File Copy Job Question

[worias]

Does the FIle Copy Job support only copying new or changed files on Windows filesystems? Not CBT but just a comparison like Roboycopy? If not are there any plans to possibly include this feature in future versions?

[Vitaliy S.]

File copy job just copies files as they are (always full), it doesn't track changed blocks. There are no plans to implement this capability in the short term future, however can you please tell me how you're currently using these jobs, so I could better understand your use case?

[worias]

We currently have another product that we are using to backup physical machines, that for one reason or another cannot be converted VMs as of yet. Every night incremental files get created and we copy these off to a remote site with Robocopy. Robocopy does a comparison simply for new files based on date/filesize or other characteristics, not changed block tracking perse and only copies new files during the copy job. We were hoping to be able to use Veeam as one place of mangement for our Replication and Offsite Copies.

[veremin]

Providing I’ve understood you correctly, you’re willing to copy only changes that have happened on the block level. So, I’m wondering why rsync utility that is built specifically for block-level file synchronization can’t be used in this case.

Thanks.

[worias]

There isn't a reason that another solution cannot be used, as I had previously stated we are currently using Robocopy. We have a solution for our need, but the question was more about consolidating our solution and management into the Veeam product.

[foggy]

This used to be a pretty common feature request so far. So already on our radar.

[JosVerhallen]

Hi,

We have 2 VEEAM installations in 2 different datacenters. we want to 'replicate' the backup data across these 2 datacenters.
We want to use a File Copy job to copy the VBK and VIB files across. Will the Copy job just create seperate folders per day, or will it add the incremental VIB's to the destination folder?

[foggy]

Jos, new files are added to the same folder, however, File Copy jobs are not the best choice for what you are trying to perform as they do not track changes and always perform a "full" run (i.e. no incrementals). There are a number of existing topics on this forum (one of them is referred to above) on how to sync backups offsite using third-party utilities (such as rsync), I suggest reviewing them for some ideas. Thanks.

[JosVerhallen]

@Foggy,
why is this not implemented in VEEAM yet? it seems that every kind of off-site sollution requires you to use 3rd party tooling.

[Vitaliy S.]

Hi Jos, thanks for your feedback! This feature has always been on our radar, but there also were features with a higher priority. Thanks!

[fdacunha]

It would be greate to have the option in file copy jobs to copy only incremental not always full.

Has anyone an idea?

[PTide]

Hi,

Thank you for FR. You probably would like to stick with File to Tape job which provides incremental backup functionality. If you don't have any Tape device then you can simulate one.

Thank you.

[fdacunha]

Hi,

Thank you for your feedback.
Have you any recommendation for a tape simulation tool? (preferably free version)

[haslund]

One option is http://www.quadstor.com/virtual-tape-library.html

[mreubold]

It seems that the File Copy function allows to make full backups. I've got a request from a customer to have File Copy doing also incremental ones.

Regards.

[Vitaliy S.]

What kind of source do you want to protect with file copy job? Do you back up NAS devices with this or something else?

[O1982]

+1 for Incremental File Copy Option.

Use case:
Netapp CIFS Share Backup.

Or even better NDMP

[foggy]

Hi Owen, ability to backup CIFS shares with Veeam B&R was announced last summer. There's a dedicated topic for this.

[O1982]

Hi Foggy,

Does File Copy have incremental functionality?

Best Regards,

Owen

[foggy]

No, it doesn't.

[MichalM]

Hello, is it possible to make File Copy Job not overwrite files on destination folder? I got a lot of files that are constantly updated and enlarged (some are at size of 2.5TB+) and copying them over and over again is going to take a lot of time and resources (network and storage life). I would love to get a way to make File Copy Job not overwrite files but instead just skip them during the job. Is that even possible? maybe CLI is able to do it?

[Dima P.]

Hello Michal.

File copy job works on a file level and not on the block level, thus does not provide incremental copy capabilities. I've merged your post to the existing thread to keep track of this feature request. Cheers!

[MichalM]

Is there a possibility for this functionality to be added to B&R? It would really help.

[Dima P.]

Michal,

I've added you vote to this feature request. May I ask if you are using file copy as a data protection replacement? There are few tools that provide incremental backup on a block level and are absolutely free (for example Veeam Agents can be used on Windows or Linux file servers).

[MichalM]

I wanted to use File Copy Job as a substitute for any other software since we are unable to install/use any software other than Veeam B&R, for which we have a Enterprise licence. Our client demands us to use just Veeam so we created a Backup Job for VMs but we wanted to replace Backup Copy Job with File Copy Job since backup files are all what we need. It would be simplier if our client was not so locked on pure Veeam functions, then I would just use some PowerShell scripts within Backup Job but hey, at least I have some fun figuring out what we can do

[rboynton]

I too vote for this enhancement. We create PST files from a user exchange mailbox when they leave the company. We put those PST files on a separate server, but want to also copy them to our DR site server just in case the original location suffers a major loss. The list of PST's only grows larger over time, so copying the entire folder does not make sense. We used something like this many years ago, but don't recall the name. Did a search and found an open source called FreeFileSync. Seems like employing a tool like that would be a great improvement in cases like ours. Please?

[foggy]

Hi Rick, thanks for the detailed feedback, much appreciated. Your vote is accepted.

[rboynton]

Thanks, Foggy. The product we used to use was rsync with the Windows wrapper called Delta Copy. We would much prefer to use Veeam as our one-stop file management tool. Thanks for all the improvements over the years!

[ChuckS42]

+1 on the File Copy Incrementals. I want to use it to keep a volume synchronized between datacenters (file level is fine, though block level would be awesome). Array snapshots are not viable for this use case, and I need both sides to be available at all times.

[Daveyd]

Rehashing this request. Our use case is for archiving VMs. When decommissioning and archiving a VM, we power down the VM, use Veeam ZIP to backup the VM to a local SAN attached drive on the physical Windows based Veeam server. To store multiple copies of the archived VM, I can create a Veeam File copy job to then copy the archived VMs from the SAN attached drive to a CIFS share on our replicated Exagrid appliances. However, since VMs get added to the source drive on a daily basis, File Copy has to copy the entire contents of the drive to the Exagrid appliances each time.

I suppose I could use Veeam Zip to archive directly to the replicated Exagrid appliance, however I would like to have 3 copies of the data.