Tape "logic" means no data backed up to tape and successful job status

[nathano]

This issue has now bitten me again so time to post hear and hopefully get it addressed. I also spoke with support and had a FR submitted.

There's 2 parts to this.

1. A tape job will not backup the same object (backup job, copy job etc) to tape if the same job has already backed up that object to tape in the current 24hr window (midnight to midnight). Even if there's a new restore point for the object. Monday night my tape job that starts at 11.50pm failed as I was doing network maintenance. I then started the job again after midnight (so Tue morning) then Tue night the backup job runs at 11.50pm and backs up nothing..

so that's part 1 and I am not sure I understand the logic behind that... if the backup administrator wants data on tape then the data should go to tape!


2. when that logic kicks in and nothing goes to tape, or only some of the objects are backed up to tape, the job is still marked as green/successful even though the job completely failed to write any data to tape. Very easy to miss that when reviewing Veeam job statuses... At the very least it should be a warning so that it gets some attention.

Hope that makes sense.

Regards
Nathan

[HannesK]

Hello,
do you have case numbers that we can look at it?

Thanks,
Hannes

[nathano]

A case (03871998) was logged, and closed, this morning once I worked out that it was the logic of Veeam tape jobs that caused my empty tape job. Been a little while since it's caught me out.

This is more of a feature request. this logic needs to be addressed. it doesn't make any sense at all.. if there is some reasons for it I'm all ears.

[Dima P.]

Hi Nathan,

A tape job will not backup the same object (backup job, copy job etc) to tape if the same job has already backed up that object to tape in the current 24hr window (midnight to midnight)

Is that a GFS tape job or the regular one? Cheers!

[nathano]

Hi Dima

It’s a regular tape job.

Happy to show you my setup and logs etc if you need it.

[Dima P.]

Hello Nathan,

Thank you for the details and sorry for the delay. Checking with QA folks and get back to soon. Stay tuned!

[nathano]

Thanks. Was thinking I should come and jump this thread

Looking forward to the response.

[lyapkost]

Hi Nathan. The logic is quite simple. When a tape job starts it checks available backups to copy to tape according to the job settings. If there are no appropriate backups the job finishes wit 'success' status and 'No new files to backup per job settings' session message. But if there are some backups on disk that weren't copied to tape the job ends with either 'warning' or 'failed' status depending on situation. Having no logs I cannot say for sure however my guess is that in your case there were no appropriate backups to be copied.

[nathano]

I can provide logs for a instance where there was a new restore point since last backup to tape and the tape job still didn't backup anything.. Shall I log a case and attach the logs and post the case number here?

I still don't agree that a backup to tape job should do nothing and be successful, there's a reason these jobs run, why can't I use the same job to put the same VMs to tape again?

[Dima P.]

Nathan,

Please raise a support case and share the case ID with us (then we officially can get QA folks involved).

why can't I use the same job to put the same VMs to tape again?

This logic is used to avoid copying the same content to tape every time, otherwise tape jobs have to process existing backup chain every job run. For instance if tape with the backup will has been erased - we will write all the backup chain again (since it wont be possible to use only latest incremental restore point without the rest of the backup chain), if backup chain already exists on tape we wont write the entire chain, instead we will process only new restore points.

[nathano]

I do full backups to tape each night. These are synthetics created from the backup repo.

So in my case that login doesn’t apply

I’ll log a case and attach logs when I get a chance.

[nathano]

Dima, I've just come across this again on a different VBR install. I ran all the backup again, and then ran the tape job and nothing was backup up to tape. I cloned the tape job, started it and now it's backing up everything. I will wait for this tape job to complete and then submit a case and attach all logs..

Will you be at VeeamOn again this year? Might catch up there again to discuss

[Dima P.]

Hello Nathan,

If I remember correctly the fix for the original issue will be included in the upcoming v10 and I'll gladly discuss any improvement requests with you in person! My traveling agenda is not yet confirmed but for now I plan to attend VeeamOn this year too. Cheers!

[nathano]

Sorry, false alarm. I got caught out with the full backup schedule options on the Media Pool section of the tape job config

Good to hear the fix is in v10, as soon as GA drops I'll be updating

[nathano]

dragging up this one again I've upgraded to v10 GA and looks like I've had a similar problem again with last nights tape job, case logged (04017922) and awaiting feedback. I am splitting the tape job as a workaround for now

[JaxIsland7575]

I am having the issue with tape jobs as well. The backups are being skipped but if I run the tape job over a couple days eventually one will work correctly. Support Case#: 04054387

[Dima P.]

Hello Ryan,

So far we've found out that the issues is related the source job schedule (source job is still running, then tape job kicks in, detects no new restore point and backs up nothing). QA team is still looking into this problem and I've asked to add your case details to the check list. Stay tuned!

[fja]

Had same issue on case #04074224

My latest input:

"re your answer of 24th. I strongly disagree this is not critical.

In this case the tapes generated are for yearly archive purpose. This is done once a year, and according to legislation we are obliged to have full backups going 5 years back.
So - No - the is no later run where files will be handled (...yes, 1 year later!) - and your software causes an undetected compliance breach.

This IS critical - even if by design. Seems your designers are not 100% aware of real world cases...

Please assist in getting this as feature request - and high priority"

[Dima P.]

Hello folks,

We've included a fix for the tape job in the Veeam Backup & Replication 10 Cumulative Patch 1. Kindly install it on top of your v10 build and let us know how it goes.

Backup to Tape job skips processing synthetic full backups with forever forward incremental source backup chains on days when full backup file merge happens.