Tape Jobs affecting other jobs? General Tape features

[PaulITGuy]

When you run a tape job in Veeam B&R v8.0 do you notice that other jobs that apply to the same VM's cause problems with either the tape job or the other job?

We have noticed issues and it is a problem for us. The tape jobs are very long and overlap with other jobs.


Also, has anyone else noticed it is difficult to control what goes on the tapes? What if I want to have just the latest full on a tape instead of all the fulls that have not yet gone to tape.

What is the easiest way to view the contents of a tape?

[Shestakov]

Hello Paul,

When you run a tape job in Veeam B&R v8.0 do you notice that other jobs that apply to the same VM's cause problems with either the tape job or the other job?
We have noticed issues and it is a problem for us. The tape jobs are very long and overlap with other jobs.

Could you elaborate on this, please? What kind of problems in what cases do you experience?

Also, has anyone else noticed it is difficult to control what goes on the tapes? What if I want to have just the latest full on a tape instead of all the fulls that have not yet gone to tape.

It`s actually not that difficult, when configuring the job, its wizard asks you if you want to copy all backup chains or only the latest one. The procedure is described in the User Guide. Please take a look.

What is the easiest way to view the contents of a tape?

You can check content of the tapes in VBR UI.
Thanks.

[michaelryancook]

The option to only copy latest only affects the first run of the job. Does it not? After that if you are using reverse incremental or forward with active fulls you will get at least two fulls on tape after the active full. The number of fulls would be dependent on retention periods and the number of fulls since last tape backup.

As well the VBR UI seems to work fine for backup to tape jobs but does not work for file to tape jobs. Unless my file to tape job is an anomaly.

[foggy]

The option to only copy latest only affects the first run of the job. Does it not? After that if you are using reverse incremental or forward with active fulls you will get at least two fulls on tape after the active full. The number of fulls would be dependent on retention periods and the number of fulls since last tape backup.

Please see this existing thread regarding the ability to copy just the latest full to tape.

As well the VBR UI seems to work fine for backup to tape jobs but does not work for file to tape jobs. Unless my file to tape job is an anomaly.

Could you please elaborate on this one?

[michaelryancook]

To elaborate on the UI comment. I scripted a job to write the second latest .vbk to tape. I chose the second latest as I am using reverse incremental and active fulls. The second latest when my tape job runs is my active full. The job runs fine and is successful, however if I am in the B&R section and I click on Backups -- Tape I see all my backup to tape jobs, which I can expand and see each VM, however I do not see an entry for the file to tape job. I was hoping that I would see it here and that more importantly Veeam would be aware of which VMs were protected as part of that .vbk. Without this I would have to keep logs of when a VM was added to a job so that we knew what we were capable of restoring for a particular VM.

I hope that makes sense.

[Shestakov]

Thanks for the clarification.
Try to find your copied files in the corresponding Files section.

I chose the second latest as I am using reverse incremental and active fulls. The second latest when my tape job runs is my active full.

Do you mean, that script copies the second latest file the next day after you perform active full? Why not to run the tape job for just the latest backup file? It`s always Full for reversed incremental.
Thanks!

[michaelryancook]

Thanks Nikita. I do see it there. It would be nice to be able to expand the .vbk to see the protected VMs but this is better than nothing.

The script does do that. I was concerned that the latest backup may be the reversed incremental and if there is any corruption that has not been detected than I'd rather have the active full on tape. We are only using SureBackup on a few VMs at this point but I am probably being overly cautious.

[Shestakov]

Thanks Nikita. I do see it there. It would be nice to be able to expand the .vbk to see the protected VMs but this is better than nothing.

Since file-to-tape job copies files, for Veeam B&R .vbk is just a file, you could also copy .txt, .xls etc. In contrast, backup-to-tape job can copy only backups, that`s why VBR UI shows them as restore points containing backups of vms.

The script does do that. I was concerned that the latest backup may be the reversed incremental and if there is any corruption that has not been detected than I'd rather have the active full on tape. We are only using SureBackup on a few VMs at this point but I am probably being overly cautious.

You are right, probability of corruption in the very first increment tends to zero. But if you feel comfortable to copy the active full restore points, it`s understandable.

[PaulITGuy]

Thank everyone. It will take me a little while to try all these suggestions!

[Shestakov]

You are welcome Paul, once you need a help, don`t hesitate writing.

[PaulITGuy]

When my tape backups runs for a long time it overlaps with my regular backup. Then when the retention rules on the regular backup delete the oldest backup, it can interfere with the tape job. Sometimes the tape job is still trying to backup the file that the retention rules are erasing.

do get around this we disable our backup job while the tape job is running. How do other people handle this?