Can I use immutable backups in AWS S3 + Reverse Incremental Local Storage?

[davidb1234]

We have the local performance storage configured for reverse incremental currently and 14 days of retention. We take backups once per day.

Can I configure AWS S3 repository and add it to scale out repository as a capacity tier and "Copy Backups to object storage as soon as they are created?"

Can I set immutable storage to 3 days or will that prevent reverse incremental from working properly?

Will I create unwanted additional storage usage in AWS S3 because of versioning/immutable turned on the bucket?

Will the backups copied to S3 clean up on the same retention schedule?

Looking for some guidance on best way to do this to keep a number of protected backups in AWS S3 bucket ongoing to protect against ransomware or someone deleting them from the Veeam console, etc.

[Gostev]

Yes, you can - no problems there.

You should not be thinking about the source backup chain type at all, as how source restore points are stored is completely irrelevant to our object storage integration. By the way, this fact is even specifically captured in the What's New in v10 document, under the Copy policy description.

[davidb1234]

Thank you! How do the restore points copied to S3 clean themselves up(retention)? Does it basically just keep exact copies of all backups there that are stored on site and clean them up in the same way automatically?

[Gostev]

I suppose you can say that, except there are no backup files in object storage. Just a bunch of blocks from original backup files that constitute a restore point. And when an oldest restore point needs to be deleted, all of its blocks are simply deleted (except those which are shared with other/newer restore points, of course). Thanks!

[sfirmes]

@davidb1234 -- Anthony Spiteri, one of our Global Technologists in our Product Strategy Team, did a great presentation last April that explains how we use object storage. It is a v9.5.4 discussion and doesn't cover the new "Copy Mode" or "Immutability" features in v10, but it does cover the underlying technologies that are still relevant today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hOCJ9Rj-zE

[anthonyspiteri79]

Just as a follow up to that we did a follow up presentation at TDF#20 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YbZzBtPM7o This builds on the CFD#5 presentation and talks about Copy Policy and Immutability.

[davidb1234]

Thanks for the videos! One last question. Will the initial copy job to S3 block backup jobs?

[dalbertson]

No. The offload task runs separately. But you can also choose a schedule when offload is allowed to run