How many days will Backup Exec store the catalogs on a media server?

Problem

How many days will Backup Exec store the catalogs on a media server?

How to Truncate Catalogs After 'x' days" option in Backup Exec

Cause

Catalogs are index files which are used to list the restore selections in the restore view.

Backup Exec will store the catalogs on the media server under X:\Program Files\Veritas\Backup Exec\Catalogs by default.

Solution

Backup Exec will not delete or truncate any catalogs by default.

If the catalog files from older backup sets are consuming too much disk space, this setting can be changed.

In order to truncate / delete the catalogs, perform the following:

1. Launch the BE console and navigate to the Catalogs settings:

• Backup Exec > Configuration and Settings > Backup Exec Settings > Catalogs

2. Check the option that says Truncate Catalogs After.

3. Once the option is checked, Backup Exec will set a default time period of 2 months (which can be altered) to truncate the catalogs.

Note: Enabling this option will not delete any old catalogs which are already present under the X:\Program Files\Veritas\Backup Exec\Catalogs folder. The setting will only be applied to the new catalogs that get created after the Truncate checkbox is checked.

In order to free up space that is getting utilized due to old catalogs (pre-truncation setting), older catalog files will need to be manually deleted. Use the modified dates on the files to determine which ones are no longer needed.

In order to restore data which has had the catalogs removed, perform an inventory and catalog on the media containing the data and the selections for that media will be available once again.