Feature Request - Copy of a Copy Job

[IainKnott]

Could we please add the feature to do a copy of a copy job.

I have a number of backup jobs, across a number of repositories across two locations.

The first copy job, copies the the backup to our offsite location on a daily basis. The second copy job is supposed to take a second copy at the offsite location but use a different repository and a different retention schedule.

Because it is not possible to specify a backup copy job as the source of a backup copy job, the following happens.

We can specify the original backup Job (on-site) and specify the source as the Offsite Backup repository. The backup copy completes, but ignores the specified source and copies from the on-site backup repository, even though this has been excluded as a source.

If we specify the VM's individually, this works.

There is a reasonably large number of VMs in the backup job, which we would rather not have to specify individually. We would also like the copy job to automatically start copying any vm's that are part of the original job, without needing to update the copy job every time.

As this is *almost* working, I'm hoping this is a simple feature request, and either persist the vms in the original job, and specify the copy source, or enable veeam to use a backup copy job as the source

[Shestakov]

Hello Iain and welcome to the community!
Your requests is valid and we`ve already got some similar pleas.
One of the options is to use same backup job as the source for 2 backup copy jobs. Another, as you mentioned to choose repository as the source for backup copy job.

The backup copy completes, but ignores the specified source and copies from the on-site backup repository, even though this has been excluded as a source.

Could you elaborate on that? You choose "Repository A" as the source of backup copy job, but VBR copies backups from another repo? Does it copy corrct(new) restore points?
Thanks!

[IainKnott]

Yeah, no probs

1st Backup RepA On-Site
Copy 1
2nd Backup, RepB Off-Site
Copy 2
3rd Backup, RepC Off Site

So, Copy 2 has the job referenced in 1st Backup, Source repository is RepB and Target is RepC

Backup Job completes successfully, but uses RepA (RepB is the only repository enabled as a source in the copy Job)

[IainKnott]

Veeam Technical support have looked at this and there is a closed support request if this helps.

[Shestakov]

Thanks for clarification. Could you also provide your support case number?
We`ll discuss the request with dev team.

[IainKnott]

Your support case number is 01793321

[Shestakov]

Thanks Iain!

[Seve CH]

Hi Shestakov,

We are also interested on it . I wrote a nice business case, but I think it got lost after the forum' session timed out while writing

Anyway, we backup more than 300 VMs and using copy jobs as source will let us:
1. Use different storage types (dedup, not dedup, fast, slow, different servers or arrays, etc.) as needed for DR, backup or retention purposes.
2. Avoid having VM data travelling multiple times from site to site.
3. Impact backup windows (copy jobs storage is different than backup jobs)
4. Save tons of work in management: we won't need to add VMs and backup jobs to multiple copy jobs, to verify everything is in order at every change, etc.

Regards.

[Shestakov]

Hi Seve CH,
Your request will also be taken into account. Thanks for the feedback!

[Shestakov]

@Iain
I`ve review the provided support case and looks like the described in the thread issue was not investigated in the case, while the fact that you VBR copies files from repository which have been unchecked explicitly looks like a bug.
I would suggest to investigate it.

@Iain and Seve CH
I`ve also talked to QA guys and they said that the main reason why it`s prohibited to choose copy job as a source of another copy job is caution to avoid the situation when 2 copy jobs are work as each other`s source continuously filling repositories. Workaround is the way you use "From backups" and choose desired backups and repositories.
Thanks!

[IainKnott]

@Shestakov

Would you like another case opened? If so, would you like it directed to a secific person or team?

[Shestakov]

As far as I know your last case was opened after the phone call and already closed.
So, yes, please open another case. Thanks!

[EugeneK]

I guess the nice feature would be to have ONE Copy job, but with an ability to specify multiple targets for it, which in turn would send data to multiple locations.
Processed once, sent multiple times, allows for the use case like "I had a bad year and need as many copies of data as I can store".

[Shestakov]

Hi Eugene,
That sounds like a good request. I see the secondary target added on the Target step of the wizard. It can bring some confusion if one target works fine and another is unavailable for some reason, so it`s tricky to define job state, retry logic, retention policy etc. Despite the option can be handy if everything works fine, it will definitely cause lots of support cases.
It will not resolve OP`s issue also since he wants the secondary backups to be copied from Repo 2 to Repo 3, not Repo 1 to Repo 3. Will see if there are other opinions
Thanks for the feedback!