I was just hoping to get some feedback on how to approach backing up a networked share directly to tape. It will be a one time backup but the the total size of the network share is approximately 60TB.
All the our other jobs are for Hyper V machines: we copy the machine to our Veeam Server first and then we have a second job which backs that local copy to tape. Unfortunately, due to the sheer size of this network share, we don't have the storage capacity to make another copy of this in a local area prior to the backup.
In Veeam, would you do a "Files" Tape Job and point it at the server's share?
Would it have a significant impact on the file server's performance for our users?
Also, as this is probably going to take a week or more to backup, what happens if changes are made to files on the share during the backup process?
It depends on the number of files. Do you have many small files or just a ton of large ISO files? But in general, the "file-to-tape" engine is not built for that.
There are some improvements with V10, so I would wait for that. I don't expect impact on the users because the "file-to-tape" engine is not really fast... make sure your have a full SQL server. Your SQL database will grow massively.
For changes during backup... well, they will be ignored (but this is always the case with any kind of backup). To get a consistent state, I recommend backing up from a NAS snapshot. If it's a Netapp, you could leverage VSS snapshots with V10 (or just create one manually).
It will be a variety of files sizes - Some will be word documents, some will be AutoCAD drawings.
If the "file-to-tape" engine is not built for that, is there a solution which is? Ideally I need to get the data backed up as soon as possible as it's a bit of a risk.
Sorry, I'm very new to VEEAM, it relies on a SQL Database to store the library of files?
Veeam comes with SQL Express. As already said, for large backups, Veeam recommends full SQL Server. Even then, performance is poor.
As an example, we need to do a 9-10TB backup straight to tape, and it takes about 25 hours (with full SQL Server). A lot slower than the hardware is capable of.
If it's a temporary requirement, you can download a 60 day fully functional trial of Veritas Backup Exec which is much faster at direct to tape. I presume you have at least an LTO7 tape drive.
Thank for your help! I'm reluctant to get a trial of a different program - It is a one-off snapshot we need (maybe once a year?) but I would rather use something we're paying for.
So would you "file-to-tape" is not ideal but doable?
doing backup once a year sounds like you don't need restore anyway... so what about NDMP? Can your filer do that?
For file-to-tape: if you have a full SQL server and V10 (RTM is available via support) and a lot of time (days depending on amount of files) - well, try it out and give us feedback
