Recovery from Tape - Needs major work

[PostBE]

We currently run incremental backups during the week and a full backup once per week before sending this whole chain to tape once per week.
I have recently needed to restore a few small files from our virtualised file server from tape and this is where the headaches started for us.
After talking to the support people it was conveyed to me that the whole backup chain which is 6.2Tb was needed to be streamed from tape to disk and from there I could grab the files that I needed to be restored.
The problem here is I don't have this kind of diskspace spare, I don't have days to wait, And more importantly why does the whole backup need to be restored if I only need files from one server within this backup.

I guess I am wanting clarification if this is indeed how Veeam works as I remember that Symantec backup exec through GRT could just restore the one virtual machine back to the backup server and from there it would restore the files you need without having to restore the full backup chain consisting of many other virtual machines.

[foggy]

Dale, you were informed correctly. Currently, in order to restore a single file from tape backup, you need to restore the entire backup file from tape to disk and then use regular Veeam B&R file level restore (tape-to-disk-to-disk restore).

[PostBE]

Foggy thanks for your reply I understand that the tape implementation was a new feature with version 7 so I'm hoping that this is work in progress for Veeam and we will see further advancement with this in the new version 8.
The best part of backup exec was the way it handled tape as you could drill down to specific files within the tape backup as long as you selected granular recovery for vmware and from there as previously mentioned you could restore just these files once that virtual machine had been streamed from tape to the backup server.

Food for thought....

[veremin]

Hi, Dale, thank you for the feedback; much appreciated. We do understand the request and have received similar ones several times. But there are different features that have been requested more frequently and, thus, they currently are given more priority. Thanks.

[scott.anderson]

So if more people request it then its priority increases

Add one to the request for granular recovery direct from tape please!!!

[veremin]

So if more people request it then its priority increases

You've got it correctly. Thanks for the feedback.

[jacob.estrin]

That is a Plus one for me too.

[McClane]

I would like that feature, too. Especially nice for our small customers.

[mpozar]

Same for me. We have a few customers and they are all requesting this capability.

Have FUN!
Michael Pozar

[sibinsam]

+1

[Dima P.]

Guys, thank you for being so proactive. I wonder if you have to choose between granular VM restore from tape and granular file restore from tape what would be your choice?

[sibinsam]

Granular file restore....

[PostBE]

For me it would definitely be granular file restore but I wouldn't turn my nose up at being able to restore a single VM out of the backup either.

[stuartmacgreen]

Granular file restore for me, but happy with single VM restore also.

[pawel]

Please add me to this. File would be more important but VM would be nice too.

Any road map on this yet? I know you guys don't like to announce features unless you plan them but it would be nice to know how much you are considering this. I haven't got my tape infrastructure going yet (getting ready to order the hardware now) but this seems like a huge feature is missing.

[Tim783]

+1 from me as well

[lobo519]

File restore -

I was getting ready to setup veeam to tape not realizing this issue. This is a major feature needed. Veeam to tape is useless without it for me.

[macademy]

+1 from here. Coming from BE too, you shouldn't have to restore 6Tb of data to recover a couple of small files

[skruje]

File level restore from tape would be amazing, but I would still be happy if I had to restore entire VMs and then mount those to access the files.

[rklingaman]

I would like this feature as well would allow me to put more vms in a big file server job and not have to worry about restoring the entire 4TB VBK. I would also like to say that I finally was able to stop using netvault and move to veeam tape and although definitely some tweaks are needed we are moving in the right direction with it.

[Dima P.]

Ryan,

more vms in a big file server job and not have to worry about restoring the entire 4TB VBK.

So you need the ability to recover a single VM, instead of file level recovery from vm on tape, right?

[rklingaman]

How about both =).... file restore would be very nice as usually if I'm having to go back that far on tape it is because of a file restore. So day to day operations file level restore off a tape would be ideal.

If I look at it more at a disaster recovery level where I need to start recovering entire VMs then I would go the other way.

If I could just restore files instead of a VMs I don't think I would be comfortable writing that much to tape until I could restore just VMS. If I could restore VMS and not files then I would increase the size of my VBKs since I'm no worse off when restoring files off tape

Also we are running LTO5 and I'm hoping to skip LTO6 and move to LTO7 when it comes out. When I do that I could also be more comfortable increasing the size of the VBK file.

Clear as mud?

[Dima P.]

Point taken, thanks!

[Bunks]

File for me as well please

[Dima P.]

One File from tape restore for Bunks. Thanks - noted

[opg70]

+1 with rklingaman - if a restore of a VM is needed but it is in a multi TB VBK, it will take forever (and require 4TB of 'buffer' space) even if it is a small VM. Having both options would be ideal - being able to restore just the VM we need, as well as being able to restore just the files needed if required.

[michaelryancook]

I as well could use this feature. File level would be preferred but VM level could be adequate.

[dan11]

Please add me to this too.
File level restore from tape would help me a lot.

Thanks

[Clem58]

+1 too

[PenguinSSH]

+1 too here. We've got several big file server that we archive to tape. Restoring a single 5TB VDK for for a couple of files complicates the restore procedures a lot.