What Causes a Transformation to happen in Veeam 9?

[DrFritz]

We were doing some backups over the weekend and noticed in one of the Job Log files this is happening:

[02.04.2016 21:52:51] <01> Info [Transform] Checking the need of transformation...
[02.04.2016 21:52:51] <01> Info [Transform] Transformation is needed.

which is just doing the Data Merge with the VIB files into the VBK. My question is -- what triggers the need for performing the Transformation? We have the job set to Forever Incremental... and have only run a couple of jobs.

Thank you!

[veremin]

Is current retention reached already? Thanks.

[DrFritz]

Thanks Vladimir for responding... i need to double check. The thing is -- we're working with a Data Domain appliance and because the Transformation is taking place -- we take a hit on the data processing for replication on the DD side. When we saw the transformation take place, it was basically rewriting the 4.4 TB VBK image on the Data Domain which causes the Mtree replication on the Data Domain to process those "bits" but only send the unique data across the wire.

I'll check the retention and see if we've reached it...thx

[DrFritz]

I pulled this from the logs... it looks like it's set for 14 days. Do you see something that would trigger it?

Code: Select all

Info     Job Options: [<JobOptionsRoot><RunManually>False</RunManually><GroupSnapshotProcessing>True</GroupSnapshotProcessing><SourceProxyAutoDetect>True</SourceProxyAutoDetect><TargetProxyAutoDetect>True</TargetProxyAutoDetect><EnableFullBackup>False</EnableFullBackup><StgBlockSize>KbBlockSize1024</StgBlockSize><EnableDeduplication>False</EnableDeduplication><CompressionLevel>4</CompressionLevel><StorageEncryptionEnabled>False</StorageEncryptionEnabled><SetResultsToVmNotes>False</SetResultsToVmNotes><VmAttributeName>Notes</VmAttributeName><VmNotesAppend>True</VmNotesAppend><ExcludeSwapFile>True</ExcludeSwapFile><DirtyBlocksNullingEnabled>False</DirtyBlocksNullingEnabled><VMToolsQuiesce>False</VMToolsQuiesce><UseChangeTracking>True</UseChangeTracking><EnableChangeTracking>True</EnableChangeTracking><FullBackupScheduleKind>Daily</FullBackupScheduleKind><FullBackupMonthlyScheduleOptions><DayNumberInMonth>First</DayNumberInMonth><DayOfWeek>Monday</DayOfWeek><Months><EMonth>January</EMonth><EMonth>February</EMonth><EMonth>March</EMonth><EMonth>April</EMonth><EMonth>May</EMonth><EMonth>June</EMonth><EMonth>July</EMonth><EMonth>August</EMonth><EMonth>September</EMonth><EMonth>October</EMonth><EMonth>November</EMonth><EMonth>December</EMonth></Months></FullBackupMonthlyScheduleOptions><Algorithm>Increment</Algorithm><TransformFullToSyntethic>False</TransformFullToSyntethic><TransformIncrementsToSyntethic>False</TransformIncrementsToSyntethic><EmailNotification>False</EmailNotification><EmailNotificationAddresses /><UseCustomEmailNotificationOptions>False</UseCustomEmailNotificationOptions><EmailNotificationSubject>[%JobResult%] %JobName% (%VmCount% VMs) %Issues%</EmailNotificationSubject><EmailNotifyOnSuccess>True</EmailNotifyOnSuccess><EmailNotifyOnWarning>True</EmailNotifyOnWarning><EmailNotifyOnError>True</EmailNotifyOnError><EmailNotifyOnLastRetryOnly>True</EmailNotifyOnLastRetryOnly><SnmpNotification>False</SnmpNotification><UseSanSnapshots>True</UseSanSnapshots><MultipleStorageSnapshotEnabled>False</MultipleStorageSnapshotEnabled><MultipleStorageSnapshotVmsCount>10</MultipleStorageSnapshotVmsCount><FailoverFromSan>False</FailoverFromSan><Failover2StorageSnapshotBackup>False</Failover2StorageSnapshotBackup><PostJobCommand><Periodicity>Cycles</Periodicity><PreScriptEnabled>False</PreScriptEnabled><PreScriptCommandLine /><Frequency>1</Frequency><Enabled>False</Enabled><CommandLine /><Days><Day>Saturday</Day></Days></PostJobCommand><GenerationPolicy><EnableRecheck>False</EnableRecheck><RecheckScheduleKind>Monthly</RecheckScheduleKind><RecheckMonthlyScheduleOptions><DayNumberInMonth>Last</DayNumberInMonth><DayOfWeek>Friday</DayOfWeek><Months><EMonth>January</EMonth><EMonth>February</EMonth><EMonth>March</EMonth><EMonth>April</EMonth><EMonth>May</EMonth><EMonth>June</EMonth><EMonth>July</EMonth><EMonth>August</EMonth><EMonth>September</EMonth><EMonth>October</EMonth><EMonth>November</EMonth><EMonth>December</EMonth></Months></RecheckMonthlyScheduleOptions><EnableCompactFull>False</EnableCompactFull><CompactFullBackupScheduleKind>Monthly</CompactFullBackupScheduleKind><CompactMonthlyScheduleOptions><DayNumberInMonth>Last</DayNumberInMonth><DayOfWeek>Saturday</DayOfWeek><Months><EMonth>January</EMonth><EMonth>February</EMonth><EMonth>March</EMonth><EMonth>April</EMonth><EMonth>May</EMonth><EMonth>June</EMonth><EMonth>July</EMonth><EMonth>August</EMonth><EMonth>September</EMonth><EMonth>October</EMonth><EMonth>November</EMonth><EMonth>December</EMonth></Months></CompactMonthlyScheduleOptions><RecheckDays><DayOfWeek>Friday</DayOfWeek></RecheckDays><CompactFullBackupDays><DayOfWeek>Saturday</DayOfWeek></CompactFullBackupDays></GenerationPolicy><EnableDeletedVmDataRetention>False</EnableDeletedVmDataRetention><RetainDays>14</RetainDays><CheckRetention>True</CheckRetention><RetainCycles>3</RetainCycles><SanSnapshotSourceEnabled>False</SanSnapshotSourceEnabled><SanSnapshotSourceRetention>14</SanSnapshotSourceRetention><SanSnapshotTransferEnabled>False</SanSnapshotTransferEnabled><SanSnapshotTransferRetention>14</SanSnapshotTransferRetention><SanSnapshotBackupBackupSource>False</SanSnapshotBackupBackupSource><SanSnapshotReplicaTransferEnabled>False</SanSnapshotReplicaTransferEnabled><SanSnapshotReplicaTransferRetention>14</SanSnapshotReplicaTransferRetention><SanSnapshotReplicaBackupSource>False</SanSnapshotReplicaBackupSource><BackupIsAttached>False</BackupIsAttached><Templates>True</Templates><TemplatesOnce>True</TemplatesOnce><FullBackupDays><DayOfWeek>Saturday</DayOfWeek></FullBackupDays><TransformToSyntethicDays><DayOfWeek>Saturday</DayOfWeek></TransformToSyntethicDays></JobOptionsRoot>]

