Backup to Tape only last backup with reversed incremental

[mchoiniere]

Hello,

I am one of those who has the standard version. I only do a tape backup once a month. I use reverse-incrementals and in my file-to-tape job I put the *.vbk filter on the root of my veeam backup repository. Since the reverse-incremental only produces vbk files, I only have one copy of it in my backup. I create a new tape set each backup.

Is this a good way of doing things ?

[veremin]

If you want to copy only full backups on regular basis, then, the described approach should work fine. Thanks.

[BKeane]

So I ran into an issue where my tape job, pointing a RI backup job, fails if it is running when it's time for the referenced jobs to kick off. I'm assuming this is expected because the disk job is modifying the file that is trying to be backed up to tape.

My question is, what are people typically doing to get around this? I'm thinking that having a script run before that disables the jobs, and after that enables them would be a good route. Anyone else using any other methods?

Thank you,
Brenden

[Dima P.]

Hello Brenden,
I merged you post to the existing discussion, all the possible (and impossible ) workarounds are described here

[b.vanhaastrecht]

Hi,

We would like to run a tape job once a month which only copies the most recent full .vbk from multiple repositories/backup jobs. Is this posible? If not, could we do this with a Powershell script?

Kind Regards,
Bastiaan

[veremin]

If you're on version 8, the best approach would be to switch backup jobs to forward forever incremental backup mode and let backup to tape job create synthesized backup directly on tapes once a month. Thanks.

[sbbots]

Hi,

We would like to run a tape job once a month which only copies the most recent full .vbk from multiple repositories/backup jobs. Is this posible? If not, could we do this with a Powershell script?

Kind Regards,
Bastiaan

Are you using the Standard version or Enterprise version of Veeam? There are two, completely different answers depending on which version you use.

[sibinsam]

If you're on version 8, the best approach would be to switch backup jobs to forward forever incremental backup mode and let backup to tape job create synthesized backup directly on tapes once a month. Thanks.

Hi,
Seems i am getting contradictory answers from this forum and veeam support. I was trying to do the same above to create a synthetic full using forever forward incremental backup.
The aim is to copy only a latest full backup without copying any incrementals to tape. For example i have scheduled a forever forward incremental backup every day except fri and sat. On friday I want to synthesize and copy one full vbk which will be the latest restore point (with thursday's backup).
Is it possible for me to achieve the above with forever forward incremental mode? VEEAM support said that will not be possible, so we are now moving to reverse incremental mode to achieve the above result.
(Case id 711592)

[joergr]

Here comes the experimental script for reverse inc jobs i was asked for, now compatible with V8.

It will kill ANYTHING it finds in the drives and will allow to backup all the latest vbks via hardlinks-trick.

PLEASE only use in TESTLABS. NEVER EVER use in production!!!!! This is for purely experimental / testing / research purpose.

Best regards,
Joerg

Code: Select all

add-pssnapin veeampssnapin

# replace with your veeam backups mainfolder and your supposed hardlinks folder (must be created by you before)

$linkpath = "d:\veeam\veeam-hardlinks\"
$backuppath = "d:\veeam\veeam-backup\"
del $linkpath*.*

# perform inventory

$drive = Get-VBRTapeLibrary
Start-VBRTapeInventory -Library $drive -Wait
Start-Sleep -Seconds 5

# delete EVERYTHING it finds in the tapes

$tape = get-vbrtapemedium | where {$_.location -like "Drive"}
Erase-VBRTapeMedium -Medium $tape -Confirm:$false -Wait
Start-Sleep -Seconds 5

# go through subfolders and recursively select all the latest vbks

$files = dir $backuppath -filter "*.vbk" -rec
$filteredfiles = $files | group directory | foreach {@($_.group | sort {[datetime]$_.creationtime} -desc)[0]}
ForEach ($File in $filteredfiles)
        {$FilePath = $File.DirectoryName
        $FileName = $File.Name
        cmd /c mklink /H $linkpath$Filename $Filepath\$Filename}

# print the hardlinks (useful if you pipe the output to a log file)

echo "## hardlinks ##"
echo $linkpath 

# start your file to tape job which points to the hardlink folder

Start-VBRJob -Job "FileToTapeL" -FullBackup 
Start-Sleep -Seconds 5

# delete hardlinks

del $linkpath*.*

##### END (if using one streamer) #######

##### if you have a second streamer directly attached (just an example) #####

$linkpath = "d:\veeam\veeam-hardlinks-r\"
$backuppath = "d:\veeam\veeam-backup-r\"

del $linkpath*.*
$files = dir $backuppath -filter "*.vbk" -rec
$filteredfiles = $files | group directory | foreach {@($_.group | sort {[datetime]$_.creationtime} -desc)[0]}
ForEach ($File in $filteredfiles)
        {
        $FilePath = $File.DirectoryName
        $FileName = $File.Name
        cmd /c mklink /H $linkpath$Filename $Filepath\$Filename
        }

echo "## hardlinks ##"
echo $linkpath

Start-VBRJob -Job "FileToTapeR" -FullBackup

del $linkpath*.*

[veremin]

Hi,
Seems i am getting contradictory answers from this forum and veeam support. I was trying to do the same above to create a synthetic full using forever forward incremental backup.
The aim is to copy only a latest full backup without copying any incrementals to tape. For example i have scheduled a forever forward incremental backup every day except fri and sat. On friday I want to synthesize and copy one full vbk which will be the latest restore point (with thursday's backup).
Is it possible for me to achieve the above with forever forward incremental mode?
(Case id 711592)

Yes, the described scenario should work fine. The only thing you have to adjust is to enable Friday in the schedule of the forward forever incremental backup job. Thanks.

