NAS to Disk to Tape

[mikko.vanttinen]

Hi all,

We have NAS to disk backup running daily, and want to copy backups also to tape.
Tape copy takes several days, and NAS2Disk backup for the same shares does not work at the same time as the jobs are stuck post processing until tape job stops.

As a workaround we created direct NAS2Tape job for one of the shares (1.6TB) that is already backed up to disk. Original NAS to Disk job for this share consumes 3 instance licenses.
After NAS2Tape job completed, it stated that 85 instance lics are on grace period for tape job. Tape job summary shows 1.6TB Processed and transferred but logs shows 42TB total job size

1. Should original Nas2Disk license cover licensing for NAS2tape job for the same source data?
2. Any idea why it consumes 85 instances and not 3?
3. Feature request: NAS2Disk and copy to tape should be able to run at the same time

Support case #06160634

[Mildur]

Hello Mikko

Please keep on working with our customer support on this issue.

1. Should original Nas2Disk license cover licensing for NAS2tape job for the same source data?

When you use two jobs to protect the data at source (NAS2Disk, NAS2Tape), the protected size of each job will be summed up and round the size down to 500GB. With 2 jobs and 1.6TB, this would mean:
Job1 (1.6TB) + Job 2 (1.6TB) = 3.2 TB
3.2 TB round down to 500GB = 3TB = 6 licenses
Case 5 explains it: https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=120

2. Any idea why it consumes 85 instances and not 3?

Let's see what support can find out from the logs. Only "protected data" must be licensed. If you NAS share is 1.6TB, then 85 instances doesn't make sense.

3. Feature request: NAS2Disk and copy to tape should be able to run at the same time

A locked NAS backup file cannot be read and copied at the same time. It could be inconsistent if we just start writing tapes from an uncompleted NAS backup job. NAS Backup jobs do not use Full backup file and incremental file approach.

Best,
Fabian

[mikko.vanttinen]

When you use two jobs to protect the data at source (NAS2Disk, NAS2Tape), the protected size of each job will be summed up and round the size down to 500GB. With 2 jobs and 1.6TB, this would mean:
Job1 (1.6TB) + Job 2 (1.6TB) = 3.2 TB
3.2 TB round down to 500GB = 3TB = 6 licenses

Understood, so we need to double the current instance lic count to cover also direct NAS2Tape backups -> this is not a good option.
(IMO licensing source data 1.6TB should include one disk copy AND one tape copy)

Any other ideas? Somehow split the jobs so we get shorter Disk2Tape copy jobs that don't delay the NAS2Tape so much.

[mikko.vanttinen]

It was confirmed that there is a bug in NAS to Tape backup -> It does not handle exclusions correctly when calculating license usage, so internal NAS snapshots are calculated in license even when they are excluded and not backed up.

And the other case, When you use two jobs to protect the data (NAS2Disk, NAS2Tape) license is counted double -> this is something that IMO should be changed in licensing. When source data licensing is used it should not matter how many jobs are protecting the data or if different target is used.

[Dima P.]

Hello Mikko,

It was confirmed that there is a bug in NAS to Tape backup -> It does not handle exclusions correctly when calculating license usage, so internal NAS snapshots are calculated in license even when they are excluded and not backed up.

Can you please clarify if you are running the latest cumulative patch or not?

When you use two jobs to protect the data (NAS2Disk, NAS2Tape) license is counted double -> this is something that IMO should be changed in licensing. When source data licensing is used it should not matter how many jobs are protecting the data or if different target is used.

Correct, there is no way to match the content of two separate jobs from the licensing perspective. However, if you need NAS to disk and NAS to tape sounds like backing up NAS to disk and then creating a backup to tape job is a better way to achieve your goal and save on licensing since backup to tape does not require any licenses at all (well. it does require the correct edition, but does not have a capacity based licensing). Thanks!