Host-based backup of VMware vSphere VMs.
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veeeammeupscotty
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File Server Hourly Incremental Backups with Shadow Copies

Post by veeeammeupscotty »

To achieve our desired RPO, we want to start backing up our Windows file servers with Veeam on an hourly basis (this includes terabytes of data on deduplication-enabled NTFS volumes). We also currently have Shadow Copies enabled, taking snapshots 6 times a day. Couple of questions regarding this configuration:

[*]Is it important to ensure that scheduled shadow copy creation doesn't interfere with Veeam hourly incremental backups? What would happen if they overlap?
[*]Would it be better to create synthetic fulls at a more regular interval than weekly considering that 24 restore points will be created each day?
Dima P.
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Re: File Server Hourly Incremental Backups with Shadow Copie

Post by Dima P. »

Hello JP,

- In case of schedule overlap second activity most likely fail since snapshot creation is not possible.
- You are the one to decide. Regular synthetic fulls will consume more space, but will cause retention to work more frequently.
foggy
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Re: File Server Hourly Incremental Backups with Shadow Copie

Post by foggy »

Since dedupe is enabled inside guest OS, your increments will be huge and synthetic fulls could take significant time. You should test, chances are active fulls will be overall faster.
veeeammeupscotty
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Re: File Server Hourly Incremental Backups with Shadow Copie

Post by veeeammeupscotty »

Veeam is on Server 2016 with ReFS and fast clone has been great even with deduplication turned on. However, my main concern is if there is some kind of a limit or threshold we might hit with synthetic fulls, whether they are performed daily or weekly, where the chain becomes so long that processing won't complete in a timely or efficient manner.
foggy
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Re: File Server Hourly Incremental Backups with Shadow Copie

Post by foggy »

You can define that by running some test, since there are too many variables to guess.
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