FAQ: "backup mode"

[flomp]

I have a question regarding a FAQ-Entry in veeam-backup-replication-f2/read-this-f ... 17633.html

For context, I have a SOBR consisting of a performance tier on local storage and a capacity tier on S3. I enabled "copy backups as soon as they are created" and "Move backups to object storage as they age out of the operational restore window". I think the following FAQ is relevant to this setup:

Q: Does the backup mode have any influence on the use cases of capacity tier?
A: There are no special requirements for the “copy” mode. For “move” with non-object storage based repositories in your performance tier you need to make sure to have a backup mode that creates full backups. Only inactive chains can be moved to object storage.

1. First, this Q&A is hard to understand. It took me some time to get that we are talking about 2 different modes here:
- "Backup mode" is reverse incremental vs forward incremental
- "Mode" means, whether the "Move backups to object storage as they age out of the operational restore window" setting is enabled. (Is this correct?)

2. Still, I am not sure how to undestand the answer. Does it mean that I have to enable active/synthetic fulls in the backup job if I enable the SOBR "move" setting? What combinations of the backup modes + active/synthetic-full-settings + SOBR modes are reasonable?

3. And not related to the above FAQ: Is it possible to end up without a full backup on the performance tier if you set a too low value for the days in the SOBR "move" setting?
E.g. If I enable active/synthetic fulls monthly but I set the days in the SOBR-"move" setting to 20.

Thanks

[david.domask]

Hi flomp,

Backup mode here is referring to retention policies, as for Move with capacity tier, only inactive chains are moved.

So if you have a backup set that looks like this ( F = Full VBK, i = incremental VIB)

F i i i F i i i

Only this part of the backup set is eligible for the Move operation.

I believe that answers 1 and 2, and as for 3, no, and this is why a chain must be "inactive" for it to be moved -- to ensure that you don't end up with a broken backup chain

I will edit the FAQ to be more clear that it discusses retention modes, as I agree the current wording is a bit confusing.

[flomp]

Thank you very much. This makes sense!