Active Full requirements for SOBR offloads from Object performance tier

[antspants7777]

Hi,

Current setup
- Veeam 12.0.0.1420.P20230412
- Used to backup private cloud tenants & internal infrastructure
- Currently using SOBRs with NFS performance tier locally
- Testing using SOBRs with S3 Compatible object storage performance tier locally
- Jobs Advanced settings have both Synthetic Fulls and varying GFS settings (Mix of Monthly only, Weekly only etc)
- Capacity tier is used for some clients and anticipate most will use Azure / AWS in the near future

We are testing migrating all current backups to "Direct to Object" (local S3 Compatible) within the SOBR performance tier.
One of the requirements is that synthetic fulls be disabled prior.

As per https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=120
"GFS retention policy applies to forever forward incremental backup chain only if you periodically create full backups manually or using scheduled scripts"
On the existing jobs that target SOBRs with NFS as the performance tier, we get the warning "Enable periodic full, or schedule a script to create them"
Unless we enable Synthetic or Active Fulls within the job

On the test jobs that target SOBRs with S3 Compatible Object Storage as the performance tier, we do NOT receive any warnings if Active Fulls are not selected.

So, the questions are
1. Are Active Fulls required when using Direct to Object, if want GFS backup points?
2. As offloads are based on inactive chains, will backups get offloaded without the Active Fulls on the Object performance tier?
3. Is the removed warning from above intentional?

Thanks for you help with this truly amazing product

[Mildur]

Hello Tony

Object storage repositories works differently compared to NFS repositories.

1. Are Active Fulls required when using Direct to Object, if want GFS backup points?

No, not when object storage is used in the performance tier. GFS restore points are just tagged restore points on a particular day.

2. As offloads are based on inactive chains, will backups get offloaded without the Active Fulls on the Object performance tier?

Backups will be offloaded to the capacity tier without the active full backup.
There are no chains/backup files on object storage. Nothing to set „inactive“. We store unique blocks of a restore point as objects. Backup sessions after a full backup will only upload new or changed blocks as objects, except you run an active full again. Each restore point is build together from previously stored objects and the newly stored ones.

Copy policy always offloads. Move policy will remove obsolete objects on the performance tier if they no longer belong to any restore point.

3. Is the removed warning from above intentional?

Not for NFS repositories. We have backup files. Here active or synthetic fulls are required. To have a GFS backup file, we must write a full backup file on that day.

Best,
Fabian

[antspants7777]

Thanks Fabian. That was exactly the answers I was hoping for