Restore > 2 Versions Old

[barrnunn]

I am at a crossroads of upgrading my Veeam Backup environment from v6.5 to v9 and just found out through Veeam support (case 01741886) that none of my existing 6.5 Veeam backups will be able to be restored by Veeam v9. For some reason, Veeam made the decision that they would only allow restores from 2 previous versions, yet allow you to archive to tape and keep backups indefinitely. The support staff told me I would need to keep a viable 6.5 Veeam server running or a copy of the installation ISO to be able to set up a 6.5 server to be able to restore from backups that I am making up to the day I switch to v9.

I would like Veeam to look into allowing their S/W to be fully backwards compatible with all versions. It makes no sense to be able to archive to tape if you can't restore the Veeam backup files that are pulled back off the tape in the version you are running.

[veremin]

I've checked your case and the answer provided by our support engineer doesn't seem to be right, since we do support restore from backup files created by any previous VB&R version. I've contacted him internally, and he should reach you soon.

The described issue is currently being investigated internally. I will update the topic once I have more information.

Thanks.

[barrnunn]

I did get an update from the tech handling my case on this matter today. His explanation was that V9 is capable of restoring from all previous versions for full (.vbk) backups, but there is a bug affecting restores from incremental and reverse incremental backups from prior versions. He indicated the bug was being looked into by the development team.

I run synthetic full backups, so I am curios if the "bug" that affects restores from incremental or reverse incremental might also have issues with a "synthetic full" backup file as well. Has this been tested?

[foggy]

Right, the mentioned issue is specific to Hyper-V only and does not affect synthetic full backup files, only increments are affected. It will be addressed in the next version.

[barrnunn]

Next version as in v10, or next update revision to v9?

[foggy]

Next version is more likely.