Tape expiration date

[perjonsson1960]

Folks,

I read at the Veeam help site that you are supposed to be able to change the expiration date of a tape. But I cannot seem to find that function. I don't know if it is necessary to change the date, though. We are doing a monthly archive of all our VMs using a GFS media pool with only monthly media sets, and those sets are set to expire in 12 months. But we want to keep those tapes indefinitely in a safe.

When those tapes expire, they are deleted from the Veeam database, right? If we want to restore something from an expired media set, do we just need to inventory / catalog that tape set first, and then we can restore from it in a normal fashion?

PJ

[shakhdan]

Hello Per,

If I understand you correctly, then you mean GFS Media Set Options?
After tape expiration date, list of tapes remains visible in Tape Infrastructure. Please, follow this link to know more about Managing Outdated Tapes.
Do you also use Veeam One product? Visit our Help Center to learn more about the media expiration. Thanks!

[perjonsson1960]

Yes, GFS Media Set Options. Correct.

When I read about Managing Outdated Tapes nothing is said about restoring from these tapes, it only talks about overwriting. Do you mean to say that outdated tapes are useless as an archive? We want to keep the tapes for years, and if the need should arise, we should be able to restore from tapes that are years old.

We don't use Veeam One.

[perjonsson1960]

I see that I can change the retention settings on the GFS Media Pool, and set the number of months to 120 to get ten years. And it even changed the date on the existing tapes! Problem solved!

[lyapkost]

Hi Per.

Expired tapes are useful for restore until, of course, they're rewritten with new data.

Your solution is correct but keep in mind that with the already written tapes the retention period is only changed in the DB which means that if you catalog these tapes on other VBR server they'll again have the retention period they're written with (12 months).

Also consider exporting tapes offline and placing them to vaults to have air-gapped backup copy which cannot be damaged by viruses etc.

[perjonsson1960]

The used tapes are exported and put in the "Offline tapes" vault, and are protected. They are also pulled out of the tape library, physically, and put in a safe at the earliest convenient time after use.