Different storage classes for same VM?

[sguajardo]

Hi, I'm having some trouble figuring out how to optimize backup costs for very low active backup retention.
Right now some dev machines require just 2 snapshots and 4 days on bucket, so obviously that goes to Standard Class, however since my client also wants to keep weekly backups for a month ideally that should go to a Nearline bucket.

Since there's no function for a secondary copy like in B&R (archiving isn't useful due to deletion costs), at first I was planning on some good old policy spaghetti, making one policy for standard and one for nearline. However, also unlike B&R, it's not possible to target the same VM with two policies (Is there a way to override this? it's a very much undesired limitation).

Is there any way to achieve this? after some maths moving retentions over 30 days from standard to nearline reduces costs about 25% which is very significant (and using archive class isn't an option since the longest retention is 6 months and it would incurr deletion charges)

[Alec King]

Hello and welcome to the Veeam forums!
The feature you need is the ability to set a different repository for each retention setting (daily/weekly/monthly/yearly). Currently Veeam Backup for Google only allows setting an additional archive repository.
Veeam Backup for Azure does have this feature, and it is on the roadmap for Veeam Backup for AWS and Veeam Backup for Google, however I can't confirm right now when this feature might be released.

We do not allow two policies to target the same VM in order to avoid issues such as overlapping snapshot calls and other collisions & bottlenecks which could impact not only the protection but also the performance (and even risk the data) of the production VM. So this approach is unlikely to change.

So, although you unfortunately cannot achieve this optimisation right now in Veeam Backup for Google, it is in the R&D plan and I have added you as a +1 to the feature request.
Thanks and welcome again to the forums!

[sguajardo]

Thanks for the reply! It's going to be a bit awkward to explain to my client that in fact it wasn't possible to do this optimization, but at least it's on the roadmap, and it being on Azure is a good sign.
However even a backup copy function would be very appreciated, as in a "Copy everything to Nearline and keep a different retention" would do wonders to optimize costs which is the thorn on the side for cloud backup since opex stays fresh in management's mind

[Alec King]

Yes of course, and backup copy functionality is also in the plan for VB Google. Again I can't give any specific timeline however it will be added. I've counted you a +1 on that request too. Thanks!