Tape backup jobs behaviour through the versions

[nick_russell_HIT]

Hi,

I work for an MSP and manage half a dozen Veeam B&R implementations.
I feel the need to ask this question because I saw this clause in the "read this first" topic:"See Tape Support FAQ for more information [to be created]"

Previously (under v9 Update 0), a backup to tape job appeared to grab the latest full backup job...which if this was a forever forward incremental job posed the problem that the 'latest full' was actually the earliest backup in the set (with 7 restore points it would be a week old)...meaning that to ensure that the latest backup went to tape, you needed to configure reverse incrementals. All good, provided you have the disk space to accommodate reverse incrementals. In this same version, you had the option to physically select which .vbk files (from an Explorer-type window) went to tape.

Fast forward to later versions and I've noticed two changes:
1) only jobs can go to tape (not files, boo!)
2) backing up a job to disk will do a pre-merge to ensure that the latest full backup goes to tape (yay!)

I guess what I'm after is a timeline (release notes?) of what changes have been made to tape backups through the various updates; I'd like to ensure that the right configuration is in place for my customers.

Can you point me in the right direction please?

Thanks in advance,

- Nick

[veremin]

1) only jobs can go to tape (not files, boo!)

Can you elaborate on that? Files to tape job is still in place. Also, we tend not to remove any features present previously, instead we concentrate on enhancing our product by adding new features and improving quality of already existing ones.

Information regarding improvements and enhancements can be found in the product release notes as well as what's new document; might be worth reviewing.

Thanks.

[ljorg]

All good, provided you have the disk space to accommodate reverse incrementals

In my understanding the space requirements are the same. It takes a little longer to process because each day's incremental is injected into the full backup from the day before, creating a new full backup. The full backup from the day before is then deflated into an incremental.

It looks like this:

incr → incr → incr → full

Where normal incremental looks like this

full → incr → incr → incr

We're running reverse incrementals because restores usually happen to be from the latest backup available. If that's a full then the restore time is pretty quick.

Also files to tape is definitely still an option because we're using it in 9.5

[veremin]

Also files to tape is definitely still an option because we're using it in 9.5

Exactly, I cannot recall any tape feature being dismissed between product releases. Thus, my questions.