Discussions related to exporting backups to tape and backing up directly to tape.
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TimTheEnchanter
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VEEAM 7 and Tape Backup

Post by TimTheEnchanter »

We recently upgraded to VEEAM 7 and are trying to wrap our minds around the tape backup features. I am currently running reverse incremental backups of all of our critical servers as well as replication to alternate hardware for services that we must be able to restore immediately. I've noticed that when creating a tape job against a reverse incremental backup it only transfers the lastest file, the full backup, I have read all about this and I fully understand it. With all that said I have several questions that maybe someone else has already thought of.

1. If I run a files to tape job vice a backups to tape job, and I backup the vbk, vbr, and vbm files will I be able to restore from the vrb recovery points as well as the vbk file?
2. If I the answer to the above is yes, will I need enough disk space to restore the vbk and vbr files to in order to recover files or can I restore directly from tape?
3. If the answer to the number two is yes, which I am assuming from the restore options I see in the console, is there a scenario where I would be able to restore individual guest files and vmdks directly from tape or will I always need enough free disk space to restore the backup files to before I can do a restore?

Thanks in advance for any help.
Dima P.
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Re: VEEAM 7 and Tape Backup

Post by Dima P. »

Hello Matthew,
You can use file to tape to backup vbr, vbk and vib as a regular files, but in order to restore singe file from backup you would need to restore the whole backup from tape to disk and then use regular Veeam file level restore. So:
1. Yes, you can
2. Yes, you would need enough disk space for whole vbk and vbr
3. In current version, you always need enough free disk space to restore the backup files to before you can do a file level restore.
TimTheEnchanter
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Re: VEEAM 7 and Tape Backup

Post by TimTheEnchanter »

Thanks, that answers my questions perfectly.
nunciate
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Re: VEEAM 7 and Tape Backup

Post by nunciate »

I set my backup jobs to Incremental Mode. Then choose to do a synthetic Full every Friday as well as checking the option to perform the reverse incremental at the same time. By doing this I get normal incremental files (VIB) during the week and then it all gets rolled up into a Full (VBK) and new Reverse (VRB) file once a week. I use the regular Backup to Tape job (not file to tape). In the files section I choose from job and choose the job I want to copy to tape and the schedule is set to start after the backup jobs complete.

Doing this I am able to get incremental files to tape every night and a full backup every weekend. I don't backup the VRB files since I already backed up the other incremental files. When I look at my Tapes in the Backups section I see all my restore points and I can choose a single server to restore from tape. It doesn't appear as though you can restore individual files within the VMs but I can pick 1 VM and it gives me the option to restore that backup data to disk. I need to test to see if it only restores that individual VMs backup data or the entire set though.

Anyone out there want to chime in and let me know if that sounds like the right way to tape out using Synthetic Full with Reverse Incremental?
nunciate
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Re: VEEAM 7 and Tape Backup

Post by nunciate »

I went ahead and recalled tapes to restore a single VM from tape and choose a time that on an incremental restore point. Will post an update and let you know how well the restore went. I am out tomorrow but will update on Tuesday.
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Re: VEEAM 7 and Tape Backup

Post by veremin »

I need to test to see if it only restores that individual VMs backup data or the entire set though.
If my memory serves me well, we will restore entire .vbk file and, then, perform Full VM Restore, using this file. Thanks.
nunciate
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Re: VEEAM 7 and Tape Backup

Post by nunciate »

I performed my test restores today. I chose both the "Restore Entire VM" and the "Restore backup from tape to repository" options. In both cases the entire VBK for that job was restored to my drive. In the first case the entire VM was then restored to VMware and the VBK was left behind so I could do other restores if I wanted. In the second I was able to restore individual files or the entire VM from the VBK. So yes my backup strategy works because I chose an incremental restore point and used tape only to restore. Unfortunately you do need enough space to account for the full VBK and whatever VIB files you might need. In my case that was 700Gb of space and the job contained 13 different VMs. But to be fair have the same issue with my older SyncSort NDMP jobs as well.

I am about to build an entirely new Veeam backup server with something like 80Tb of storage on it. My plan is to limit each job to less than 1Tb in size to reduce restore times and also so I can use Windows 2012 Dedupe.
veremin
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Re: VEEAM 7 and Tape Backup

Post by veremin »

nunciate wrote:In the first case the entire VM was then restored to VMware and the VBK was left behind so I could do other restores if I wanted. In the second I was able to restore individual files or the entire VM from the VBK.
Yep, this is the exact way restore from tape operations work. It's always tape to disk to disk. The only difference that is that in case of "Restore Entire VM, the last part (disk to disk) will be performed automatically for you.

Thanks.
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