v7 Backup Copy Job removable media (rotated drives)

[zak2011]

The particular model of the RDX drive is
HP RDX320 USB3.0 External Disk Backup System (B7B63A)

http://www8.hp.com/us/en/products/disk- ... !tab=specs

I have applied the registry hack and restarted the server, however still it fails. Anything esle needs to be done?

Thanks

[zak2011]

I tried connecting an ordinary external drive inplace of the RDX drive and the same error happens. Does this have to do with the passthrough configuration of the Esxi host perhaps?

Thanks!

[Vitaliy S.]

Could be...do you mount these drives to the ESXi host and then publish it to the VM? Try attaching the RDX device to any physical machine instead to check if passthrough configuration is an issue or not.

[zak2011]

Yes, i configured passthrough for the USB controllers and then added it to the VM. I will try attaching the RDX to a physical machine and see.

Thanks!

[zak2011]

I connected the RDX to a physcal machine and got the following error
8/22/2013 10:18:43 PM :: Unable to find transport component for host '00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000'
This might be different issue perhaps.
However while configuring the USB controllers for passthrough, it asks for a reboot of the host. After the host is rebooted the controllers are not shown in the list of the devices. Is this normal?

Thanks,

[Andreas Neufert]

Never had a Problem with Tandberg QuikStore (Single USB3 RDX).

I
... Formated the RDX Media with NTFS and asign a Drive Letter.
... created a "Veeam Windows Repository" (no CIFS) directly with the root of the above selected drive letter
... added the registry key to the Backup & Replication (Management) Server. Restarted the Veeam Backup Service.
... Disable the Antivirus Scanning for that drive.
... Created a Job that direct backup to that System.

Please check also if you can write big data files without corruption to that drive (Windows File Copy). I had a Problem with an other USB cable once at another System.

[zak2011]

Thanks Andreas. I just came across an article that talks about connecting USB 3 devices in pass through mode in ESXi5.
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/micros ... Id=1022290

The devices I am trying to configure are both USB 3.
Is this related?

Thanks

[Andreas Neufert]

Please try to connect them to a physical Windows Server. Use our Repository Deployment to add that Server as a "Windows" Repository as described above.
Try copy a big amount of local data to the media. If no error, try to backup to that repository.
If this works you can try again with pass through if you are sure the device works fine.

[zak2011]

Thankyou Andreas for the tips on adding the RDX drive.
I tried adding the external drive ( not the RDX ) as a Microsoft windows server repository. Then populated the server to see the drive letter of the external drive. The job works fine when adding the external drive with the drive letter as a repository.
The external drive showed up as a local disk drive.
However the RDX drive shows up as a removable drive in My Computer on the Veeam server. However when i try to add the RDX drive in Veeam console it does not see the drive letter.
How do i make Veeam to recognize the RDX as a drive letter when adding the repository?
Thanks.

[Andreas Neufert]

Use Windows Disk Manager to create a NTFS Partition and select a drive letter for this. Windows will remember the drive letter.

[zak2011]

Just to add and make myself clearer...this does not seem to have anything to do with the pass through.
- The backup job fails on both the RDX and the External drive when configuring them as a CIFS share.
- So..created a "Veeam Windows Repository" (no CIFS) directly with the root of the above selected drive letter for the external drive and the backup job worked fine.
-Now trying to do the same thing for the RDX. But the drive letter of the RDX drive does not show up in Veeam console while adding it a Microsoft windows repository. ( RDX shows up as a Removable drive, not a local drive unlike the external drive).

Thanks

[zak2011]

In the Windows Disk Manager, it sees the RDX drive as a Removable drive NTFS partition and a drive letter is already assigned. However Veeam does not see it.

[Andreas Neufert]

OK, I did not understand the whole infrastructure you use.

If you want to add a cifs share as repository zou can not add them bz a drive letter.
A CIFS share needs to be added as a CIFS Repository. A CIFS share mapped to a Windows Server can not be used as a Windows Repository.

Did you mapped the RDX per CIFS share?

[zak2011]

...Two external devices are being used for this scenario. An RDX drive and a Western Digital 4TB External drive.
Both are directly connected to the ESXi host through passthrough mode.The Veeam server shows both the devices
...Initially i had added the RDX drive as a CIFS repository. The jobs kept failing every time.
... Tried adding an Western Digital 4TB External drive as a CIFS repository and also the jobs kept failing.
... After reading your post on adding the RDX drive ".. created a "Veeam Windows Repository" (no CIFS) directly with the root of the above selected drive letter", i tried adding the WD ext drive not as a CIFS repository,but as a Windows repository with the drive letter. This works fine.
... Tried the same thing for the RDX drive. But RDX drive does not show up with a drive letter when trying to add as a Windows repository after clicking on Populate this server. On the Veeam server, under My computer the RDX shows up as a removable drive and the WD shows up as a local drive.
... How do i add the RDX directly with the root of the selected drive letter so that Veeam can see it as a non-CIFS repository.

