Backing up data from one Veeam server to a tape on another.

[andrew777]

I have 2 Veeam Servers, both of which contain Data Repositories, Tape Media Server and Tape Library.
One of these Veeam servers tape library is under a lot less pressure than the other one. Can I backup one of the Backup-To-Disk jobs from the pressured Veeam Server directly to the tape drive on the other Veeam server? Is this supported?

[veremin]

What kind of tape jobs are you using? And what backup mode do the source backup job have? (reversed incremental, forward forever incremental or forward with periodic fulls)?

[andrew777]

We are mainly using the "Backup Jobs" to tape option, but we could backup the file system instead.
We use "Reverse Incremental".

[veremin]

In this case, you can create a files to tape job on the second backup server selecting a directory a backup job writes to as its source and setting .vbk as a file mask. However, you will have to make sure a backup job on a first server and a tape job on a second server do not overlap, as the execution of primary job would result in failure of secondary one.

Thanks.

[andrew777]

Thanks for the quick reply.

So Veeam doesn't mind the first server being a backup proxy for itself and a backup proxy for the second server? I was hesitant about doing this as I didn't want to break anything.

[gonzo99]

I do the same, but the two servers have different versions (VBR9 with tape and VBR8 to be backed up with the new one) and so they are not listed as backup proxies for each other, the versions of the backup proxy software are not compatible.
But that doesn't matter, the backup of the VBR8 server taken with VBR9 with a file tape job over the network just runs fine, speedo tells it runs about 130mb/s with a Quantum Superloader LTO6.
18 VM's are backed up on tape this way and I defined to use every directory with every file. At first I had an error telling there are missing files, but that was my fault, I've included the .\REPLICA dir and that should be backed up before the replication starts.

[veremin]

So Veeam doesn't mind the first server being a backup proxy for itself and a backup proxy for the second server?

Nope, it does - you should not add the same machine to different backup servers as tape servers. However, the idea here is not to touch anything, but rather create a files to tape job on the second backup server and select a directory a backup job (existing on the first server) writes to as its source. Such action should not require adding the first backup server to the console of the second backup server as a tape server.

Thanks.

[andrew777]

Thanks for the information, very helpful.

[veremin]

You're welcome. Let us know, should other help be needed. Thanks.