New Repository - Replica's Folder

[homerjnick]

A quick question that I hope someone can answer. I did a search but struggled to find an answer.

We have been running Veeam on old hardware as a "proof of concept" for the last 6 months. As you would expect, the concept is good and Veeam is THE product for backing up and replicating virtual machines.

We introduced new storage to my Veeam server as the existing storage was limited.

I added this new storage as a new repository, moved all the backup's off the old storage, rescanned the new repository and then edited each job and mapped it to the new repository.

Not one failure in last nights backups...fantastic!

My only query is that I want to remove the old storage but there is one folder left on it called "Replicas".

We replicate our VM's to our DR site and I chose my old existing repository to hold "replica" data. The contents of this folder is not big and have folders with "vm-150" etc that have a .vbk in it.

I would like to move this to the new storage/repository but can see no options in my replica jobs to do this.

Can someone point me in the right direction?

[foggy]

Nick, you can simply copy this folder to the new repository (keeping the full path to its content) prior to running your replica jobs and then edit replica jobs to point them to the new repository for storing replica metadata. After that metadata should be picked up by your jobs.

[homerjnick]

I don't know why I didn't see the option to hold the replica's metadata...apologies for that...

[Vitaliy S.]

Just wanted to add that replica metadata folder is not mandatory to transfer. This folder will be re-created automatically on the next job run with the penalty of increased job duration.

[davidb1234]

I understand that replication metadata will be regenerated but this is a slow process and will increase backup time significantly from past experiences.

Am I able to create a new repository for metadata and just move the metadata folder to that repository or will it still force it to generate new metadata?

[foggy]

David, yes, you can copy the Replicas folder to the new repository (keeping the full path to its content) prior to running your replica jobs and then edit replica jobs to point them to the new repository for storing replica metadata. After that metadata should be picked up by your jobs

[itdirector]

We have two "backup repositories" for replica jobs. We moved these replica metadata files to a new drive. We then created two new "Backup repositories" & pointed them to the new drive that had the exact path as the previous replica metadata (we picked to import in existing backups). Afterwards, we went into the replica jobs & pointed them the new "repository for replica metadata" backup repositories. We then deleted the old replica "Backup repositories". As soon as we did that, all of those replicas got deleted from the Replicas section of B&R (although the replica VM's are still in the ESXi server).

I thought if we moved the replica metadata files, then created new replica backup repositories & pointed them to it, all our replica metadata would remain intact?

I understand on the next replica job run, the metadata will get re-created, but that is not what we want (we have significant amount of replica data going across to our DR site, & having to rebuild hash information for all of our 80 VM's would not work).

Also, why would the replicas disappear from the Replicas section of B&R?

Any suggestions? Thx.

Veeam B&R 7.0.0.833
vSphere 5.0

[Vitaliy S.]

I think the step that caused is that is "backup import" option. As far as I remember you should be using rescan option to populate your backup console with new replica metadata location, and after that point your jobs to this very repository.

[upietz]

Hey board,

we have a running Veeam B&R 8 vSphere instance with multiple backup and replication jobs. Due to a change in our storage setup, I had to introduce a new Backup Repository. Everything went fine with the backup jobs migrating to the new repo, but when I moved the replication metadata I'm seeing what I think is a complete recreation of the metadata. Here's what I've done:

• Created new backup repository
• Moved folder "Replicas" to new location
• Did a rescan of the new repo
• In the replication job settings, targeted "Repository for replica metadata" to the new repo
• Started a replication job. It takes an awful long time.

Is the way to move the metadata wrong? If so, what are my options to remediate the situations so my other replication jobs reuse the existing information?

Thanks

[Shestakov]

Hi Stefan,
As far as I understood you added a new DR host, not production one and moved replication VM to the new location. Is that correct?
Note that repository for replica metadata has to be deployed in a production(source) site, where you are replication from.
So probably you didn`t need to move it at all. If I understood you wrong, please correct me. Are source and target of the replication jobs placed on the different locations?
Thanks.

[upietz]

Hey Nikita,

thanks for your follow-up. I did not add a new host, just a new repository on the existing host. i.e. I mapped a new LUN to a directory and added that path as a repository. Sorry if I didn't make that clear. Then I moved the "Replicas" folder from the old repository (path) to the new one and did a rescan.

[Shestakov]

I see your point.
Looks like you did everything correctly. I would suggest to double check if the metadata is in the right repository. And if it`s correct, please contact Veeam technical support to review logs.
Thanks.

[jbarrow.viracoribt]

I have Proxy A that is getting replaced by Proxy B.
Proxy A currently has a repository which contains replica metadata.
When I ran a test job on Proxy B, the first VM it processed it recreated this metadata.
Can I seed Proxy B with replica metadata from Proxy A to speed this process up when I add in all my VM's?

[alanbolte]

I have not tested it in the current version, but I have seen it work in the past. You just have to make sure the files are in the correct path, i.e. if the new repository path is E:\backups, the metadata VBK files need to be in a path like E:\backups\replicas\vm-123\

[jbarrow.viracoribt]

I had no problem doing this for the one proxy I had to replace. Just copied the entire folders structure from the old proxy to the new.

I'm about to do this again but this time I'm replacing 3 existing VM proxies with one Physical proxy. So I will be copying this replica folder path from three different existing proxies over to one new one. Looking at the VM folder names I don't think there will be an issue as the folder names seem unique.

[foggy]

Since the paths will be preserved, I think everything should work smooth.

[Blue407]

Hi All

I'm still testing Veeam out. On the server I am using the Replication jobs have quickly filled the HDD array, I have just ordered some more Disks from Dell

What will the process be to relocate the replicated files to an additional RAID array? (Effectively a new E:\ drive)
From what I can see on the server, on the D:\ drive is a D:\Replicas which contains the Hyper-V VM's (and is referenced in Hyper-V Manager for each VM) Also in the Repository on the D:\ drive I can see a Replicas folder which seems to contain extra information and files.

I did have a quick search for this first, but posts primarily talked about moving Backup jobs, not replica's.

Thanks in advance for your help and advice

[PTide]

Hi,

Please check foggy's post and feel free to ask questions.

Thank you.