Welcome to the Dell Technologies Avamar how-to series
How to delete or expire backups in bulk with the "modify-snapups" tool
Reference: Dell Knowledge Article #58216
This video was created to demonstrate
some of the uses of the "modify-snapups" tool
including expiring backups, deleting backups
and extending existing backup retention.
This video presents the following three examples
of how to create scripts that will
expire backups created before 1 March 2015
delete all backups that were created more than one month ago.
and extend the current backup expiration by 100 days.
The video will also show how to make the created script executable.
Please note it is the responsibility of the person running this procedure
to verify the script contents.
There is no undo.
You would most likely run this utility when trying to address capacity issues
or in the case of extending the expiration of existing backups.
You will need a program such as Putty
to connect to the Avamar utility node
and the Avamar IP address and admin password.
You will also require sufficient Unix knowledge to review file contents.
It is highly recommended that a checkpoint be taken
prior to running this procedure.
Confirm that you are currently the admin user by typing whoami.
If not, do this now.
To get basic help for the "modify-snapups" tool
type "modify-snapups --help".
You can get more detailed help by including "mode=expire"
or "mode=delete" in your command line.
In this example, we are going to generate a script
to expire any backups created before 1 March 2015
and send the output to a file called expire_backups-output-script.txt.
Once the command has completed, you can review the output.
As you can see in the example on screen
the script produced a list of mccli backup edit commands
to expire the appropriate backups.
Those backups not matching our criteria are also listed
but are commented out with the description "conserve" in the previous line.
In this second example, we are going to generate a script
to delete any backups more than one month old
and send the output to a file called delete_1month-output-script.txt.
Again, once the command has completed, review the file contents.
This time the script will produce a list of mccli backup delete commands
to delete the appropriate backups.
Like the previous output
those backups not matching the criteria are also listed
but commented out with "conserve" in the previous line.
Take note: In the example on screen
the script was run on April 17, 2015.
Example three will generate a script
to update the expiration of backups created between May 1 and May 15, 2018
have them expire 100 days after their original creation
and send the output called extend-output-script.txt.
As with the previous examples
by reviewing the contents file, you will see a list of mccli backup commands.
This time, to update the backup expiration on the appropriate backups.
Like previous examples, those backups not matching the criteria are also listed
but commented out.
Once you have run the script with your required criteria
please take the time to check and verify the contents.
Use the ls -al command to verify your file is executable.
If not, make it executable by typing "chmod a+x"
followed by the name of your file.
In this example, we are using the file we generated earlier
re-run the ls -al command to verify your file is now executable.
When you are ready to run the script, type "./file name"
where "file name" is the name of your output file.
Again, we are using the output file that we created earlier.
Optionally, as shown in purple
you can send the results to a file rather than a screen.
Your generated script should now run.
Please monitor to completion and verify the results are as expected.
Remember these very important notes.
Review the output carefully
and ensure that the output produces the desired outcome.
This process cannot be reversed.
Additional help on how to use the delete and expire modes
is available by typing
"modify-snapups --mode=expire --help"
or
"modify-snapups --mode=delete--help".
Thank you for watching.