Last updated on Monday 28th of February 2022 08:52:48 PM

Automatically pruning ©XSITools repositories

Recovering space used by old backups

 Please note that this post is relative to old deprecated software ©XSIBackup-Classic. Some facts herein contained may still be applicable to more recent versions though.

For new instalations please use new ©XSIBackup which is far more advanced than ©XSIBackup-Classic.

Since XSIBackup-Pro 11.2.0 ©XSITools repositories can be pruned via the --backup-room argument. When the ©XSITools repository reaches the specified size, it will start to delete backup folders along with the blocks that belong exclusively to that backup set. Therefore you will be able to create repositories that grow up to a given size and since that moment rotate backups by deleting the eldest sets.

./xsibackup --backup-prog=Xsitools:z --backup-type=custom \
--backup-point=/vmfs/volumes/backup3/XSITOOLS-REPO-01 \
--use-smtp=2 --mail-to=you@yourdomain.com --backup-room=50000 --backup-vms=CentOS-7.5


The pruning mechanism will allow the current backup to complete, even if it exceeds the set --backup-room limit. You should then be aware of the fact that if you pretend to keep things excessively tight, you might end up with a full repository that cannot be pruned. If that is the case, the solution is simple, lower the --backup-room limit and things will start to roll again.

Trying to use the full size of a disk is always a really bad idea, but in case of using SSDs it's even worse, as SSDs endurance depends very much on leaving at least 10% of the disk free of data. This is due to their nature, as the SSD cells can only be rewritten a finite number of times. What that absolute figure is will depend on the type of SSD, so you should follow the disk manufacturer instructions.

Backing up via XSITools
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
File name: CentOS-7.2-flat.vmdk, File size: 21474836480
Block size: 52428800, Block count: 410
Disk usage: 2258632704
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
410/410 blocks | Processed 100%
Previous block count: 2478
Current block count: 2478
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Time taken: 66 seconds
Avg speed: 310 mb/s
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Checking the size of the ©XSITools repository...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The ©XSITools repository is 54328Mb in size
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prune round 1: ©XSITools repository size: 54328 exceeds --backup-room=50000
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Pruning exclusive blocks of backup /vmfs/volumes/backup3/XSITOOLS-REPO-02/20181230155809
-- 25/25 blocks | freed 532 Mb | Processed 100%
-- Deleting /vmfs/volumes/backup3/XSITOOLS-REPO-02/20181230155809 directory (0 Mb)
-- Blocks deleted: 25
-- Space saved: 532 Mb
The ©XSITools repo /vmfs/volumes/backup3/XSITOOLS-REPO-02 was pruned, 532 Mb were made available
The size of the repo was reduced to 53796
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prune round 2: ©XSITools repository size: 53796 exceeds --backup-room=50000
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Pruning exclusive blocks of backup /vmfs/volumes/backup3/XSITOOLS-REPO-02/20181230162931
-- No blocks exclusive to /vmfs/volumes/backup3/XSITOOLS-REPO-02/20181230162931 can be deleted
-- Less than 1 Mb. were freed from descriptors and snapshots
The ©XSITools repo /vmfs/volumes/backup3/XSITOOLS-REPO-02 was pruned, 0 Mb were made available
The size of the repo was reduced to 53796
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prune round 3: ©XSITools repository size: 53796 exceeds --backup-room=50000
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Pruning exclusive blocks of backup /vmfs/volumes/backup3/XSITOOLS-REPO-02/20181230163709
-- 159/159 blocks | freed 3906 Mb | Processed 100%
-- Deleting /vmfs/volumes/backup3/XSITOOLS-REPO-02/20181230163709 directory (0 Mb)
-- Blocks deleted: 159
-- Space saved: 3906 Mb
The ©XSITools repo /vmfs/volumes/backup3/XSITOOLS-REPO-02 was pruned, 3906 Mb were made available
The size of the repo was reduced to 49890
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The ESXi configuration was saved to "/vmfs/volumes/backup3/XSITOOLS-REPO-02/20181230181828"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some warnings were raised




Daniel J. García Fidalgo
33HOPS