Best way to use Veeam for archiving job

[CJD15]

Hi guys,

We currently use Veritas Backup Exec. Once a user wants a folder to be archived, they move the file to an archive folder within the folder directory. Backup Exec then scans each archive folder, backs up the contents and then empties the archive folder.

What is the best way to get a similar functionality in Veeam? As folder wildcards aren't currently supported, specifying a weekly file share synthetic backup with 999 retention points that runs an Archive folder emptying PowerShell script seems the only way to meet this use case. This isn't ideal as it is backing up the whole file share, when in reality I only want the archive folders to be backed up by this job.

Please point me in the right direction if there is a better way? Archive folders need to be within each level of the directory to keep in line with permissions. Otherwise having a single master archive folder on the file server for which Veeam could just back up that folder would work. However, for obvious permission reasons, this wouldn't be suitable.

[Dima P.]

Hello CJD15,

Unfortunately we do not provide file archiving in a traditional way. Both file to tape jobs and nas backup jobs process files from the source and keep the file versions deleted by the user according to the set retention, but to retrieve such files you have to perform a file level recovery. For nas jobs you can perform file recovery via Enterprise Manager, for tape jobs that would work only via Veeam B&R console as tape management is required (load the correct tape, inventory it etc).

As a potential workaround, you can create dedicated file level job with yearly retention and aim it at the files/folders you would like to archive. Once the backup is done, you can remove these items from the machine (since they are stored in the backup). Hope that helps!