Feature request: Retention Function for VM Copy Jobs

[FAMSA]

We recently setup a VM Copy Job in our Veeam B&R v6 Environment in order to backup a production VM to a Laptop with Vmware Player installed for DR purposes. However, we figured out that the destination Harddisk will be filled up by the daily taken backups rapidly. Unfortunately, a VM Copy job is lack of option to configure backup retentions or pre/post scripts to delete the previously taken Backups.

[Gostev]

VM Copy job should normally overwrite the existing VM instead of creating new one, that's how it always worked until 6.0. The new architecture with backup repositories changed its behavior, and this went unnoticed. But we are reverting back to the original behavior in 6.1. Thanks!

[FAMSA]

Gostev Thanks for your reply.
We appreciate that this matter will be fixed in 6.1. Since we could not find any roadmap, could you also inform us regarding the approx. release date of 6.1? thank you very much for your support

[Gostev]

Currently looking as Q2 2012.

[cliffm]

I too have just noticed this with a V6.1 upgrade. I really want to keep versions of some my VMs, i.e. I don't want them overwritten. So a retention policy option would be great. Is there any way I can turn this back on? Thanks

[Gostev]

Thanks for posting in the existing topic.

If you need retention, you should use backup jobs instead. There is really no good reasons NOT to use backup jobs in your case (if you think there are, it will be easy for me to convince you otherwise). And, VM Copy jobs never had a retention policy functionality to start with.

[cliffm]

Hi Gostev, thanks for the quick reply!
I use backup, replication and copy on all my VMs. Backups and replicas are stored on DR servers in different buildings to the production servers. The copies of full VMs are written to removable storage to take offsite. I.e. the whole place burns down sort of DR situation. I usually have 2 or 3 sequential copies of these just in case, i.e. the copy won't boot so I at least have another one (this has happened!!!). Usually I manually delete the ones I am finished with. Now I have to remember to manually rename them otherwise they get overwritten, so it a management difference. So I am back to my original question, I liked this feature, is there a way to turn it back on? Many thanks.

[vMO]

Did you try VeeamZIP to store it on your removable media?

[cliffm]

No..... I've never heard of it. I'll check it out. Thanks

[cliffm]

Does Veeam zip get installed on my B&R 6.1 server? Can I schedule jobs with it? Is it part of B&R 6.1 or do I have to download the free edition? I'm confused as to where this is and where I should put it.

Thanks

[foggy]

Cliff, VeeamZIP is a feature of both Veeam B&R 6.1 free and paid versions. VeeamZIP backups are ad-hoc only, so If you want to have a scheduled VM backup, use regular backup jobs instead (or use VeeamZIP PowerShell API available for paid versions of Veeam B&R only). Please review the corresponding user guide section if you need more details. Thanks!

[cliffm]

AHHHH! Got it. No mention of this in the built in help files for B&R. I have an enterprise lic so I'll try it out. I'm making a couple of assumptions here;
1) I have to import the zip backups into a Veeam server and then "restore entire VM" to a datastore to be able to run them (at full speed)?
2) I can't test these zips with surebackup?
Thanks for your help.

[foggy]

1. Yes. You can use any type of restore (including Instant Recovery), VeeamZIP backups are just normal Veeam B&R full backup files.
2. Yes.