Table of Contents
Ahsay · Usage & Storage
Two ways to find out when your backup storage jumped and what caused it — from the web portal or the local agent.
A usage spike is a sudden jump in the storage your backups consume, or a large amount of new data uploaded in a single job. You can investigate it two ways, and they complement each other: the web portal shows the big-picture trend, and the local agent shows the per-job detail.
Web Portal AhsayCBS See your storage-usage trend over time to spot when and where usage jumped. | Local Agent AhsayOBM Drill into individual backup jobs to see how much each uploaded and find the cause. |
| Good to knowEvery step below is read-only — you’re just looking at reports and statistics, so nothing you do here changes your backups or your data. |
1. Check Usage in the AhsayCBS Web Portal
Start here to spot the spike. The web portal shows your storage usage over time, so you can see exactly when it jumped and which backup set is responsible.
1 | Open a web browser and log in to your AhsayCBS backup portal (the web console URL provided by CyberFortress) using your backup account. |
2 | Go to Statistics. |
3 | Choose the Destination, Backup Set, and Period you want to review. AhsayCBS draws a graph of storage usage across those dates — a spike shows up as a sudden jump in the line. |
4 | Review the per-backup-set figures, including the Data Area. Keep in mind the Data Area also counts your Retention Area — older retained versions add to your usage even if your live data hasn’t grown. |
5 | To see what happened on a specific day, go to Report → Backup and open the report(s) for that period. You can download any report as a PDF. |
| What it tells youA clear before-and-after picture: the date usage rose, and the backup set and destination it rose on. That’s usually enough to narrow down the cause — and to decide whether it’s expected. |
2. Check Usage in the AhsayOBM Local Agent
Use this to pinpoint the cause. Once you know roughly when usage jumped, the local agent’s job reports show exactly which backup job moved the data, and how much.
1 | On the machine where the agent is installed, open AhsayOBM and log in. |
2 | Click Report. |
3 | Open the Backup tab and select the time period you’re investigating. |
4 | Review the list of backup jobs. Look for one with an unusually large amount of new or uploaded data — that’s your spike. |
5 | Click a job to open its full report: data transferred, new and updated files, and the destination it went to. |
6 | Note the backup set and date so you can cross-check it against the web portal’s Statistics graph if needed. |
| NoteThe agent only shows the backup sets on that particular machine. If your usage is spread across several servers, the web portal gives you the complete view across all of them. |
3. Which View Should I Use?
They work best together: use the web portal to find the spike, then the local agent to explain it.
| AhsayCBS Web Portal | AhsayOBM Local Agent | |
|---|---|---|
| Where you access it | Any web browser, using your backup portal login | On the computer or server where the agent is installed |
| Best for | The storage-usage trend over time — spotting the spike | Per-job detail — what uploaded, and when |
| What it shows | Storage used per backup set / destination across dates (graph) | Each backup job’s new and uploaded data |
| Answers | “When did usage jump, and which set grew?” | “Which job caused it, and how much did it move?” |
| Reach | All your backup sets in one place | Only the sets on that particular machine |
4. Common Causes of a Usage Spike
Once you’ve found when and where usage rose, these are the most common explanations to check against:
- A batch of new or changed data at the source — new or large files, a new folder, or a re-organized directory that the agent sees as new data to upload.
- A one-time re-upload event — for example, enabling Migrate Data (converting pre-v9 data to the v9 deduplicated format), which can temporarily increase storage by up to roughly double; changing the encryption key; or re-seeding a backup set.
- Retention Area growth — a longer retention policy or more retained versions increases the Data Area figure, even when the live source data is stable.
- A new backup set or data source — adding another server, VM, database, or Microsoft 365 mailbox to protection.
- A change to deduplication for a backup set.
| A quick note on timingStorage statistics refresh after a backup, a Space Freeing Up job, or a Data Integrity Check runs — so a very recent change may take a cycle to appear accurately in the figures. |
| Still not sure what’s driving it?A usage spike isn’t always a problem — but if it’s unexpected, or it’s pushing you toward your storage limit, don’t sit on it. Send us what you found (the backup set, the date, and the job if you have it) and the CyberFortress team will help you get to the bottom of it. We’re The Recovery People — keeping your backups healthy is what we do. |
Ahsay (AhsayCBS / AhsayOBM) · Usage & Storage | CyberFortress — The Recovery People