How to store multiples backups on the same tape without erasing them

[Marco.Teijido]

Hello everyone,

Suport case ID #03394448

Recently we installed Veeam on a customer that has LTO6 (5.5 TB capacity) and backups are 1 TB (full backups, they don't want incrementals on tape).
Backups are stored on storage with Reverse Incremental

So they want to deploy the following strategy:

Each day of the week they change the tape, they have a monday tape, tuesday tape (...) friday tape (5 tapes in total).
Once the week start again they put again the monday tape, and then tuesday.... etc
Once they finish the month they store the tape and put a brand new tape on monday, the same on friday and etc.
And the past month tapes are stored remotely.

How do I have to configure the job and the media pool (retention, media pool creation, etc) to acquire this objectives?

Thanks in advance guys

[Dima P.]

Hello Marco,

Each day of the week they change the tape, they have a monday tape, tuesday tape (...) friday tape (5 tapes in total).

Single standard media pool with Create new media set daily option will work for daily tape out. Retention should be 1 week to ensure that tape can be overwritten a week after. Then create a daily backup to tape job that contains all the required disk backup files as a source.

Once the week start again they put again the monday tape, and then tuesday.... etc

Create another standard media pool with the same settings but retention should be set at least to one month.

Makes sense?

[Marco.Teijido]

Hi Dima, thanks for your response. After opening the support case and several tests by the Veeam technician, we still do not have a solution.

Once we place the same tape from the last week (eg, the tape from Monday that has the last Monday backup), Veeam erases the data on the previously written tape.
The technician tried several tests without success.

After all that, he said that the scenario we need is not possible to deploy with veeam. He even said that to acquire this scenario we have to obtain a Tape Library!!
He even closed the case without our authorization.

We are very disappointed because we understand that the requirements we have are quite common for what companies need these days

The support cases are 03411402 and 03394448

[Dima P.]

Hello Marco,

Once we place the same tape from the last week (eg, the tape from Monday that has the last Monday backup), Veeam erases the data on the previously written tape.

That is true. When tape media is not present by the time next tape job run is performed, media set (tape sequence) will be automatically closed.

Veeam erases the data on the previously written tape.

I assume the idea was to cyclically overwrite the daily tape every week. May I ask why such setup does not work in your case?

Another idea would be to create a separate tape job / media pool for every day of the week and process weekly data individually separately:

Monday backup to tape aims Monday Media Pool with a dedicated Monday tape media.
Thursday backup to tape aims Thursday Media Pool with a dedicated Thursday tape media.

After all that, he said that the scenario we need is not possible to deploy with veeam. He even said that to acquire this scenario we have to obtain a Tape Library!!
He even closed the case without our authorization.

I'll review both cases and double check why they were closed without your authorization.

[Marco.Teijido]

Dima, thanks again for your quick response.

The idea is to append all mondays data on the same tape, and the same for each day of the week.

So when the month is over, you should have 5 tapes (monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, and friday).

In each tape, you should have the sessions of the diferent specific days, I mean, in Monday tape, you should have the backup of 1st Monday, 2nd Monday... etc.

The tech made some tests, and in every test, the previous written data on tape was overwritted by the new backup. Never appended the data.

Now the case is in hand of a Veeam integration specialist, once he finished, we will try what you suggest

[Dima P.]

Marco,

Thank you, please let us know hot it goes!