Backup Data Migration

[ianbutton1]

Currently we use Veeam 9.5 for VM backups (HyperV environment), and Data Protector (10.30) for NAS (user documents), physical machines & Oracle Solaris files. Both solutions have their repos on a pair of StoreOnce systems (one local, one remote for DR), in Catalyst stores. In DP, we keep annual, monthly, weekly & daily backups, and the system runs a simple Object Copy from local to remote. In Veeam we keep 28 days on the local system, and use Backup Copy jobs with GFS to keep annual, monthly, weekly & daily backups on the DR StoreOnce.
I would like to use Veeam for everything, and am wondering how best to manage the switchover of the NAS/physical/Solaris files, as there isn't enough space on the StoreOnces to hold a new set of full Veeam backups alongside existing DP backups. I assume that StoreOnce dedupe will not be able to match existing DP file contents for dedupe, so it will probably force a fully hydrated first Veeam backup.

My idea at the moment is as follows :-
1. A few weeks before switchover, stop the automated DP Object copies and change DP backups to point directly to the DR site - so for a period, no second copy of these DP backups
2. Change the expiry of DP backups on the local StoreOnce to, say, 4 weeks and let them all expire in this period.
3. When sufficient space is available in the local StoreOnce, begin Veeam jobs to backup to it.
4. Gradually expire DP backups on the remote StoreOnce and introduce Veeam Backup Copy Jobs to copy from local to remote

Obviously we will lose the DP annual/monthly backups, but such long-term copies are something of a luxury and 99% of restores only require recent backups.

We do have a few TB available on NAS storage, that could be used for temporary repos to help alleviate the storage problem, but they aren't enough to provide a full intermediate solution, and moving Catalyst items outside the scope of backup (and back again if needed) seems not to be possible.

Backup migration must be a common problem - how have other users dealt with this?

TIA

[Dima P.]

Hello Ian,

I assume that StoreOnce dedupe will not be able to match existing DP file contents for dedupe, so it will probably force a fully hydrated first Veeam backup.

I would not expect good deduplication ratio due to the backup format difference, possible encryption, compression and other factors.

Setting up the retention to a lower value sounds like a good plan. Some folks are moving data created by third party solutions to a removable media temporarily and then delete data from disk storage (i.e. move all the the set of the USB drives, then delete the old backups and start writing new data with Veeam NAS backup).

Cheers!