Host-based backup of VMware vSphere VMs.
pkelly_sts
Veteran
Posts: 600
Liked: 66 times
Joined: Jun 13, 2013 10:08 am
Full Name: Paul Kelly
Contact:

Is it possible to see/analyse contents of a backup file?

Post by pkelly_sts »

It's a bit of a long-shot but thought I'd ask.

I have a VM that, like clockwork, has a backup size of around 45Gb on a Monday and 25Gb on a tuesday, all other days are 2-5Gb. Not monstrous in the overall scheme of things but I'd /really/ love to know what's generating these changes as it implies that someone, somewhere, is updating a lot of info between these backups and searching for files on the fileserver with timestamps around these times doesn't reveal any candidates. There doesn't seem to be a defrag job either which I'd assume could also cause similar changes?

If I were backing up traditionally with BExec, I could start the process of a restore, navigate to the media for the day in question, then in the right-pane I could sort the "incremental" folders of that day into size order and thus find the largest amount of changed data.

So, I'm not asking for an equivalent facility, but is there any way at all of determining what is generating the most incremental backup data for a given restore point?

Paul
veremin
Product Manager
Posts: 20270
Liked: 2252 times
Joined: Oct 26, 2012 3:28 pm
Full Name: Vladimir Eremin
Contact:

Re: Is it possible to see/analyse contents of a backup file?

Post by veremin »

Hi, Paul.

The reason of such behaviour is the way two products work. Symantec is a file-level solution that requires an agent to be installed inside VM and that keeps track about changed files, meanwhile, VB&R is an image-based one, that cares only about blocks.

And it’s not possible to determine what specifically has led to that amount of changes, since sometimes changed blocks don’t necessarily mean changed files. For instance, some activities such as defragmentation, as well as, antivirus one that don’t literally change files, does affect seriously the number of changed block; so, please take a look whether there are any that are performed inside this VM.

In addition, I’m wondering whether this is an ordinary VM or VM that runs special applications (Exchange, SQL, etc.).

Thanks.
Vitaliy S.
VP, Product Management
Posts: 27055
Liked: 2710 times
Joined: Mar 30, 2009 9:13 am
Full Name: Vitaliy Safarov
Contact:

Re: Is it possible to see/analyse contents of a backup file?

Post by Vitaliy S. »

Here is an existing thread with the similar query: Large VIB file on a small static server
peterisis
Lurker
Posts: 1
Liked: never
Joined: Sep 02, 2013 10:54 am
Full Name: Peter
Contact:

[MERGED] Changed blocks - how identify corresponding files

Post by peterisis »

Hi,

i was wondering if it is possible somehow to identify which files in a VM correspond to the changed blocks veeam is backing up.

We back-up about 30 vm's using Veeam B&R for a few of our customers and some vm's have a large amount of changed blocks every day. One of these servers is a 'app server' on which we installed Symantec Enterprise Protection Manager' for example. This server has a backup transfer of 15 GB every day. I'm pretty sure that 90% of these changed blocks is caused by some kind of rotating log file or non-effeicient database service. So if i could find out the files corresponding to the changed blocks that would help me in finetuning our backup service.

I have tried 'Disk Pulse', which shows the files being altered. But that didn't help me.

Kind regards,

Peter
Vitaliy S.
VP, Product Management
Posts: 27055
Liked: 2710 times
Joined: Mar 30, 2009 9:13 am
Full Name: Vitaliy Safarov
Contact:

Re: Is it possible to see/analyse contents of a backup file?

Post by Vitaliy S. »

Hi Peter,

As Vladimir has mentioned above it is not possible to correlate the blocks that have changed and the files inside the Guest OS, most likely these changes are caused by file scans/access time stamps.

Please search these forums for existing topics discussing reasons of large increments > http://forums.veeam.com/search.php?st=0 ... iles+large

Hope this helps!
GL@MO
Enthusiast
Posts: 25
Liked: 2 times
Joined: Nov 02, 2012 9:04 pm
Location: Vreden, Germany
Contact:

View Content of Last Backup

Post by GL@MO »

Hi @all,

last night I experienced a high amount of data being backupped from our fileserver which is not normal (38GB instead of normally ~5GB)

is it possible to view what files have been backupped/changed with Veeam or does anybody have a hint how to do it with Windows (Fileserver) tools?

Many thanks to all

Guido
foggy
Veeam Software
Posts: 21069
Liked: 2115 times
Joined: Jul 11, 2011 10:22 am
Full Name: Alexander Fogelson
Contact:

Re: Is it possible to see/analyse contents of a backup file?

Post by foggy »

Guido, please review the thread above for an answer. Also, there are some hints given in the topic referred to by Vitaliy that might give you an idea of why such amount of data was backed up.
fcmajor
Novice
Posts: 9
Liked: never
Joined: Mar 17, 2014 11:13 am
Full Name: Jens Zimmermann
Contact:

[MERGED] data in incremental backups

Post by fcmajor »

Hello

We are using veeam for our DC and file server.
Our backup is traditional incremental with a full backup on monday.
We have enabled guest file system indexing.

