Best Way to Write Two Copies for Backup Jobs

[DataDefender]

Hey Data Hoarders,

What is the best way to write two copies of a backup job (Backup to Tape and Files to Tape)?

I only have one tape library, so I cannot just copy tapes. I was thinking about this setup:

Two media pools, A and B
Two tape jobs, A writing to media pool A, and B writing to media pool B
While this setup works, it feels a bit strange and has a downside: at least for Files to Tape jobs, it consumes double the amount of VULs (as mentioned here file-shares-and-object-storage-f57/quic ... 92316.html).

Could this be feasible?

Two media pools, A and B
One tape job: writing to media pool A. After it has finished, change the job to use media pool B and execute again.
Or are there any other methods that I'm missing?

Thanks in advance,
Best,
DD

[david.domask]

Hi @DataDefender,

Do I get it correctly that you only have a single drive in your tape environment? If there are multiple drives, a copy to the same library is possible, but please note that trying to copy to the same media pool will close the current media set and open a new one, so if you have multiple drives, the best option is:

1. Multiple Media Pools
2. Schedule a copy (with Powershell) of the tapes to the second media pool.

For the source backup jobs you're moving to tape, they're VM jobs or NAS Backup Jobs? I'm just making sure I get why we have a File to Tape job and what it's backing up, as depending on the answer, I may advise differently.

For your idea, I would actually just configure two jobs as opposed to switching one, as to me it seems like less work and less chance to forget to switch back and forth.

[DataDefender]

Hey David,

Yes, that's correct, I have only one tape drive in my tape library, so tape-to-tape copy jobs are not possible.

Sources for the tape jobs are:
* VM backup jobs. For most of them, compliance does not require a second copy on tape. However, for the instances where a second copy is required, I've set up a second media pool for copies and a second backup-to-tape job that uses this second media pool. No problem.
* Also, there's a File-to-tape job (these are not Veeam backup files). For this job, I need a second copy. Now, I could set it up the same way as I did for the VMs, but that would require double the amount of VULs. (Some source, but two different jobs).

So, I was wondering if Veeam has a solution for this kind of problem. I'm sure there are more people facing this sort of issue, right? Maybe it warrants a feature request?

Best,
DD

[david.domask]

Got it, thank you for clarifying.

For the File to Tape job, the best answer I can think of is to first protect it with a normal NAS Backup job to disk, then you can add that NAS backup to Backup to Tape Jobs without any associated instance cost as it's a secondary backup then. The downside of course is that this means you need to have repository space to land the NAS Backup, but this would handle the issue with instance consumption pretty readily.

NAS Backup to tape in this way is no different than a normal File to Tape; the files will be put on tape as files, not the NAS Backup format. Would this be feasible for you?

If so, then I think the multiple tape jobs and media pool solution answers this need pretty readily.

[DataDefender]

Hey David,

Thank you for getting back to me on this. I will need to evaluate your proposal. We are currently in the process of making changes to our backup infrastructure (using Veeam all the way, yay). It may be feasible to use the file server to disk to tape (and tape copy) approach. It will depend on our repository size needs. I think I will know more in the next few days.

Best,
DD

[david.domask]

Hi @DataDefender,

You are very welcome; glad to hear it's Veeam al the way down, and hope the Files > Disk > Tape meta works well for you.