[Andreas Neufert]

Please go to Managed Servers and perform an Disk Scan on the Server the disks are connected.
You can do this by right click on the managed server. Maybe it is marked as a This Server.

Will it show now the drive letter?


If not:
Will you see the drive letter in Windows?
NTFS Formated?
Can you save data with Windows to the drive letter ?

[zak2011]

I went to the Managed Servers and performed a Disk Scan on the Server. It says the disk have been successfully scanned.
However, if i go to the Backup Repositories and try to add 'This server' as a repository, it shows up only the locally attached disks and not the removable drive which is the RDX.

In Windows I can see the drive in My Computer as F:Removable Drive. It is NTFS formatted and I can create folders or files on that drive from windows.

Thanks

[Andreas Neufert]

If it will be the same after restart of whole server, please open a support ticket by naming only this specific problem. Disk not found at repository selection.

[zak2011]

As a workaround, I have had to use the mlink command to mount the removable drive as a local drive in Veeam server and then added it as a repository.
The new repository with a folder on the c drive pointing to the RDX was added as a Windows repository with the drive letter and path. I ran the job and it seems to be working this way.
Is this okay to do it from Veeam perspective?

[Andreas Neufert]

If Windows can write to it without interuption it will work I think.

[zak2011]

For the backup copy job to RDX is it recommended to leave the job to run continuosly or at a particular time?
In my case, the backups go to primary backup storage Synology NAS. Then the RDX drive is connected to the host for offsite backups. I just need the latest backups on the Synology to be copied to the RDX drive everyday Mon to Fri.
The registry key has been created on the Veeam Backup server , so this means that once the backup files are copied from the Synology NAS to the RDX drive, the RDX disk could be removed and a new one disk can be inserted everyday. Since this is in a remote office setup which belongs to a total different network to which I dont have access to, I would need to have the backup copy job to be seamless so that the user at the remote office just needs to swap out disks. I have set the restore point to 1.

Thanks

[zak2011]

Is there a way to specify in the Backup Copy job to select to copy just the vbks from the primary backup storage to the secondary storage?

[veremin]

There must be slight misunderstanding of backup copy job concept. The backup copy job isn’t about just copying backup files from source to target – it’s more about backup copy job creating required restore points at target location with the usage of its special logic.

So, it’s not possible to choose only .vbk files as a source for a backup copy job.

Thanks.

[zak2011]

Thanks Vladimir for clearing that. In my environment I have a normal physical server as the primary backup storage in the primary site. In the secondary site, I have a data domain appliance.
If i configure the backup copy job for each of my jobs, all the vbks and the vrbs ( because i am using reverse incremental) will be copied to the data domain appliance using reverse incremental.
After that I need to copy the vbks to the external drive for offsite backup purposes. For this, i will need only to copy the vbks. That means I wont be able to use the backup copy job in this case, but only the PowerShell scripts.
Is this correct?

Thanks

[foggy]

Seems that you still do not fully understand the backup copy job logic. It does not copy any files, instead it retrieves only those data blocks from the most recent restore point (incremental changes) at the source storage that are to be transferred over to the target and then synthetically builds up a new incremental restore point using this data and data already available on the target repository. I strongly recommend reviewing the corresponding user guide section as the whole process is described there in pretty good detail.

After that I need to copy the vbks to the external drive for offsite backup purposes. For this, i will need only to copy the vbks. That means I wont be able to use the backup copy job in this case, but only the PowerShell scripts.

You can use two backup copy jobs to different locations and with different retention policies, if you need to store backups in several sites.

[zak2011]

That was the case, I didnt quite understand it. Thanks Alexander for directing me towards the user guide. It is explained well.
So this means even if reverse or forward incrementals are in the primary backup repository the data blocks are retrieved and built into a vbk file at the target repository.

[foggy]

So this means even if reverse or forward incrementals are in the primary backup repository the data blocks are retrieved and built into a vbk file at the target repository.

That's correct.

[bctirado]

Hi Guys,

Just wanted to loop back around on this, does the ForceCreateMissingVBK work or not as it relates to the Copy Job target? I called support and they said it doesn't apply to Copy Jobs. Anyway just wanted to clear it up and see if I was missing something. Ultimate goal is to be able to swap the Copy Job target.

Brian

[awex]

Hi,

Thought this thread was appropriate, is it possible for the Backup Copy Job to notify when it is finished synching? We run nightly backups and then would like to use a Backup Copy Job to copy onto a rotating set of USB drives which are taken offsite each day, before we unplug the USB drive each day we would like to know that the Backup Copy Job has completed synching, is this possible (had a look at the user guide and could not see anything there)? We currently use a PowerShell script which robocopies the files to the USB drive and emails when it is complete but would prefer if Veeam handled all of the backup file transfers.

Thanks,
Nigel.

[foggy]

is it possible for the Backup Copy Job to notify when it is finished synching?

Nigel, backup copy job notification settings are available at the Target step of the backup copy job wizard, under Advanced button (Notifications tab). Thanks.

[awex]

Thanks Foggy, found that. The global notifications seem to not work, is that correct (under Options-Enable e-mail notification)?