Seed Backup Copy Agent

[bulletlynn]

There has been some back and forth with so I wanted to get a solid answer.

With Veeam 9.5 U2 can you seed a Backup Copy Agent job?

Thanks!

[Technogod]

I found this but it was written for VBR 9.0U1 and VEB. I couldn't find a confirmation that it works for VBR 9.5U2 and VAW. I was going to try it but I transferred my data instead.

1) Copy backup folder from original server to a VBR 9.0U1 repository. This part is is important, it wont work with any lower version. Now to do this you need to create a folder off the root of VBR repository in the format of %VBRHOSTNAME%_%VEB_TO_VBR_Username%. So, using mine as an example, my VBR host is called ARBBackup and the username that I enter into VEB to connect to the VBR repository is 'ARBComp'. So the folder that I create is called "ARBBackup_ARBComp" In that folder just copy the seeded backup directory. In my case the folder is called "Backup Job SADC1" so if my repository was located in F:\Backup I would have to create the following path "F:\Backup\ARBBackup_ARBComp\Backup Folder SADC1" which would contain the backup VBK and VBM files.
2) Re-scan the repository. The imported backup is now shown in the repository under “Backups -> Disk (imported)”
3) In VEB configure the jobs properties as before. In my case I am backing up the “Entire Computer” to a “Veeam Backup and Replication Repository”.
4) Select the VBR repository and set any other options you wish.
5) Select Save / Finish
6) Now at this point you NEED to see that the backup has moved from the Imported section to the normal Backup (Disk) section with the rest of your backups. If you don't see this then the seed wont work, it has to move.
7) Re-scan the repository. You wont see any changes here... just do it, as it updates the Veeam DB with metadata file, failure to re-scan will throw an error at the VEB end which will result in the backup not running at all.
Start the job
9) Checking the VEB job log you can now see that it is running in incremental mode

Code: Select all

[21.04.2016 15:10:00] <01> Info     Job session is running in incremental mode

10) Have a well earned drink.

Edit: Link to original thread

[Dima P.]

Hello,

This information is not correct. You can’t map or seed agent backup for backup copy jobs. Described procedure works only with for agent backups and agent jobs.

[bulletlynn]

I was also doing some addition research after posting and found the answer in the Help Center.

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/agent ... tml?ver=20

Backup copy jobs processing Veeam Agent backups have one limitation: you cannot use backup mapping for Veeam Agent backups. As a result, if you have a full Veeam Agent backup on the target repository, you will not be able to use this backup as a "seed" for the backup copy job. The backup copy job will always copy the whole Veeam Agent backup chain to the target repository.

Do you know if this feature will be released in a future update?

Thanks for the reply!

[Technogod]

Thank You! I had forgotten that important piece of information.

[Kellen.Flood]

Will backup seeding of a Veeam Agent available in U3?

[Dima P.]

Kellen,

Please explain what you would like to achieve. Map agent backup to backup copy job or you are talking about regular agents jobs without backup copy? Thanks.

[Kellen.Flood]

Dima,

I have a 100TB Physical Windows Server. I would like to back it up locally and then copy it offsite to a different storage target. I know that can be done via copy, but the issue is the size of data traveling across that bandwidth, so i would like to seed it offsite then do the backup copy.

It would be great if we could do multiple jobs as well on a server this large

[Dima P.]

Kellen,

Thanks for the clarification. Mapping / seeding agent backups to backup copy job is not currently supported but we plan to add this functionality soon.

[nilzor]

Hi,

This thread seems a bit old but maybe someone will find this helpful and should probably also work for initial seeding. I was able to move my offsite copy agent job the following way:
1. Make a copy of your backup folder to the new destination.
2. create a new backup repository with your new intended backup target
3. Delete the old and create a new copy job to the new location (use same name for the new backup job).
4. select sync now for the new backup job and If your new backup job matches the old target, Veeam should have automatically renamed the target folder bay appending "_1". That's what we want
5.Now it get's a bit confusing.... open the new *.vmb Veeam just created and look for OriginalId="guid here", JobId="some guid here" as well as FilePath="\\10.10.10.1\backup\servers"

now open the old *.vbm file and replace all values from the OriginalId, JobId as well as the new filepath with the newly generated ones. find and replace is your friend!

6. delete the folder with the appended _1 and rescan the repository in the veeam console
7.Now sync your backup job and it should recognize the backup files

[Dima P.]

nilzor,

You are saying that your solution works for backup copy jobs?

[nilzor]

Yes, this worked for me

[Technogod]

I couldn't get it to work. I was using a backup copy job that was created with a another installation of B&R. This may have had something to do with it. I hope this is supported in Update 3.

[Technogod]

Is there any documentation on how to perform this operation with Update 3?

[Vitaliy S.]

Technogod, as far as I know, seeding backup copy job with Agent backup is not available in U3, but let me double-check that once again (might be a last minute change).

[Technogod]

This is from U3 release notes.

Backup Copy
Backup mapping for agent backup files is now supported to enable scenarios such as backup seeding.

[Dima P.]

Yes, seeding for agent backup files in backup copy job was added last minute. Should be possible to select agent jobs as a source, then on the target repository step click Map backup link and specify backup file.

[Technogod]

I think the release note was misleading. I think it is referring to mapping a backup job and not a backup copy job. If mapping a backup copy job can be done. Please post detailed information on how to perform this operation.

[Technogod]

Update: It is possible but unfortunately it didn't work properly. The incremental backup was as large as the full backup so it defeated the whole purpose. Since this is really a B&R problem I opened a B&R Case #02439713.

I was finally able to get the workaround posted above to run but it created an error message that the solution was to perform a full backup.

[Dima P.]

Technogod,

Thanks for the update. Please keep working with our support team, I am sure they’ll find the root cause of this issue.

[Technogod]

I was able to determine what I was trying to do wasn't possible. I was trying to use an existing backup copy job as a seed. I had to create a new full backup and use it as a seed. I do have another question. The full backup I used as a seed was not encrypted. How do I encrypt the backup on my remote repository without performing an active full backup? I normally have my backup copies set to encrypt.

[Technogod]

Disregard my previous question. Perform an active full backup is the answer.

[Technogod]

Unfortunately I can't do an Active Full Backup due to bandwidth limitations. That is why I seeded in the first place. Synthetic Full Backups are ignored by backup copy jobs. How I am supposed to get my backups encrypted on a remote repository when it is seeded with an unencrypted backup. Without doing an Active Full Backup.

[Dima P.]

Just to doublecheck: have you tried to import backup file to Veeam B&R console, type in encryption password and then map backup file to backup copy? Thanks.

[Technogod]

There is no encryption password. Backup is unencrypted.

[Technogod]

I'm afraid the only solution is to perform an encrypted backup copy job of my full backup seed and use it to seed my remote backup repository. Well, back to the drawing board:)

[Dima P.]

Technogod,

To sum up. You have two sites: site A and site B. On site A you have unencrypted backup copy backup (it contains agents backup files). You want to move this backup copy backup from site A to site B and seed it for another encrypted backup copy job on site B. Is that correct?

[Technogod]

I used my unencrypted full backup in default repository from site A which I copied to an external hard drive. Copied from external hard drive to remote repository on site B. Mapped it to backup copy job.

I should have created a backup copy job for full backup from site A and encrypted it before I copied it to an external hard drive. I don't want my backups on site A encrypted.