My question now can I see the only the data that is in one incremental backup?

When I try the restore option and select restore windows guest file and choose an incremental, is the data that I see everything (including the last full) or just the data of that incremental?
foggy
Veeam Software
Posts: 21069
Liked: 2115 times
Joined: Jul 11, 2011 10:22 am
Full Name: Alexander Fogelson
Contact:

Re: Is it possible to see/analyse contents of a backup file?

Post by foggy »

Jens, when selecting particular restore point, you see the entire file system of the VM at the state corresponding to the selected moment in time.
fcmajor
Novice
Posts: 9
Liked: never
Joined: Mar 17, 2014 11:13 am
Full Name: Jens Zimmermann
Contact:

Re: Is it possible to see/analyse contents of a backup file?

Post by fcmajor »

So for example:

When monday is my full backup and tuesday - sunday are incrementals.
When I choose the restore point friday it shows me everything from monday until friday or just the friday?
Vitaliy S.
VP, Product Management
Posts: 27055
Liked: 2710 times
Joined: Mar 30, 2009 9:13 am
Full Name: Vitaliy Safarov
Contact:

Re: Is it possible to see/analyse contents of a backup file?

Post by Vitaliy S. »

When you click on the particular restore point, it shows you data that was present on the source VM disks on that day (the latest state).
fcmajor
Novice
Posts: 9
Liked: never
Joined: Mar 17, 2014 11:13 am
Full Name: Jens Zimmermann
Contact:

Re: Is it possible to see/analyse contents of a backup file?

Post by fcmajor »

But can we see only the delta between 2 backups?
veremin
Product Manager
Posts: 20270
Liked: 2252 times
Joined: Oct 26, 2012 3:28 pm
Full Name: Vladimir Eremin
Contact:

Re: Is it possible to see/analyse contents of a backup file?

Post by veremin »

No, you can't.
foggy
Veeam Software
Posts: 21069
Liked: 2115 times
Joined: Jul 11, 2011 10:22 am
Full Name: Alexander Fogelson
Contact:

Re: Is it possible to see/analyse contents of a backup file?

Post by foggy »

Since Veeam B&R is a block-level solution and grabs changed blocks only, there's no ability to correlate those blocks to the files inside the guest OS.
AdrianHinton
Enthusiast
Posts: 71
Liked: 6 times
Joined: Apr 07, 2014 10:00 am
Full Name: Adrian Hinton
Contact:

Re: Is it possible to see/analyse contents of a backup file?

Post by AdrianHinton »

If VBR can identify changed blocks to perform the backup, can it not also log (in a readable way) what changes it identified and copied? Could you then begin to identify what has changed from there?
foggy
Veeam Software
Posts: 21069
Liked: 2115 times
Joined: Jul 11, 2011 10:22 am
Full Name: Alexander Fogelson
Contact:

Re: Is it possible to see/analyse contents of a backup file?

Post by foggy »

Those changes are just the IDs of vmdk blocks to be copied, not sure there's an easy way to match this data to the guest file system objects.
Kira
Lurker
Posts: 1
Liked: never
Joined: Sep 16, 2014 8:02 am
Full Name: Kira kh
Contact:

[MERGED] Incremental backup files transfer

Post by Kira »

Hello,
We have a replication to our site. Incremental backup for one VM is growing up and we would like to reduce the replication.
Is there a way to check which files were backed up?
Thanks,
Kira
Shestakov
Veteran
Posts: 7328
Liked: 781 times
Joined: May 21, 2014 11:03 am
Full Name: Nikita Shestakov
Location: Prague
Contact:

Re: Is it possible to see/analyse contents of a backup file?

Post by Shestakov »

Hello Kira,

Since B&R is an image-based backup solution, it works with blocks. And it’s not possible to correlate the blocks that have changed and the files inside the Guest OS, most likely these changes are caused by file scans/access time stamps.

Also take a look at the answers provided above, and ask if additional help is needed.
Thanks.
omg
Enthusiast
Posts: 31
Liked: never
Joined: Jul 25, 2014 6:03 pm
Full Name: V
Contact:

[MERGED] Looking at incremental backup file details ?

Post by omg »

We have recently started using Veeam.
We have a VMware host with around 7 VMs.

All 7 VMs are windows machines.

They are hardly used and shouldn't have more than 200MB of new data every day.

When we use Veeam V8 to backup the entire VMware host ( 7 VMs) for forward incremental backup.
We have noticed that initial full backup file is around 150GB total size.
All the forward incremental backup files are around 15GB files.

Just wondering what that 15GB backup file contains. Even though 7 VMs are not used for one week.
All the forward incremental backup files are still around 15GB each.

Just curious to know:

1) Can we see what exactly is inside that 15GB backup file
2) Is there a report which shows the details as what has been backed up into that 15GB backup file.
3) For me it seems that 15GB forward incremental backup file everyday is a lot, especially when we are
planning to copy daily backup files to offsite location.
4) Any tips or tricks to cut down the size of the backup file, especially when we are planning to copy them offsite.

