SOBR/FastClone download from capacity tier, Dual VBR setup

[pirx]

Hi,

what happens with Fast Clone savings when downloading partial/all backups from capacity tier to an empty performance tier? For us it is important for sizing a kind of a standby Linux XFS repository where we want to download backups (maybe only some, maybe everything) until environment is finally ready for restores (Ransomeware attack, DR case etc). Currently we have 2 SOBR, Veeams knows about 960 TB and 670 TB backup data, but only 220 and 170 TB are actually on XFS filesystem on performance tiers, thanks to reflinks/fastclone. Do we have to size for actual used storage or the backup size Veeam has in its database?

The information in docs is not 100% clear to me, respectively I want to clarify if my understanding is right so that the sizing will not be an issue in a DR case.

There is also the idea to keep a Veeam VBR + empty repo instance in an air-gapped environment as hot-standby. No access to on-prem repos. We assume everything else will be gone in DR case. I know that we can attach the capacity tier in a DR case to this second VBR instance. But there is also the idea to use it for continues restore tests from PROD capacity tier into the DR environment. As far as I know, it is not supported to connect 2 VBRs to one capacity tier. This use case does not sound unreasonable to me, what other options are there if we want to do this from a second environment?


https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=120

Veeam Backup & Replication uses the Fast Clone technology only if you download all offloaded backups back to the performance extents using the Download option. Fast Clone is not supported for the Copy to Performance Tier option.

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=120

Limitations for Capacity Tier - User Guide for VMware vSphere
• Full restore points downloaded from capacity tier to XFS performance extents do not use Fast Clone.

[pirx]

Nothing?

[pirx]

case 07848608

Regarding fast clone savings for backups downloaded from capacity tier back to performance tier. The feedback from support is kind of surprising. So we sized our PROD repositories according the Calculator and with Veeam. But in case we need to download backups back to performance tier, all those savings are lost and it requiures 4...5x the size? I thought that the savings are also preserved when moving backups between extents for a while now.

When downloading backups from Wasabi (object storage) to an empty performance tier (XFS-based repository):
If you download individual backups, complete per-VM backup chains, or perform a full sync, the files are physically written anew to the performance tier. The block-level savings provided by FastClone/XFS reflink will not be preserved, because the cloned blocks are not transferred; only the logical backup files are.
Therefore, the performance tier will consume the full physical size of the downloaded backup files, not the reduced "virtual" size that FastClone/XFS reflink would offer if those backups were originally created on that tier.
For capacity planning:
• You should size your new performance tier for the full "virtually used" backup size (in your example, plan for 990 TB, not the reduced 226 TB).
• FastClone/XFS reflink savings only apply when backups are written and managed on the performance tier itself, not when restoring or downloading from object storage.
https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=120