Discussions related to exporting backups to tape and backing up directly to tape.
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markr
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File to Tape, restore point issue/question

Post by markr »

Just started using the tape backup feature and backing up to tape is working fine. I am currently running a File to Tape job which backs up our most recent vbk of our VM backups along with a some misc directories to single LTO-5 tape drive. Since all of our data currently fits on one tape so we just do fulls each night.

The problem I've run into is that when I select a folder to restore from the Files view, even if I select the most recent media set, it prompts for earlier tapes because, I assume, when the top level folder is select in File view, it shows everything that was ever backed up in that folder. The issue is that I only want data restored from that single tape since it's a full, if I wanted data as it was at an earlier date, I would use that particular tape. Not comparing Veeam to Backup Exec, but in BE there is a restore from media option that only restores what's on that specific tape.

To try to show what I mean, the below screenshot is a test backup of a folder that contains a Windows backup over two nights.The catalog display shows "Backup 2013-09-12" and "Backup 2013-09-13" but when the backup was run on 9-13, the 2013-09-12 folder was not there and it correctly shows 1 restore point for each day. But when I select the top level FMDC1-08 folder, select restore files from tape, then select the most recent backup set, it still prompts me for the previous tape, I guess because selecting the top level folder also selects all contents which would include the files from the previous days backup. So I guess my question is, how can restore only the files that were backed up to a specific media set? I definitely might be missing something obvious here!
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veremin
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Re: File to Tape, restore point issue/question

Post by veremin »

May I ask you a question - if you want to restore only the “Backup 2013-09-13” folder, why not to select it directly (not through the root folder)? Thanks.
markr
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Re: File to Tape, restore point issue/question

Post by markr »

I could but it's more of an issue when there might be multiple subfolders where I'm not sure what folders were in the backup set. While I am trying to get everything backed up at the Veeam level, I unfortunately have a few systems that I need to backup at the folder level and Backup Exec is working fine for that at this time, just wanted to remove the BE step if possible.

My earlier example was pretty simple, I have a few cases where there might be a top level folder named Assembly with multiple (10s) of subfolders that have mostly random names. AG1278-2, FT7857-34 that change nightly, folders that were in folder Assembly last night will not be in that folder tonight. In this case , not that I have to restore these that often, but if I did, in Backup Exec I would just use media view and select the top level folder (Assembly) from that tape and restore the entire thing which would give me copy of Assembly as it was when the backup ran even if I don't know for certain which subfolders I need or even which subfolders were backed up. In Veeam, the Files view would show all folders that have been backed up in the Assembly folder, this might end up being a thousand or more over time, and I really wouldn't know for sure which ones to select to get only a directory structure of what backed up on that night. In my example, I just know that I want the folder called Assembly as it is on this one specific tape or backup set.

I know this is kind of a fringe issue and folder/file level backup really isn't the point of Veeam, and believe me, I am trying to work towards getting away from backing up files directly but just wanted to bring it up in case I was missing something.
veremin
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Re: File to Tape, restore point issue/question

Post by veremin »

I’ve just talked with QA team, and they confirmed that with current implementation it’s not possible to restore only files related to certain backup set - if the root folder is chosen, we will try to restore its whole content. We will look on the ways how current logic can be changed in the future releases. Thanks.
Mory
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Re: File to Tape, restore point issue/question

Post by Mory »

I second this as an issue. I created a ticket but was told the same thing.

What doesn't make sense to me though is if this is by design, why is there a media set option after you select the data to restore?

Files come and go... If you need to restore a folder structure, share, server, etc. in the event of a disaster, you want to restore it to the current state as quickly as possible (so should only need the last full back and any incremental backups performed since the last full). Files that existed at some time in the past but do not any longer were probably deleted for a reason. Why restore them during a recovery? These types of restores would be specific and get restored from previous backup sets, such as a month end or year end backup. So speaking of which, it would be great to have a GFS rotation within tape backup jobs to accomplish this correctly! :-)

Don't get me wrong, I love Veeam and I'm grateful for the tape support now included w/ v7, but looking forward to see how this evolves in future updates!
markr
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Re: File to Tape, restore point issue/question

Post by markr »

Thanks for bringing this issue back up. This is the only thing keeping me on Backup Exec at this time
sdelacruz
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Re: File to Tape, restore point issue/question

Post by sdelacruz »

Had the same problem, and the bad part was that I found out when one of our vice presidents was requesting a server to be restored as soon as possible. lucky I was able to repair the VServer without having to restore from tape to disk.

What I have been testing is having to rename the Root folder where all my backups are stored.
I move my backups to tape only the first of the month. I include 14 restore points on each VM.
This is how the folder name looks like during the whole month.
D:\VeeamBackups
VM1
VM2
VM3


I Renamed the root folder before sending it to tape.
D:\VeeaBackups_EOM_JAN_2014
VM1
VM2
VM3

Once I finished with the Tape backup I rename the root folder back.
When I tried to restore, I was able to pick the D:\VeeamBackups_EOM_JAN_204 from the folder structure and was able to dig all the way to the VBK of a particular VM. Doing this,
This method allowed me to just mount the tape that had that EOM folder structure.
I would love to have the option to restore directly from tape just like you can using BE 2012.
veremin
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Re: File to Tape, restore point issue/question

Post by veremin »

So, you're using this approach in order to restore the folder to the specified state and bypass the existing limitation with root folder restoration. Great workaround, indeed.
I would love to have the option to restore directly from tape just like you can using BE 2012.
You mean not to use tape-to-disk-to-disk restoration approach, but use tape-to-disk, instead? In other words, you're after having ability to restore directly from tapes to virtual infrastructure?

Thanks.
sdelacruz
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Re: File to Tape, restore point issue/question

Post by sdelacruz »

Well what I actually meant was to be able to inventory the tape and be able to explore the tape content, select the files that need to be restored. In BE, I can right click on the tape after being inventoried, then I can explore the content of the tape (folder structure), I can select a file, folder etc, and able to restore it to its original location or alternate location.
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Re: File to Tape, restore point issue/question

Post by Dima P. »

Sam,

It is possible to look at content of each tape media by right clicking it and going to tape properties > files tab. All the contained files or backup would be displayed there in a list view; however the restore operation needs to be launched from the file catalogue view. I would add this as a feature request as for me it looks like “nice to have” functionality.

Thank you.
it.loepa
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Re: File to Tape, restore point issue/question

Post by it.loepa »

I have to bring that up.
Thats not a nice to have, this feature is important. I'm suprised how often I realise that veeam is not ready for an adequate tape backup function. It lacks of features in many ways, and nearly any time veeam tells "we know it, we're on it". Sorry exactly know I'm a bit frustrated.
Dima P.
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Re: File to Tape, restore point issue/question

Post by Dima P. »

Hello it.loepa,

I am sorry to hear that you are frustrated. Can you please share the list of functionality you would like to see in the upcoming versions (or you are talking about this feature request specifically) – it can help a lot while planning the next feature set? Thank you in advance.
fredbloggs
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Re: File to Tape, restore point issue/question

Post by fredbloggs »

I'm guessing that this hasn't been updated in version 9 based on the comment above?

God I hope it has:?:

The best workaround I can see is to remove the catalog from all the older tapes that veeam has written too, then Veeam doesn't know about them to try and restore those files that shouldn't be restored (since the users had deleted them on purpose several months ago), perform the restore then undertake an exercise to re-catalog all those tapes in case they are needed.

Still, I suppose it was Tape support v2?
Dima P.
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Re: File to Tape, restore point issue/question

Post by Dima P. »

fredbloggs,

What media set creation options are you using? Thanks
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