When you look at the current backups that are in URBackup now you see the following dates.
09/28/2019 SYSVOL
09/28/2019 C:
09/28/2019 D:
This is a proper backup

The previous week’s backup on 09/21/2019 was done correctly as above.

Now we look at the 4 weeks of previous backups and each backup is missing a drive. All three of these backups were documented as being done correctly when they were checked on the appropriate date.

09/21/2019 SYSVOL
09/21/2019 C:
D: backup is no longer showing

09/14/2019 SYSVOL
09/14/2019 C:
D: backup is no longer showing

09/07/2019 SYSVOL
09/07/2019 C:
D: backup is no longer showing

08/31/2019 SYSVOL
08/31/2019 C:
D: backup is no longer showing

Prior to 8-31-2019, all of the backup retentions are now missing. The next backup in the list is the original backup created on 06/09/2018

Looking at the client settings by itself

Settings for IMAGE-WEEKEND SERVER-2
Interval for incremental image backups: 7 day
Interval for full image backups: 60 days (DISABLED)
Maximal number of incremental image backups: 30
Minimal number of incremental image backups: 4
Maximal number of full image backups: 2
Minimal number of full image backups: 1

There are other instances where backup retentions are missing. These backups are verified on schedule and then randomly disappear as time goes on and I notice it in future backup checks. This creates a very bad situation with data loss. Some backup retentions are being deleted completely and some retentions are only having random drives in the backup being deleted.

@uroni

The topic of this post that got merged is going to throw off people from the issue. The issue is about the random retentions being deleted. Someone reading the title will think it is about the automatic deletions.

There seems to be a much different issue going on which is why I opened a new thread. Can we at least change the title of the post of close the old one and open this one?

You can’t edit your posts?

Thank you I just did. I am not familiar with your forums and a lot of other forums do not allow you to edit the title of the post.

Do you happen to know if there is a paid support option to address this other than fishing for feedback on the forums? This is becoming a critical issue now.

To solve the problem the server (debug) log would be useful.
If possible, could you post it or send it?

This post describes how to change the server to debug logging, where it is stored and where to send it to if posting is not possible: Having problems with UrBackup? Please read before posting

You mentioned you server version (2.2.8). That version isn’t supported… There were changes in 2.3.x which fixed issues with VHD backup chains. So it would also be important to know if you are using VHDs, what kind of chains you are using (incremental to last; incremental to last full?)

I know we are using Compressed VHD.

Where would I locate the setting to verify what kind of chains are being used?

I also just emailed the log file to bugreports@urbackup.org and referenced this thread in the email.

@uroni

I emailed the logs in as requested. Is there any additional information I can provide to help look into this?

Thanks