Discussions related to exporting backups to tape and backing up directly to tape.
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aich365
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Full Name: Clive Harris
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GFS Tape issues

Post by aich365 »

Case # 03349243

We had an issue at the weekend with multiple tape jobs and the way Veeam handles them.
Daily Monday to Saturday at 02:00 we run a 2.2TB tape backup of VMs to a single tape using an HP autoloader (LTO 6)
Saturday Morning we run a weekly 1.8TB backup of NAS files to the same Autoloader
Sunday we run 2 weekly GFS jobs - one to fit in with the daily sequence (2.2TB) and one to backup our O365VM to tape (1.5TB)
This means every Friday we have 5 tapes loaded ready to run.
Last weekend the 2 Saturday jobs ran OK
On Sunday the Weekly GFS job started and was interrupted by the O365 jobs which failed to run as it did not have media in the pool. This also stopped the Monday morning job running.
Although the media for O365 was an operator error the Weekly GFS in progress should not have been interrupted.

Veeam have advised
Tape jobs don't interrupt each other, but they conflict for resources (the tape drive). Interruption occurs when a running job is dismounting a tape from the drive to load another tape. For this moment the drive becomes unlocked and the pending job is gets access to this drive and is locks it, so the running job goes to Pending state.
Unfortunately, there is no workaround for this workflow. The only way is to reschedule .we can't completely resolve this issue, but I can create a corresponding feature (preserving the tape drive access for the currently running job)

I was then sent a link for ordinary tape backups (not GFS which cannot be scheduled as by default they start at midnight)

I can understand that using “Veeam logic” for a brief period the tape drive maybe “free” while it unloads and loads a new tape.

My concerns are:
1. The tape jobs configured in this instance all fit on one tape so there is no requirement to unload and reload tapes.
2. The running job should have been able to complete without being interrupted and should have had exclusive access to the tape drive
3. The running job seems to have been demoted to lowest priority so when the “interrupting” job completes the original does not receive priority to continue where it left off.
4. These are GFS jobs and by default start at midnight. A specific start time for individual jobs cannot be set. (The registry can be edited to alter the start time but this is a blanket setting)
https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... tml?ver=95
5. Even if another tape is required it should not be possible to interrupt the running job
6. There is no commitment to resolve the issues uncovered, which are not features but basic function failures.

Me thinks there is work to do?
Dima P.
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Re: GFS Tape issues

Post by Dima P. »

Hello Clive,

Thank you for your post. Before we go further, could you please clarify if the Sunday Weekly GFS job was actually running (was writing data to tape) or it was in the idle state i.e. was waiting for new restore points/tape media/tape drive?
aich365
Service Provider
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Joined: Aug 10, 2016 11:10 am
Full Name: Clive Harris
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Re: GFS Tape issues

Post by aich365 »

Hi Dimitry,
There were 6 VM backup jobs in this GFS Tape job and 4 had completed, one was in progress and one was waiting.

I'm not sure if you can see the call details but images were uploaded to the call showing this.

Many Thanks
Dima P.
Product Manager
Posts: 14396
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Joined: Feb 04, 2013 2:07 pm
Full Name: Dmitry Popov
Location: Prague
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Re: GFS Tape issues

Post by Dima P. »

Thanks for the clarification! We will review your case with the team.
aich365
Service Provider
Posts: 296
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Joined: Aug 10, 2016 11:10 am
Full Name: Clive Harris
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Re: GFS Tape issues

Post by aich365 »

Hello Dimitry
The case has been escalated to tier2

Thanks
Dima P.
Product Manager
Posts: 14396
Liked: 1568 times
Joined: Feb 04, 2013 2:07 pm
Full Name: Dmitry Popov
Location: Prague
Contact:

Re: GFS Tape issues

Post by Dima P. »

Clive,

Talked to QA team, they are looking into the issue as well. Thanks!
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