[HolgerE]

We’ve already tried to ease the life of those using backup to tape jobs by providing “copy only the latest chain” option (which has been one of the biggest requests we got). We may consider implementing the functionality mentioned by you down the road. So, thank you for the feedback.

Is there any news about implementing the feature “copy only the latest chain” for ongoing jobs also, not for the first run only?
Like most other users I'm not able to understand why Veeam refuses to add this 'most-wanted' feature which is already basically coded within B&R.
To copy a virtual (synthetic) full to tape is not possible for jobs that are not "forever incremental".

[veremin]

Just out of curiosity - is there any specific reason to utilize reversed incremental mode in your case, apart from storage saving considerations? Thanks.

[HolgerE]

The task is
- Backup2Disk Monday to Saturday with ActiveFull weekly (at least monthly to start with a 'fresh' backup)
- Copy2Tape Monday to Friday with a Full on tape (tape is exchanged daily)
- Copy2Tape Saturday to a different tape media pool (tapes are not exchanged from library)
- on public holidays this sequence should work without changing the configuration (just abort waiting Backup2Tape job if necessary)
There is not enough space on tape für more than 1 backup chain.

Do you suggest a different backup mode? Thanks.

[veremin]

Am I understanding you correctly that you want on Saturdays you want to copy only full backup? Thanks.

[HolgerE]

Not exactly concerning my post.
Everyday (except Sunday) there should be a full backup copied to tape.
Monday to Friday it should be copied to Media Pool "weekdays". Saturday it should be copied to Media Pool "weekend".

But there are other customers where we do copy a full backup to tape only once a week (i.e. Sunday). In this case we also have different problems concerning 'Veeam has to copy more than 1 full backup to tape' (for example tape is periodically overwritten but retention time for backup on disk is not reached -> old vbk is copied again to tape; or manual Active Full is run during the week for any reason; or tape was not exchanged one week and Active Full is created every weekend).

[veremin]

Switching to forward forever incremental mode and usage of synthesized full backup sound like a way to go. This way, only one full backup will be present on disk (the oldest restore point), and virtual sythesized full backup will allow you to create full backup on tape directly on whatever basis you want to (daily, monthly, etc.). Thanks.

[HolgerE]

Like mentioned in previous post: Active Full is part of the backup plan; so forever incremental is not an option. Thanks.

[bernardw]

I will agree with all the people in this thread. Backup to tape is really annoying if you can't just select the most recent full backup.

My manager does not completely trust the synthetic full backups so I do active full backups so Forever Incremental backups don't really work (I do active fulls weekly at this time). I also have had it MANY times that when I create the job (same job over and over again because the job tried to copy all the full backups once again) it does not let me select ONLY the latest VBK file.

So I got to the point where I tried creating a new job every week but that is a TON of work. Now I have been trying the file to tape backup job but that is not working smoothly either.

PLEASE give us a way to backup ONLY the latest full backup no mater how many full backups are present.

[Dima P.]

Guys,
Thank you for all your requests and feedback.

give us a way to backup ONLY the latest full backup no mater how many full backups are present

We are going to discuss this feature request with the team as soon as we have any available resources. No ETA at the moment but we got this feature in high priority list now.

[michaelryancook]

Thanks Dmitry. Even being able to set a only backup last switch with Powershell would be nice in the short term. Considering if I create a new tape job it asks if I only want to send the latest chain to tape, the functionality appears to be there but just no way for us to dictate that. File-to-tape scripts technically work but create a separation between which VM is backed up requiring documentation to be accurate concerning when a VM was added to a job and would therefore be in which .vbk file at what time.

[Dima P.]

Thanks Michael! We’ll keep this in mind.

[michaelryancook]

Looking at xml that defines the tape job options within the SQL database I am guessing that <BackupsMinDate> dictates this. If so it may be easy enough for me to fudge these entries on subsequent runs of the job. In the meantime I am considering running a separate backup job that only does monthly active fulls and then use that as my tape backup job's source.

[sbbots]

No ETA at the moment but we got this feature in high priority list now.

Does the high priority list include adding this feature to the Standard version for Files-to-Tape jobs? Or is this just for the Enterprise version users?

[veremin]

I think Dmitry was talking about backup to tape jobs that work with backup data not just individual files like files to tape jobs do. Thanks.

[alynch]

Hello,

Is there an ETA on when this feature will be available?

I am working around this for now but it is really not an ideal situation for us.

Thank you,

[Dima P.]

There is no ETA. The only estimate we can provide - next major release. Thanks.

[alynch]

Has this been resolved in Update2b?

[veremin]

It wasn't intended to be included in the said update. It still might be included in the next major version (9 to be more specific), though. Thanks.

[phil-ch]

So it looks like many people looking for a features like this. For all kind of source jobs.
All we want is just a simple button: copy only latest full backup to tape. For the first run after creation is it already implemented.
I can't understand why we should wait for the next major update and there is no guarantee that it's included.
I'm looking forward for a hotfix.

[veremin]

As mentioned, no hot fix is planned. But we do consider adding this option in the next major release.

Thank you for understanding.