Backup storage options: managing storage space on the SQL backup directory

Accessing backup storage options
To access the Backup storage options shown above:

1. Click Jobs in the navigation bar
2. Select the job to be edited and click Edit at the bottom of the window.
3. Click Destination on the left menu.
4. Click Backup storage options to expand the section.

Specifying how to manage disk space on the SQL backup directory

The SQL backup directory is where SQL database backup files (in .bak format) are written to and there are a number of ways in which disk space can be managed through BackupAssist on this directory:

1. Use all available space (recommended)
   BackupAssist will check the SQL directory drive for free disk space while a backup is in progress. If the drive is running low in disk space and cannot accommodate the new database backup file, the oldest backup file on the drive will be removed. BackupAssist will continue to remove database backups in age order as required to ensure that enough space is free to store the new backup file. If the entire drive is dedicated to backup storage this option is recommended.
2. Use available space but always leave X Gb of free space
   Here you can define an amount of disk space to always leave free on the SQL directory drive. BackupAssist will check the drive for free disk space while a backup is in progress and if the drive's free space goes below this value, the oldest database backup file will be removed from the disk. BackupAssist will continue to remove database backups in age order as required to ensure that this amount of free space is always maintained on the drive.
3. Use a maximum size of X Gb for backups
   Here you can define a maximum amount of disk space that should be used for database backup storage on the SQL directory drive. BackupAssist will scan the drive for database backups while a backup is in progress and if the amount of disk space used for backups goes above this value, the oldest database backup will be removed from the drive. BackupAssist will continue to remove database backup files in age order as required to ensure that backup storage does not exceed this value of disk space.
4. Keep the last X backups
   Here you can determine the number of database backup files that should be constantly maintained in the SQL directory. BackupAssist will delete the oldest database backup in the directory if this number of backup files is ever exceeded.
5. Keep backups from the last X days
   Here you can choose to have BackupAssist remove any database backups from the SQL directory that are older than a specified number of days. For example: you may like to set this value to "14" to always have the last two week's worth of database backups in the SQL directory.
6. Unmanaged
   Here BackupAssist will continue to fill the SQL directory with backup files. You will need to manually manage the disk space yourself. If the drive ever runs out of space and a database backup cannot complete you will receive an error in your backup report alerting you to this fact.