Running job after fullVM restore, how is backupset affected?

[Peejay62]

I performed a fullVM recovery of a machine (linux in this case, let's call it LINUX001). Works flawless, thanks Veeam . Had 'object not found' in subsequent backupjob. based on kb1299 I understand why this happens. I have some thoughts about that though:
removing the old VM LINUX001 and redefining after rescan the same VM LINUX001 lets the job run succesfully. The old VM is "no longer processed" by this job. Displaying the disk backupset for the given jobs shows the old machine LINUX001 with the number of restorepoint it had. the 'new' LINUX001 has started with a new restorepoint. So my questions are whether this enforced a new full for that LINUX001 as this machine is seen as a new object? Hopefully the backuprun is deduplicated against the backupfile it already had. And second the old LINUX001 backupdata sits and waits until the retention of the deleted VM option is reached? I now have 4 restorepoints for the same machine and this will add up as time proceeds. So If I have the deleted VM option set to 1 year, I will get stuck with that even if I just intend to keep 3 versions of a backup.(assuming I run a daily backup, I only keep 3 restorepoints, 3 days...) This can cause a significant impact on the capacity one needs to store the backups. In case of a big restore with multiple VMs involved, this can become a problem when all the restorepoints are kept until the expiration period is reached. The only option might be set the deleted VM option to the lowest possible value (1 day?). But then this option becomes rather useless imo, I kind of see this option more than a grace period to keep your last backups in case of a removed VM and you loose all your previous restorepoints.
It would be better to have an option that can link the new to the old object and manage accordingly. So I now should see only 3 restorepoints, 2 of the old one and 1 of the new one. As new backups run, the old restorepoints get discarded nicely.. Probably not easy to realize but I think mention it anyway. Any thoughts on that?

thanks, Peter

[VladV]

I had a similar situation to yours when I reinstalled the vcenter server so all my macines had their moref ids changed thus treating them like different VMs with the same name.

I noticed that even though I set up the retention period for deleted VMs to 3 days, after 5 days I still had some restore points for that VM still remaining. They were delete only after the number of restore points available after deletion was at least the number set in the job. So i guess that they get deleted only when both retention policies are met (deleted vm retention and restore points retention).

[Vitaliy S.]

Hi Peter,

So my questions are whether this enforced a new full for that LINUX001 as this machine is seen as a new object?

Yes, it will be a new full.

Hopefully the backuprun is deduplicated against the backupfile it already had.

What backup mode are you using? Reversed or forward incremental mode? We've got an existing topic with a similar question, check it out > Moving VMs to a new virtual center.

And second the old LINUX001 backupdata sits and waits until the retention of the deleted VM option is reached?

See this existing topic on deleted VMs retention policy > Deleted VMs Retention Period

Thanks!

[Peejay62]

Well, I have an update on this :
I just ran some more backupruns on this one. I seems that a restorepoint is added to the new LINUX001 and a restore point removed from the old LINUX001. Ran the backupjob twice, i now have 3 new and 1 old. So, obviously veeam already has adressed this issue (unaware?)! It works exactly as I liked it to work. Good job Veeam. I will later on make another run, i suspect the old LINUX001 restorepoints are gone and only the new ones will be there. So you have one restore point extra for a period of time, that's no problem..

[Vitaliy S.]

i suspect the old LINUX001 restorepoints are gone and only the new ones will be there.

Did you use a backup mapping option or you have started to backup your VM anew?

[Peejay62]

I just removed the old VM and added the new one. After that I started the job. After a little while I started the job again.. Didn't do anything with backupmapping. I use reversed incremental.

[Vitaliy S.]

Thanks for the details provided. Your old VM is not gone from the VBK file...well not yet, its blocks are reused by the new VM, that is why you see that the number of restore points available is decreasing.