Multiple VBK files

[gmele]

Hi,
I'm running VEB using 3 x 2TB USB backup drives which we are rotating offsite on a daily basis. I have setup an SMB share with the same name on all 3 USB drives. The problem we're experiencing is that for unknown reasons, sometimes VEB starts a new backup chain. Instead of taking an incremental backup (.VIB) file it takes a second full backup (.VBK) file within the same backup folder. Here is an example of backup folder contents:

Directory of E:\VeeamBackup\Backup Job HBMCSRV04

04/21/2016 02:23 AM <DIR> .
04/21/2016 02:23 AM <DIR> ..
04/21/2016 02:23 AM 150,676 Backup Job HBMCSRV04.vbm
03/26/2016 01:58 PM 283,840,049,152 Backup Job HBMCSRV042016-03-26T123337.vbk
03/27/2016 02:12 AM 10,284,765,184 Backup Job HBMCSRV042016-03-27T020018.vib
03/31/2016 02:23 AM 28,148,395,008 Backup Job HBMCSRV042016-03-31T020019.vib
04/05/2016 02:24 AM 28,834,541,056 Backup Job HBMCSRV042016-04-05T020018.vib
04/09/2016 02:32 AM 65,001,929,216 Backup Job HBMCSRV042016-04-09T020017.vib
04/10/2016 02:20 AM 16,479,362,048 Backup Job HBMCSRV042016-04-10T020017.vib
04/14/2016 03:30 AM 281,699,376,128 Backup Job HBMCSRV042016-04-14T020018.vbk
04/16/2016 02:57 AM 28,059,407,872 Backup Job HBMCSRV042016-04-16T020018.vib
04/17/2016 02:20 AM 17,719,513,600 Backup Job HBMCSRV042016-04-17T020017.vib
04/21/2016 02:23 AM 27,360,797,184 Backup Job HBMCSRV042016-04-21T020019.vib

Why has VEB created a second .VBK file on 04/14/2016?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Joe.

[PTide]

Hi,

Did drive swapping occured before the 14th of April?

Thank you.

[gmele]

Hi,

yes, drives are swapped daily.

Thanks.

[PTide]

Source modification could cause this, switching backup mode, for example. Did you modify anything? If not then please open a case with support team and post your case ID here, as this looks like an unexpected behaviour.

Thank you.

[gmele]

Hi,
can you elaborate on switching backup mode? My understanding of VEB is that it only support one backup mode which is forever incremental. On a weekly basis every Sunday evening I have a scheduled batch script which takes a Standalone full backup to a different folder. A full standalone backup was taken on the 17th of April to a different folder of the same drive.

I understand that if I change backup destination this will impact the incremental backup process but the only thing that is changed daily is the backup drive. All three drives have an identical folder structure which is validly mapped by an SMB share. I maintain a journal of all changes made and nothing has changed since beginning of April.

Thanks.

[PTide]

By backup mode I meant "Entire computer" and "Volume level". If no switch occurred then please open a case with support.

Thanks.

[gmele]

No backup mode changes were made. I will open a support case.

Thanks.

[Vitaliy S.]

Mele, just to re-confirm - did you register the devices you swap over here > Backup to Rotated Drives?

[gmele]

Hi,

none of the three USB drives are registered. This is because I am backing up to an SMB share as opposed to a registered drive. If I try to register the currently mounted drive (#2) the "register" button is greyed out and non selectable. This may be normal because daily backups are configured to use an SMB share instead of a physical device. I cannot change my backup target to a physical device because I am using VEB to backup the Hyper-V host machine and two Hyper-V Virtual Machines. VEB is running in all three Windows OS instances. From within a Hyper-V Virtual Machine USB drives cannot be swapped by simply removing the drive. Instead, the drive has to be dismounted in Disk Manager. Because this process is too cumbersome for the users I have decided to use SMB shares instead.

Thank you for your input.

[gmele]

Hi,

by browsing the Windows System Event log I noticed that just prior to the second full backup taken by VEB on April 14th the Windows 2012 R2 server was rebooted due to the monthly Windows Updates which were applied automatically. Maybe the Windows updates have somehow triggered this behaviour in VEB.

Yesterday, I opened a Support Case # 01771636 with Veeam regarding this issue.

[Vitaliy S.]

If rotated drives option is not used, it is expected to have multiple VBK files located in the destination target, but let's see what our support finds out based on the logs review.

[gmele]

Hi,

on a second Windows 2012 R2 server where I am running VEB to a registered USB drive which is not swapped (always mounted), on April 13 the server rebooted automatically after the monthly Microsoft Updates were applied. The subsequent incremental VEB backup that ran produced an incremental backup (.VIB) file of 274 GB. The original full backup (.VBK) file is 275 GB. The average incremental backup size is normally about 30 GB. Although in this case a second full backup (.VBK) was not created the increment (.VIB) backup file is almost the same size as the full backup (274 GB). It looks like the monthly Microsoft Update are wreaking havoc to the VEB incremental backup process.

Thanks.

[Vitaliy S.]

Mele, are you using entire computer, folders and files or volume backup?

[gmele]

Vitaliy,

I am backing up with the "entire computer" options.

[Vitaliy S.]

Ok, seems like Windows Update has indeed caused many files to change, thus you have a big increment file.