Include date in Format yyyy-MM-dd to Media-Sets name

[RichT]

Hi,

I try to configure that our Media-Sets name include the date. The preferred Format would be yyyy-MM-dd so we can easily sort them. The %Date% variable has the format dd.MM.yyyy so you can't sort the Media set names Alphabetically to get the Date on which the media-set was created.
I tried to create a new system variable called %veeammediadate% and set the media set naming in the media-pool options to "Media-Set %veeammediadate%".
Unfortunately Veeam doesn't recognize the Variable and named the Set: "Media-Set %veeammediadate%".
Is there a way to accomplish what I'm trying to do or is there another way to see on which date a media-set was created in the media list?

[foggy]

I believe the system date format is used by this variable. If you change the system format to the desired one, you will be able to achieve what you're after.

[RichT]

Thanks,
I will try this Method.
Any way, is it possible to use Variables in the Media Set names?
I recognized that veeam interprets %DATE% as a string and %date% as a Variable.

[foggy]

This is the only variable currently available (no way to use system-defined environment variables). What other variables do you consider to be useful in this context? I can discuss any reasonable suggestions with R&D so they could add them in future.

[RichT]

The retention Period or even the date of the ending of the retention Period of the Media Pool would be very useful variables.
It would be nice to automatically apply changes of the retention Period to the naming of new Media sets.

[foggy]

Tape expiration date will be added as a separate column in Veeam B&R v8. Looks like this is a more appropriate place for this information.

Also, Veeam ONE will have a dedicated report with the list of protected tapes and their expiration dates.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback!

[RichT]

I changed the date format on the Backup Server to yyyy-MM-dd.
The date in the media set name still uses in the dd.MM.yyyy hh:mm format.

[foggy]

Have you re-created the media set? I don't think the name of the already created media set will be updated after the system date format has changed.

[Reklov]

I like to have e.g. a %Month% an %Year% variable, because of better naming possibilities ( monthly, yearly backup to Tape for Offsite Storage )

[foggy]

Thanks for suggestion, much appreciated.

[namiko78]

Hello

Is there a list of current variables that exist? I'd like to include %jobname% or something so i can easily sort them from my media pool view, for exporting. Thanks

[Dima P.]

Hello Steven
For tape management we have only one variable %date% which is used in the media set name.

[RolandSchauer]

Hello!

I've got the same problem like RichT.
Date options has been changed to "yyyy-mm-dd", but every week a new media set is created with "dd-mm-yyyy" like default german settings.

The system environment variable %date% shows "yyyy-mm-dd" as expected.

Do you have some advice what's going wrong here?

Thanks in advance!

best regards
Roland

[foggy]

Roland, have you re-created the media set after changing the date format?

[RolandSchauer]

Hi Foggy,

thanks for your reply.
every week a new media set is created on Friday at 12 - did you mean I should recreate the media pool?

best regards
Roland

[Dima P.]

Hello Roland,
Could you check if the issue still persists with the new media pool and what will happen when new media set will be created in the existing media pool? Thank you in advance.

[RolandSchauer]

Hello,

sorry for the delayed answer.
I've tried creating a new media pool, but it's using same date format again (dd.mm.yyyy). Date/time options in Windows has been changed on Backupserver and SQL Server.
Do you have any other suggestions?

thanks in advance!

best regards
Roland

[Dima P.]

Hello Roland,

Honestly, I’d rather contact support team and let them check your logs.

[RolandSchauer]

Hello Dima,

ok I'll do, thanks for your reply!

best regards
Roland

[fja]

Hi,

I contatced support about a year ago on same subject... Agrre taht we need %year%, %month% variables to be able to proper format names ourselves. I suggest %day% as well, as we used weekly rotation tapes..

Hope this will be added soon!!

BR Frank

[Dima P.]

Hello Frank,

Yes we indeed are got this request on our radar, thanks for pushing!

[mfo]

Veeam, please give us proper date variables!
Can't be that hard to implement %day-of-week%, %day%, %month% and %year%-variables, can it? That's a job any intern can do in half an hour. This would make a lot of customers very happy.

It is really annoying that I can't sort the list of tapes according to creation date.
In a long list of tapes, it becomes very hard to spot the oldest tape.

Creating a new media pool or media sets does not work either, it still doesn't use the format from the OS.

[veremin]

Don't you have a Veeam ONE deployed by any chance? I'm wondering because Tape Media Retention Period report seems to be exactly what you're after. Thanks.

[Dima P.]

Hi mfo,
While the default remains almost the same: Media set # %id% %date% = Media set 9/30/2015 11:00 AM

New ones were actually implemented in v9 (thanks to our interns):

%time% - time of the day when media set was started
Media set %time% = Media set 11:00 AM

%day% - day of the month when media set was started
Media set %day% = Media set 25

%dayofweek% - day of the week when media set was started
Media set % dayofweek % = Media set Monday

%month% - month when media set was started
Media set %month% = Media set October

%year% - year when media set was started
Media set %year% = Media set 2015

%job% - name of the tape job which opened this media set
Media set %job% = Media set Backup job 1

Feel free to use any combination of these variables.

Update: Finally found the Help Center article Specify Media Set Options where all the variables are listed.

[mfo]

Thank you very much! This is much appreciated!

As I see, the help page has now been updated.
Last week, when I wrote the post, the help page just mentioned the %date% variable.

best regards,
another happy customer

[Dima P.]

You are welcome. It seems that there was a glitch in Help Center engine and this info was published only for Free Edition’s Help Center. Now we got this corrected, thanks to your post.

[TBeckner]

The change for variables would have been great, except that you used the 'alpha' month instead of the 'numeric' month. To be useful, please offer the 'numeric' month either in addition to the 'alpha' month or change %month% to the month number. Cannot sort correctly with an 'alpha' month. For almost all Administrators world wide a date in the format of YYYY-MM-DD and a 24 hour time in the format of HH;MM:SS is the only useful format. To offer %date% in the format of dd-mm-yyyy shows the lack of international exposure that Veeam has. Thanks.

[Dima P.]

Hi Timothy,

Thanks - good idea. Consider this added as a feature request for the next major release.

[mma]

Any news about the numeric month "feature"?

[Dima P.]

Hi,

Yup. Month numeric variable will be supported in upcoming 9.5