Veeam Tape Queries

[jgreenwood]

Hi All,
Could someone please help me with a few tape related questions please.

I am planning to use tape for offline copies of daily backups, but also for GFS long term retention too. My plan is to have the backups land onto disk, with an additional copy of daily backups onto tape to comply to 3-2-1. Then for the GFS backups for them to hit disk first, but then purely on tape, with the copy on disk removed. Is this possible? Or do i need the copy of the GFS backups on tape too?

Another query I have is, as I will be backing up VM's (one site) and Agents (across two sites) which will then be staged to tape. Does Veeam need a separate tape per job? Or will Veeam utilise a single tape for multiple jobs (provided there is enough capacity on the tape)

Is the above true for GFS Backups? Will Veeam require a monthly tape for my VM Backups and a seperate monthly tape for my Agent backups or will Veeam attempt to put them on a single tape if there is enough space available?

Lastly, what is the process of taking these offsite, does Veeam automatically eject tapes (or put them in the import/export slots) and provide notifications of which to tapes to remove?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

[HannesK]

Hello,
Veeam always stores to disk first. There is no direct backup to tape (because tape is slow at restore).

with the copy on disk removed

the (GFS) restore point will be removed according to the retention in the backup job.

Or do i need the copy of the GFS backups on tape too?

you only copy the latest GFS restore point to tape. Older restore points that are already on tape will not be copied again to tape.

yes, you can put multiple source jobs on one tape: https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=100

Will Veeam require a monthly tape for my VM Backups and a seperate monthly tape for my Agent backups or will Veeam attempt to put them on a single tape if there is enough space available?

I see no reason to require additional tapes.

does Veeam automatically eject tapes

if you tick the checkbox... https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=100

Best regards,
Hannes

[jgreenwood]

Hi Hannes,

Yes aware that backups need to hit disk first (sorry if i didn't make that clear in original post).

So it's possible to have longer term retention on tape than it is on disk.
i.e. Monthly hits disk first, then offloaded to tape and kept for 12 months, but the backup doesn't also need to be maintained on disk for 12 months?

For this requirement i might have a retention to keep the Monthly backup on disk for 1 month but on the archive to tape job to keep it for 12 months. This will then remove the backup from disk when the next Monthly is written?

Thanks for the help.

[HannesK]

Hello,

i.e. Monthly hits disk first, then offloaded to tape and kept for 12 months, but the backup doesn't also need to be maintained on disk for 12 months?

correct

This will then remove the backup from disk when the next Monthly is written?

backups will be deleted according to the retention policy in the backup job. it does not matter whether it was copied to tape or not

Backup jobs and tape jobs are independent from each other.

Best regards,
Hannes

[jgreenwood]

Excellent, thanks Hannes.
It's great that Veeam staff are so active on these forums.