My local Veeam contacts redirected me to this forum for my detailed questions about VM backups in combination with object storage and immutability.
Thank you very much for your time and answers.
We have the following environment and requirements:
- VMs running on iSCSI LUNs on NetApp ONTAP
- object storage as target with object lock in compliance mode (direct backup to onprem S3)
- for some repos we plan to use an SOBR with multiple performance tier buckets (no capacity/archive tier)
- immutability duration of around 60-90 days
- using the GFS backup schema
- Backup server with Windows, because of NetApp storage integration
Here are my questions:
1) What happens if we extend/increase the immutability period of the S3 repo after the first full backup?
For the HLR, we found the below statement that the immutability for the active chain is updated to reflect the new value.
So for HLR the new value would be applied for the currently open chain, so for all restore points up to the last synthetic full, correct?If you increase the immutability period in repository settings, a new value will be applied for the active and next chains.
https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/vbr/u ... tml?ver=13
Here with object storage we have an incremental forever backup and only for the GFS backups, we have a synthetic full.
I would expect that new incremental backups are locked with the new period and that the pervious blocks from the initial full are not extended. But this leaves the problem, that those blocks can be deleted and the incremental backups are unusable as many blocks are missing.
What is the logic for VM backups to S3 (for increased immutability on the repo in regards to existing backups)?
2) I found some posts that on the HLR the immutability period of existing backup points can be extended.
E.g. the following post: https://community.veeam.com/blogs-and-p ... -v11a-1498
My local Veeam contacts said that this is not officially supported. But the blog post mentions publicly available PowerShell commands.
Is that method supported by Veeam or not for HLR?
Is such a method also available for VM backups directly to S3 and is it supported?
3) Regarding the GFS feature for VM backups directly to S3:
For some repos we plan to use an SOBR with multiple performance tier buckets (no capacity/archive tier)
I am unsure if I understood the immutability logic correctly when it comes to GFS.
Therefore, lets talk about the following example GFS config:
* 60 days of immutability on the repo, configured with the option "minimum immutability period only"
* 60 days of retention, there are daily VM backups so 60x daily backups
* GFS settings of 52x weekly, 24x monthly, 8x yearly
Here the docs pages that I found about GFS:
For the minimum immutability period only. In this case, the immutability period is the same as the immutability period of an object storage repository + Block Generation.
https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/vbr/u ... ier%20Only
My understanding is that with the option of "minimum immutability period only" the following restore points are immutable for 60 days:For backups with GFS flags, VeeamZIP backups, and exported backup files, Veeam Backup & Replication applies the immutability period of the object storage repository. Retention of these backup files is not considered during the immutability period calculation.
https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/vbr/u ... tml?ver=13
* 60x daily backups
* 8x weekly backups of GFS
* 2x monthly backups of GFS
Is this true for both a SOBR with multiple S3 performance extents and for a "normal" S3 repo (meaning no SOBR) or how does it differ?
4) The "minimum immutability period only" is new with v13 and before with v12 the only option was "for the entire duration of their retention policy".
Is that correct?
Thank you for your time and support.