Decompress veeam B&R Backup file

[virde]

Good evening guys,
I am currently using veeam backup and replication 6.1 in our environment and is performing very well, but the backup repository is becoming bigger and bigger, mostly caused by very long retention requirements.
I am now evaluating to move the backup repository to a dedupe storage and it would be really important to also dedupe all backup chains already in the veeam backup repository. Unfortunately the backup chains are all compressed by Veeam B&R with compressiong level ranging from Optimal to Best, and here it's my question.

Does exist any way to decompress veeam backup files?

Thank you

[Vitaliy S.]

Hi virde,

No, it is not possible to change compression level for existing backup files. Out of curiosity, what dedupe level you have for these files?

Thanks!

[virde]

Hi Vitaliy S.,
almost all backup jobs are set to "WAN target" deduplication level.
It would be useful to decompress the backup chain, it could also be acceptable to start a new one, this would help moving the file to a storage with deduplication enabled.

[Vitaliy S.]

Thanks for the feedback, but based on what I've seen on these forums, you would save more space if you use compression and deduplication at the same time, however if you want to get maximum deduplication on your device, then of course disabling compression is the best way to go.

Also we've got an existing topic that you might find useful: Recommended settings when using a dedupe appliance

Hope this helps!

[virde]

My requirements are a little different and I will try to explain them in a better way.
1. I actually have a storage without any deduplication applyed at the storage level
2. All backup jobs are executing backups with both deduplication and compression enabled to have veeam B&R save as much disk space as possible
3. Many of the backup jobs are executing against the same virtual machine caused by different retention requirements (for example job 1 executes during week days while job 2 executes during week-ends)
4. All backup chains are stored on the same backup repository. Obviously the two jobs in the example at point 3 have different backup file chains both having a full backup file
5. The two backup file in the example occupy 1 TB each but they contain almost the same data

Here is my needs
I am evaluating to move the backup file of the previous example (and others too) to a deduped storage but they are compressed by veeam B&R and so applying a deduplication would be unusefull.
If it could be possibile to decompress such file they could be deduped togheter.

Thank you

[dellock6]

Instead of moving the backup files, you can register the new dedup appliance as a new repository, modify existing jobs to use it, and also change compression level on the job. At the first run, the job will not find the existing chain so it will do a full backup, thus modifying the compression level of the new chain.
When you have reached the desired retention period on the dedup appliance, you can simply delete old backup files from the previous backup storage.

Luca.

[virde]

Thank you Luca, but unfortunately it won't be really usefull in my environmnet, mostly caused by long retentions requirements (years).
I hoped there was a way to decompress the files but unfortunately it's not possibile.

Thank you