Thanks in advance
foggy
Veeam Software
Posts: 21069
Liked: 2115 times
Joined: Jul 11, 2011 10:22 am
Full Name: Alexander Fogelson
Contact:

Re: Is it possible to see/analyse contents of a backup file?

Post by foggy »

Please look through this thread for the answers to all of your questions. If you need additional explanation, feel free to ask here. Thanks.
omg
Enthusiast
Posts: 31
Liked: never
Joined: Jul 25, 2014 6:03 pm
Full Name: V
Contact:

Re: Is it possible to see/analyse contents of a backup file?

Post by omg »

Not sure why Veeam experts are referring to this link whenever there is a discussion about
finding the details of the big incremental backup file.

They could just say, that's how Veeam works and there incremental backup files are always big. DO NOT compare
with other regular backup software.

Referring to this link is of no use, UN-necessarily users are going to other discussions like its because of antivirus,database,AD,DNS....file server changes.

Its the way Veeam works.
foggy
Veeam Software
Posts: 21069
Liked: 2115 times
Joined: Jul 11, 2011 10:22 am
Full Name: Alexander Fogelson
Contact:

Re: Is it possible to see/analyse contents of a backup file?

Post by foggy »

omg wrote:They could just say, that's how Veeam works and there incremental backup files are always big.
That's simply not true. Size of incremental files entirely depends on the amount of changes occurred inside guest OS since previous backup job run and the referred thread allows to get an idea on what can affect that. It could be a single block that has changed and backed up by Veeam B&R while file-level solution will backup the entire 1GB file this block belongs to.
omg
Enthusiast
Posts: 31
Liked: never
Joined: Jul 25, 2014 6:03 pm
Full Name: V
Contact:

Re: Is it possible to see/analyse contents of a backup file?

Post by omg »

foggy wrote: It could be a single block that has changed and backed up by Veeam B&R while file-level solution will backup the entire 1GB file this block belongs to.
Is there a way to find out which 1GB file block the change belongs to ?
Vitaliy S.
VP, Product Management
Posts: 27055
Liked: 2710 times
Joined: Mar 30, 2009 9:13 am
Full Name: Vitaliy Safarov
Contact:

Re: Is it possible to see/analyse contents of a backup file?

Post by Vitaliy S. »

omg wrote:Is there a way to find out which 1GB file block the change belongs to ?
You can use one of these creative ways of detecting what files and folders have changed since the last backup restore > Large amount of data change every 28 days
lowlander
Service Provider
Posts: 450
Liked: 30 times
Joined: Dec 28, 2014 11:48 am
Location: The Netherlands
Contact:

[MERGED] incremental

Post by lowlander »

Hi,

is there a way to determine which files and folders has been changed during an Incremental backup interval ? This feature would be great to determine large incrementals suddenly occuring in a job type.
Shestakov
Veteran
Posts: 7328
Liked: 781 times
Joined: May 21, 2014 11:03 am
Full Name: Nikita Shestakov
Location: Prague
Contact:

Re: incremental

Post by Shestakov »

Hi,
since CBT keeps track of blocks rather than files/folders, it`s not possible to determine exact files that were changed.
Thanks!
Gostev
Chief Product Officer
Posts: 31456
Liked: 6647 times
Joined: Jan 01, 2006 1:01 am
Location: Baar, Switzerland
Contact:

Re: incremental

Post by Gostev »

In some cases you can guess that by reviewing the VIB file content (just create a test job with disabled compression).
Daniel N.
Enthusiast
Posts: 52
Liked: 5 times
Joined: Feb 15, 2015 7:03 am
Contact:

[MERGED] How to analyse sudden backup size increase?

Post by Daniel N. »

We do daily incremental backups and we keep them for 45 days. The VBK has 400GB in size, the VRB medium size is 5GB. On saturday the generated VRB had 92GB despite anyone having worked, as far as I know. That caused backup compacting to fail which left a 330GB temporary file that filled up the remaining disk space.

Is there any way to review a history of backup sizes per job and per VM?

Is there any way to identify what files exactly caused the backup size to spike?

Ps: We backup our Hyper-V cluster with 8 VMs using one job.
PTide
Product Manager
Posts: 6408
Liked: 724 times
Joined: May 19, 2015 1:46 pm
Contact:

Re: How to analyse sudden backup size increase?

Post by PTide » 1 person likes this post

Hi,
Is there any way to review a history of backup sizes per job and per VM?
It seems that this Veeam ONE report is exactly what you are looking for.
Is there any way to identify what files exactly caused the backup size to spike?
This one might be tricky.Veeam does not offer such report now. First I would check if deduplication or defrag is involved. You can also use some third-party software to compare files and folders sizes from the latest backup with those from the previous one. Just start FLR wizard to mount drives from the backup and run https://windirstat.net/ against it - it will show you the file tree with all sizes so you can compare it.
foggy
Veeam Software
Posts: 21069
Liked: 2115 times
Joined: Jul 11, 2011 10:22 am
Full Name: Alexander Fogelson
Contact:

Re: Is it possible to see/analyse contents of a backup file?

Post by foggy »

You can also find some other tips to verify the reasons of backup file size increase in the thread above.
Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Google [Bot] and 79 guests