My main Veeam repo is created with the reverse incremental method. I would like some clarification on a few things if possible:
I'm under the impression that backup copy jobs are only available as forever forward incremental... is this correct?
Additionally, would I be able to use a GFS retention policy for a backup copy job to tape with tapes being sent offsite? Would the backup copy job be able to process without the previous days tape being available to Veeam?
conradblack wrote:Additionally, would I be able to use a GFS retention policy for a backup copy job to tape with tapes being sent offsite?
GFS retention for backup to tape jobs is to be implemented in next versions of the product. For now we recommend to create several backup to tape jobs (for weekly/monthly/etc. backups) dedicated to their media pools.
conradblack wrote:Would the backup copy job be able to process without the previous days tape being available to Veeam?
Shestakov wrote:Could you clarify the use case behind the question please? Note that backup copy job and backup to tape jobs are different. Thanks.
This would be a backup copy job, not a backup to tape. Is backup copy job to tape possible? I would like to be able to send these tapes offsite every day using a backup copy job to tape...if possible. >_<
edit: I just read about the backup to tape job...it sounds like what I'm trying to achieve...copy the backup from our main repo to tape and send it offsite.
Could you clarify the types of backups that are supported for this (forward incremental, reverse, etc)?
Glad that you found what was needed.
Backup to tape works with both backup and backup copy jobs. For backup job it`s recommended to use forward or forever-forward incremental methods.
Note that Virtual Synthesized Full Backup for Tape feature, works only for backup copy jobs and backup jobs that produce forever forward incremental backup chains.
Thanks!
Shestakov wrote:Glad that you found what was needed.
Backup to tape works with both backup and backup copy jobs as well as all backup methods, but it`s recommended to use forward or forever-forward incremental methods(relates to backup job).
Note that Virtual Synthesized Full Backup for Tape feature, works only for backup copy jobs and backup jobs that produce forever forward incremental backup chains.
Thanks!
Thank you so much!
I just have one last point of clarification... Let's say I choose to backup to tape using the forward incremental method...would it be possible to send each day's incremental tape offsite each day (including the first full backup). This is my scenario for creating a backup copy of our main repo to tape:
Day 1: Full backup to tape for forward incremental, send tape offsite
Day 2: Forward incremental backup to tape, send tape offsite
Day 3: Forward incremental backup to tape, send tape offsite
Yes, but only Full backups, .vrb incremental files will not be copied to tape. It`s recommended to use forward incremental method for the source job.
Thanks.
Shestakov wrote:Yes, but only Full backups, .vrb incremental files will not be copied to tape. It`s recommended to use forward incremental method for the source job.
Thanks.
Do you mean it's recommended to use forward incremental for the job that creates the source for the backup to tape job? And now I'm confused... you can only copy full backups to tape? So that means every day I'll have to make a complete full backup and send that offsite instead of just making an incremental backup to tape and sending that offsite every day?
Backup-to-tape job can use either backup job or backup copy job as a source. If you schedule a source job to run daily increments, backup-to-tape will copy those increments to the tape.
Thanks.
Shestakov wrote:Backup-to-tape job can use either backup job or backup copy job as a source. If you schedule a source job to run daily increments, backup-to-tape will copy those increments to the tape.
Thanks.
So if I create my source for the backup-to-tape job using daily increments, then I can copy those increments to tape? So I will not need to copy a full backup to tape every day, correct?
So if I used reverse incremental to create my source for the backup-to-tape job I'd essentially be copying a full backup to tape everyday? Is that correct?
Shestakov wrote:You are right.
That`s why we recommend to use forward incremental backup methods or backup copy job.
Thank you.
That makes sense... I'm sorry for the trouble but I need a bit more clarification. I need some insight on the difference between backup copy job and backup to tape job...
Can you perform a backup copy job with the target being a tape?
Can you only perform a backup to tape by using the backup to tape job?
You can not perform a backup copy job with the target being a tape, but you can achieve the goal using backup-to-tape job.
Backup to tape job does not create any backups: it uses already existing backups produced by regular backup and backup copy jobs as source and copies them to tape.
So your way to go is to create a simple backup job and another backup-to-tape job using the first one as a source.
Thanks
Shestakov wrote:You can not perform a backup copy job with the target being a tape, but you can achieve the goal using backup-to-tape job.
Backup to tape job does not create any backups: it uses already existing backups produced by regular backup and backup copy jobs as source and copies them to tape.
So your way to go is to create a simple backup job and another backup-to-tape job using the first one as a source.
Thanks
Perfect, that's what I thought.
So if I configure a backup-to-tape job, it'll essentially copy what my regular backup job did for that day but to tape instead, correct?
Shestakov wrote:Glad you`ve found what you were looking for.
Correct, you can schedule the backup-to-tape to run automatically after the backup job.
Thanks!
Thanks for the help. It's all starting to make sense...
One more thing... is it possible to create the source repo using forever forward incremental (without a backup copy job) and then running a backup-to-tape job to copy this source?
Well, you don`t create repositories using jobs. Repositories are to be added via VBR UI.
You can choose a backup repository as a target for backup job and then copy those backups to tape with backup-to-tape job. As was discussed above, you don`t need backup copy job for that.
Thanks.