[PTide]

Hi,

Do you have "defragment and compact full" option enabled?

Thank you.

[DrFritz]

Nope... under the Maintenance tab in the Advanced Settings... everything is unchecked.

Under the Backup Tab:
"Incremental (Recommended)" i selected... everything else on that page is UNSELECTED (aka grayed out).

Under the Maintenance Tab:
nothing is selected...

Under the Storage Tab:
"Exclude swap file blocks (recommended)" is selected
Compression Level: Dedupe-Friendly
Storage Optimization: Local Target
NOTE: We are using a Data Domain as a target device.

Nothing under Notifications

Under vSphere:
"Use Changed Block Tracking data (recommended)
"Enable CBT for all protected VMs automatically"

Under the Integration Tab
Primary Storage Integration has an option which is grayed out which is "checkmarked" -- "Enable backup from storage snapshots".

[alanbolte]

We generally frown on posting log snippets here; questions about the logging should be submitted as a support ticket. The debug logging frequently doesn't make sense at first read. For example, you can't assume that 'transform' in the logs will be used the same way as it would be in the GUI or the user guide. There will also be errors and warnings that don't matter, spelling mistakes, etc. However:

<RetainDays>14</RetainDays>
This is deleted VMs retention, which you have disabled.

<RetainCycles>3</RetainCycles>
This is your actual retention setting.

<EnableFullBackup>False</EnableFullBackup>
This means active full backups are not enabled.

<TransformFullToSyntethic>False</TransformFullToSyntethic><TransformIncrementsToSyntethic>False</TransformIncrementsToSyntethic>
This agrees that you are not creating synthetic fulls or transforming fulls to rollbacks.

Given your settings, if you have run four or more job sessions, every forever incremental backup will end with a merge of VIB into VBK. How exactly the DataDomain device handles this operation isn't something I'm familiar with; it might work differently depending on whether or not certain DDBoost options are enabled or not.

[DrFritz]

Thanks Alan!