Recommendations for Secondary Backup Devices

[cfvonner]

I'm currently backup up my vSphere virtual servers to a Drobo B1200i iSCSI NAS device, which is working beautifully. I'm getting ready to do a monthly full backup to a pool of 3 or 4 portable devices that I can send to the vendor who keeps the rest of the IT department's tape libraries off-site.

Since my Veeam server is actually a VM on the same vSphere cluster, I believe that I will need to purchase NAS hard disk units of some variety. What I'm not sure of is if they need to provide full iSCSI support, or if they can be simpler NAS devices with a built-in file system. Any recommendations?

Also, I am currently doing reverse incremental backups, so that the most recent file in the backup chain is a full backup. Rather than having Veeam do another full backup run each month, can I just copy the latest reverse incremental backup onto the portable NAS device?

Thank you in advance for any assistance.
-Carl V.

[Yuki]

Since my Veeam server is actually a VM on the same vSphere cluster, I believe that I will need to purchase NAS hard disk units of some variety. What I'm not sure of is if they need to provide full iSCSI support, or if they can be simpler NAS devices with a built-in file system. Any recommendations?

No need for iSCSI (unless you want to and have $). A NAS will do, but performance may not be good for anything except for VBK copy operation or an active full backup. Reverse incremental or Synthetic full running to NAS may take long time if the system is not powerful enough.

Also, I am currently doing reverse incremental backups, so that the most recent file in the backup chain is a full backup. Rather than having Veeam do another full backup run each month, can I just copy the latest reverse incremental backup onto the portable NAS device?

Yes, thats the best way to do it - just copy latest reverse incremental to NAS.

[cfvonner]

Yuki,

Thanks! Sounds like I'm on the right track then.

-Carl V.

[Vitaliy S.]

Hi Carl, if you have plenty of time on this weekend , please take a look at this long, but still very useful thread: recommendations for veeam backup storage