Backing up other software's backups

[Darkzadow]

Hello,

I have seen similar posts before but I cant seem to find them.

I have been asked to integrate another software's backups into Veeam so Veeam can handle the retention and offsite storage. The other software writes about 550GB daily.

So my idea was to make a virtual NAS with 2 data disks. 1 for the daily data. 1 for the weeks worth of low RTO data. I planned to have the software write to the daily data drive, then use virtual machine backup to only grab the C drive and the daily data disk. Then kick off a post job script to move the data from daily disk to the weekly disk.

The data change rate would be 100% everyday, and i believe this would keep redundant data to a minimum.

Is there a better way to do this? I was looking at the NAS backups but I was under the impression they would keep more data than I wanted. I need retention 30 daily and 24 monthly and backing up the daily disk would give me a simple backup of those days without mixing in other days data.

[PetrM]

Hi Brandon,

I believe your current idea would work but before implementing it on production, I recommend testing all the restore scenarios that you may need in future. Also, why do you need to mix two different backup applications? Why you cannot use Veeam B&R to protect all the workloads in your infrastructure?

Thanks!

[Darkzadow]

Hello PetrM

The software backs up legacy, virtualized, Non-windows, non-linux machines.
I am building a test POC. Setting up a scheduled task to copy the daily files from their current location (old 2003 server sitting in forgotten room, a retiring dev let me know that critical backups were stored here as he was leaving).

[PetrM]

Ok, thanks for clarifying. But these legacy VMs are running on which hypervisor and why do you think that Veeam B&R cannot work with those legacy VMs?

Thanks!

[Darkzadow]

These VMs run another virtualization software inside them so its virtualization within virtualization. The software vendor says they do not support veeam backup method as their software does not play well with stun, These systems are always on, and the developers have value in using the backup files the legacy system generates for code retrieval.
So VMware ESXI - windows 2019 vm - legacy emulator in windows

[sfirmes]

@Darkzadow if the files are from another backup application, do you know if they can be used for restoration without the backup application being recovered 1st?

[Darkzadow]

The backup software resides in the emulated system.
Normally the emulated system can be booted into a BIOS like mode and load the backups files into it.
If that emulation system were to fully go down I have 2 options.
Restore from an offline veeam backup of the windows 2019 vm. I am able to take one every 6 months when extended down time occurs. Then use the files to restore the emulated system to the needed point in time.
Second if I cannot do that because the emulation is fully down. I can use the files with the emulation software to rebuild system from scratch. This method takes 12-14 hours. involves spinning up a generic emulation, customizing it to system specs, and loading backups to overwrite generic emulation.

ultimate goal was to control the generated backups retention and offsite copy.

[PetrM]

Hello,

Thanks @Darkzadow for clarifying the use case. I think you could try the workaround described above but I'd like to emphasize one more time that this scenario is out of our regular quality control process, it was not tested by our QA engineers and you should check carefully all the restore scenarios that you would need to carry out in future.

Thanks!

[a-tome]

I am thinking about having two drives and a copy process to move data from active to longer term storage. That seems like a lot of work compared to using incremental backups, which only actually backup the changed blocks of data (your most recent backup). Using XFS in Linux or REFS in Windows gives you deduplicated storage, so you would be backing-up fewer blocks of data. Likewise, you could potentially store more backups on a single LUN, and it makes your first tier restore (restore from VM backup to the host system) easier to manage. You would not be dumping to one repository and restoring from a different one.

[AlexHeylin]

old 2003 server sitting in forgotten room, a retiring dev let me know that critical backups were stored here as he was leaving