Managing database backups on SQL Express 2017

Question

Using SQL Server Express. To get automatic daily backups I have set up this stored procedure from Microsoft instructions here.

Going into Microsoft SQL Server Management studio I see that the backups that are created are available in the Restore feature as a timeline. That's nice.

My question is how to manage the backups? Each time I back up I will end up with about 75Mb of data. This will stack up real quick at 1 backup a day.

Is there a good solution to keep the last 7 backups and then weekly on every Friday or some schedule like that? I'd rather not do that manually.

Answer 1

If you also created a batch file as Microsoft suggested in the "step B" at the end of the link you shared, you could add another line to the file to purge old backup files. I did it by using a Windows CMD to go through my sub-folders and remove files older than X number of days.

:: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- :: << Auxiliary variables >> :: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- set bkpdirectory=E:\MSSQL\Backup\FULL set cleanup=7 :: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- :: << Clean up all backup files older than 7 days >> :: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Forfiles -p "%bkpdirectory%" -s -m *.bak /D -%cleanup% /C "cmd /c del @path" 

Hope it helps.