Veeam 11 backup job or backup copy job GFS?

[lchuakc]

Hi All,

I've started using Veeam since Version 9 and my backup strategy is to keep 12 months of full backup. I've a main backup job doing the daily backups with 28 retention points and another backup copy job with GFS of 12 months setup since Version 9.

Have upgraded to Veeam 11 from Version 10 and found that the backup copy job is using up lots of space due to the forward incremental everyday. Even when I configured 1 weekly backup in the backup copy job the files are still increasing everyday. I found the recommendations from Veeam that it is best to create a weekly GFS to reduce the files.

Also found out that with the Veeam 11. The main backup job will have GFS options? Is this new?

So should I just use the GFS options on the main backup job now and set 12 monthly instead of running the extra backup copy job (disable it and monitor)? If doing the 12 monthly GFS, do I need a weekly GFS just like what was recommended in the backup copy guide?

Both repository are in the same physical server but I've to created the backup copy job previously just to do GFS because prior to Veeam 11 GFS can only run on backup copy jobs.

Thanks

[Mildur]

Also found out that with the Veeam 11. The main backup job will have GFS options? Is this new?

Since Version 10

If you want to ignore the 3-2-1 rule, then the backup job with GFS is enough. You don‘t need todo a backup copy job anymore to create a monthly restore point for archival.

With reFS, the gfs synthetic fulls would be spaceless.
https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=110

Let me ask you a question. What is your ransomware strategy? Do you have an offsite and/or airgapped copy of your data? All backups in the same server, in the same environment is not a really good idea.

[lchuakc]

Thanks Mildur,

I have a replication job to offsite plus a backup copy to offsite too with 6 days retention. I will actually manually copy the monthly archive and keep it in USB harddisks for 12 months.

For the backup job GFS settings on Veeam 11, do i need to create a weekly schedule just like the backup copy recommendation?

[Mildur]

Ok
If you configure the backup job GFS, then the backup chain switches from „Forever Forward Incremental“ to „Forward Incremental“.

Therefore, I recommend to set weekly fulls. If you are configuring only monthly fulls, with a retention of 30 days, you will have between 30-60 incremental restore points (and the normal fulls and GFS fulls) on your disk.

Veeam cannot delete the restore points from the oldest backup chain until the new chain has 30 restore points, because they are needed to restore data from the last 30 days.

It‘s the same behaviour for the new backup copy mode in V11.

If you use reFS, space will not be a problem. Without reFS, it will be very space costly. Today, all new veeam deployments should use reFS or XFS with FastClone Support.

[lchuakc]

Thanks Mildur

Perhaps I will use back the backup copy. I am using REFS on windows 2016 backup server. But it does not seems to be saving space.

On my backup copy job with 1 Weekly and 12 Monthly. Are these the backup files which I will be expecting?

https://ibb.co/82Zwswc

When will they clear the incrementals? I've installed Veeam 11 on 25 May and now the May monthly backup is not appearing. Should I be expecting the june one end of this month?

[Mildur]

When will they clear the incrementals?

What is your Retention Setting? Not the GFS, the Short Term Retention Policy of this Job.

and now the May monthly backup is not appearing

I am not sure, if the May GFS full will be generated in your case. There are no fullbackups on the first weekend in May in your backup repo. But I don‘t know how veeam works here after the update. What Veeam is doing if no full is found on the day as the gfs policy is configured.

Should I be expecting the june one end of this month?

Your 7 June Backup should be flagged as a monthly Backup. You can see that in the console under Backups.

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=110

[lchuakc]

Hi Mildur.

The backup copy job is using 2 restore points which is the minimum configured since Veeam 9. My backup job will run a synthetic full on every Saturday. And one full backup on the first Sunday of every month. So it will eventually generate a full monthly gfs copy?

The 7 June backup appeared after I setup 1 weekly backup about 4 days ago.

[Mildur]

With configured 2 restore Points, the old ones gets deleted at the next backup. Then the current chain has 2 restore points and the old backup chain can be removed at the moment, your retention needs the current vbk and the oldest incremental —> 2 Restore Points. The entire old chain cannot be deleted because of the oldest incremental.

With veeam V11, there are no standalone _m.vbk.
Veeam uses the vbk from the first Sunday in the month as a „monthly gfs“. It will not be deleted for the configured retention time. In your case, you will have 12 monthly vbks. At the moment a mix of *_m.vbk and *.vbk.

In a year, you will only have *.vbk with the Flag „monthly“


See more here about the gfs configuration:

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=110

[lchuakc]

Thanks Mildur.

I will monitor the backup until end of the money to see how it behaves. This version 11 really confuses me in the backup files retention behavior. I will ask again if it does not work out.

[Mildur]

Ok, don‘t hesitate to ask if something is unclear

The most important thing to understand:
Veeam has changed the method from „Forever Forward Incremental“ to „Forward Incremental“, when you enable GFS in the backup copy job.

Veeam Backup copy job will do regular synthetic fulls, and this fulls will be used as gfs restore points.
With V10 and earlier, veeam needed to „export“ a Synthetic Full from the backup chain. Now it doesn‘t need to export one. An already created Synthetic Full will be used (retained longer).

[lchuakc]

Hi Mildur,

Can you help me with what I am experiencing now after running the backup copy job for 1 week plus?

I have used back the old backup copy job for monthly archiving of 12 months and use last week as fully backup

Plus set 1 weekly backup with if multiple full backup exist, use the one from Sunday

I have a backup job running incremental backup from mon-fri. Synthetic full on sat. Full backup on the 1st sun of every month.

Right now the backup copy job has only created 1 full weekly backup on 7 Jun 2021 which is the sun full backup. But it did not create a new full backup copy even 8 days has passed since the 7 jun 2021. Does the sat synthetic full considered a full backup?

But why the 1 weekly does not really runs well? Thanks.

Now I am having a lot of backup chain because the weekly full does not run.

[foggy]

Hi Leslie, I recommend asking our support engineers to take a closer look at your job configuration and what is actually happening. They will be able to explain the behavior or confirm the issue if there are any.