Discussions related to exporting backups to tape and backing up directly to tape.
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arthur.reed
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Autoloader question

Post by arthur.reed »

I have a couple questions regarding VEEAM with an autoloader.

Our tape library has 24 slots and what I would like to do is backup so that each day it pulls the tapes from the assigned slot. For example:

Monday - use tapes in slot 1 and 2
Tuesday - slot 3 and 4
Wednesday - slot 5 and 6
Thursday - slot 7 and 8
Friday - slot 9 and 10

I would like it to automatically overwrite whatever is on the existing tape that is in that day's slot. Our past software Backup Exec did this very easily, you could just partition the slots and then create a backup for each day that used the appropriate partition. I am not sure if Veeam will do that.

Next, how can I manually unlock the library? I want to make sure that Monday morning when our staff comes in they will be able to eject the autoloader tray, fill it with that weeks tapes, and we are good to go. Working with it today I found no way to schedule a job to automatically unlock it. After I ran an inventory I found the library locked with no way to eject it.
veremin
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Re: Autoloader question

Post by veremin »

Hi, Arthur,
I am not sure if Veeam will do that.
Currently, it's not possible to assign tape job to certain library slots.

However, as far as I understand, you're after tape weekly rotation scheme. In other words, you want to overwrite existing medias on weekly basis. It can be achieved via the corresponding setting of Media Pool:

Media Pool -> Properties -> Retention -> Protect data for 1 week.
Next, how can I manually unlock the library?
Not sure whether I completely follow you on that. If you want to export used medias, you should utilize the corresponding setting of tape job:

Tape job -> Options -> Export current media set once the job finishes.

Thanks.
arthur.reed
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Re: Autoloader question

Post by arthur.reed »

I am beginning to see the problems with VEEAM tape backup and the way we need our backups to run. Right now I take a end of month tape backup that I use if I ever need to restore a file from some time back. For example, if someone comes to me and says I need to restore a file from December, I would take the December month end backup tapes that I have labeled, restore to disk, and then restore the file from image. Using VEEAM, I am not sure I would even know which individual tape was the month end backup from a weekly set. At least not easily. Using BE I know if I put my month end in the slot corresponding to the day I need it to run that tape set will definitely have the month end backup.

And by unlocking the library I mean that if I try to eject the cartridge from the autoloader it says that the library is in use and my be unlocked by host system. There is not an easy way to send the command to unlock it quickly apparently.

Well for now I guess if we want to run our backups to tape as we intend we will have to run BE along with VEEAM. I was really hoping VEEAM's tape support would be as easy to use as BackupExec.
Dima P.
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Re: Autoloader question

Post by Dima P. »

Arthur,

This could be done by creating media pool for each day of the week and assigning specific tape mediums to these media pools with the option to pick media from free pool set to off (I guess, you have barcode scanner and all the media is labeled). Such set up would ensure you have unique portion of tape media for each day of the week.

So it would look like this:

Monday Media Pool – 1 week retention from Monday to Monday: Tapes # 1, #2
Tuesday Media Pool – 1 week retention from Tuesday to Tuesday: Tapes # 3, #4
Wednesday Media Pool – 1 week retention from Wednesday to Wednesday: Tapes # 5, #6
Thursday Media Pool – 1 week retention from Thursday to Thursday: Tapes # 7, #8
Friday Media Pool – 1 week retention from Friday to Friday Tapes # 9, #10

The organization unit for tape media retention is a media pool, you can split tape media and specify the rotation you need for every media pool, then point backup to tape job or file to tape job to the created media pools. Yes, assigning slot to tape job currently not possible but if you have barcode reader, and all tape media was labeled - you could identify each tape media after eject operation?
For example, if someone comes to me and says I need to restore a file from December, I would take the December month end backup tapes that I have labeled, restore to disk, and then restore the file from image.
You can look over the backup to tape catalogue in the B&R console, locate the file (or backup) and hit restore. System would tell you which barcoded media should be loaded into the library in order to complete the restore.
There is not an easy way to send the command to unlock it quickly apparently.
Yes, currently there is no such option in console.
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