Host-based backup of VMware vSphere VMs.
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Moeff
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Pre-seed a Backup job

Post by Moeff »

You can pre-seed a Backup Copy Job by remapping to a backup chain made by a Backup job.
But it doesn't work the other way around; you cannot select a backup chain made by a Backup Copy job as seed for a (new) Backup job.
So restore points are not fully interchangeable between job types.

Exporting a restore point into a new chain results in the same limitation regarding this.

I think I understand why Backup & Backup Copy chains are different if you keep forward/reverse incremental restore points in mind.
Also GFS restore points are part of the Backup Copy chain and therefore included in the same VBM file.
I imagine remapping to a regular Backup job could result in unwanted loss of (GFS) restore points when applying Backup retention policy.

But why should this be a limitation? Shouldn't restore points be portable - or at least when you export them?
Aren't the binary VBK/VIB files between Backup & Backup Copy jobs the same?

Let’s say for a given DR-scenario, I'd like to pre-seed a Backup job by reusing a forward incremental backup chain made by a Backup Copy job.
This in order to save bandwidth, because of slow links between multiple ROBOs and DR site. (we don't have local backup storage on each ROBO)

I made it work by;
- Deleting the original Backup Copy job and deleting the Backup Copy chain from "Disks (Imported)"
- Edit the VBM file and change JobType=0
- Rescan repo
- Remap Backup job.

I assume editing the VBM file is not officially supported by Veeam support, but it works...
Tested with per-VM & forward incremental backup chains - Veeam B&R 9.5 U3a & U4.

What are your thoughts on this?
foggy
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Re: Pre-seed a Backup job

Post by foggy »

Correct, editing VBM is not recommended. Moreover, capability to map regular backup jobs to backup chains produced by a backup copy job did exist in previous versions but was closed due to a number of support cases where backups were corrupted during transformation after being mapped this way, so I'd warn you from using it.
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