Host-based backup of VMware vSphere VMs.
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FrancWest
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Copy job interval exiration when run multiple times a day

Post by FrancWest »

Hi,

I have a backup job that runs every 6 hours at 30 minutes past the hour. I also have a backup copy job that should copy this backup off-site. The problem with backup copy job is, that it starts counting it's hours after the copy job is started for the first time (this would be at the start of the veeam backup service or when doing a manual sync). You can't set an offset in minutes for a copy job when specifying it should run every x hours.

The problem with this is that the copy job interval might expire when it's doing it's transfer of the backup job. This causes an error mail to be sent out about the backup interval expiring and not all vm's being processed. This is caused by the fact that for example when the backup job starts at 6:30, the backup copy job has it's start interval at every random minute during the hour. Since you can't specify the offset, it might have a interval start time at 6:40 and starts counting hours from there. When the backup is finished at 6:35, the backup copy job starts syncing. However, the interval expires already at 6:40 even when the transfer hasn't yet completed. This causes an error message to be send out that the VM was not processed during the copy interval. During the next interval it continues the copy.

How can I prevent these errors mails from being sent out? I only want error mails if there's really an issue with the backup. One way to prevent this is if you could schedule the backup and backup copy job in such a way that they always run sequentially. For example by specifying that the copy job should run immediately after the backup job completes (I thought a secondary target would on the backup job do this, but it doesn't work that way unfortunately). The copy job should not have it's own interval which might interfere with the backup job. Another way to solve this is to specify an offset in minutes for the copy job when you have chosen the run every x hour option just like with the backup job.

Franc.
foggy
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Re: Copy job interval exiration when run multiple times a da

Post by foggy »

Hi Franc, as a workaround, you could trigger Sync Now for the backup copy job as a post backup job script to start a new interval each time.
FrancWest
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Re: Copy job interval exiration when run multiple times a da

Post by FrancWest »

Hi Foggy,

So create a copy job with no schedule and trigger this job from the post backup script. Do you have an example script for me on how to trigger such a copy job?
FrancWest
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Re: Copy job interval exiration when run multiple times a da

Post by FrancWest »

I already found it. Using powershell. However, there no way to set the schedule to manual, so should I set the interval to a couple of days then? Does a ‘sync now’ reset the interval timer again?
FrancWest
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Re: Copy job interval exiration when run multiple times a da

Post by FrancWest »

Hi foggy,

the script seems to work, however, every now and then I get an error mail with the following reason for the error:

'Operation was canceled by user SWV\SYSTEM'.

At that time, no trasnfer was present. This error mail doesn't occur every time when the backup job kicks off the script.

Franc.
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Re: Copy job interval exiration when run multiple times a da

Post by foggy »

FrancWest wrote:I already found it. Using powershell. However, there no way to set the schedule to manual, so should I set the interval to a couple of days then? Does a ‘sync now’ reset the interval timer again?
Yes, the job will start a new copy interval.

As for the error, I'm not sure what it is caused by, so I'd recommend asking support for assistance.
FrancWest
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Re: Copy job interval exiration when run multiple times a da

Post by FrancWest »

The error seems to occur when the script to start a new interval executes even if the current copy cycle is still running. For example when the copy job is applying retention policies or gfs policies the copy cycle takes longer to execute. The backup job still runs every hour and thus executes the script every hour. Is there a way to queue the restart of the copy job until the still running copy cycle is finished? Because the interval is restarted this causes the restore points never being created. It will try it over and over again but never finishes, since the process is being reset by the script.
veremin
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Re: Copy job interval exiration when run multiple times a da

Post by veremin »

Probably, you can check within a script whether a backup copy job is running or is sitting in idle state. Based to the received status, a script will either do nothing or trigger sync now action. Thanks.
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