Backup only synthetic full to tape?

[auser42]

I'm open to recommendations on backup strategy, i am trying to get about 20TB to tape with single drive LTO6 library every 1st of the month as efficiently as possible.

It seems that when I run a backup copy job to tape the synethic full it's running is about the size of entire backup chain instead of the size of an active full. Ideally I only want it to grab the last day of the month and run on the 1st. (I have upgraded to v9 to be able to do this). Am I misreading something?

I have increased my backup copy retention to 30 retention points so I want to make sure it's not going to backup all 30 day's to tape.

I'm also concerned about performance, as it seems to take a long time to prepare the synthetic backup. Is there a better way to set this up?

[Shestakov]

Hello Matt and welcome to the community!

It seems that when I run a backup copy job to tape the synethic full it's running is about the size of entire backup chain instead of the size of an active full.

These backups should be of the same size. Could you provide the backup sizes you experience?

As for the tape backup, your understanding is correct. You need to schedule synthetic full backup to be executed just before the backup to tape job. If it would take too long, you may try an Active full instead. It would be even better in terms of recoverability since you start a new chain from the scratch. However, it would take an extra disk space.
Just don`t forget to enable backup only the last chain to tape.

Do you leverage surebackup? If so I would suggest trying synthetic full and see if it takes a lot of time in your infrastructure.
Thanks!

[auser42]

Thanks for the reply! The tape loader is off-site with the backup-copy's so a active full isn't an option.

Can you clarify if the tape size is :

1. Equal to the size of an active full
OR
2. Equal to the size of an active full + all incremental s?

I ask because I would think an Incremental often contains data that has been deleted.

[Shestakov]

A single .vbk file made by synthetic full run should have the same size as .vbk made by active full run.
What backup sizes do you have?

[auser42]

I’m pretty sure I was just looking at things wrong. I looked closer and it looks like the reason for the discrepancy is there are 2 full restore points on the tape job which I was only expecting 1. I don't know why it did that, but I re-created the job from scratch so I may just open a case if i'm still having issues. Sorry for the trouble but i'm starting to grasp things better now. Thanks!

[Shestakov]

No problem. Let me know if my assistance is needed.
Thanks!

[rsberzerker]

I'm having the same issue, but I'm on B&R 8. So if I understand the previous posts, there is no [automatic] way to tell Veeam to make a temporary synthetic full and copy that to tape? To accomplish this, I would have to create another backup job(s), set retention to 1, have that job run (and finish) before the tape job, and tie that to the tape job rather than my regular disk jobs which have a retention of 14.

My concern like the original poster is space. Tapes are slow and each one, for my system, only holds 2.3 TB and my VMs total [currently] 4.88 TB.

[Dima P.]

Robert,

I'm having the same issue, but I'm on B&R 8. So if I understand the previous posts, there is no [automatic] way to tell Veeam to make a temporary synthetic full and copy that to tape

It is possible to schedule to synthesized full backup on tape thru the schedule in the tape job settings. Check this Help Center article

[Shestakov]

So if I understand the previous posts, there is no [automatic] way to tell Veeam to make a temporary synthetic full and copy that to tape? To accomplish this, I would have to create another backup job(s), set retention to 1, have that job run (and finish) before the tape job, and tie that to the tape job rather than my regular disk jobs which have a retention of 14.

What is your ultimate goal here? Do you want to copy on tapes only full backups? Rather than having synthesized full with 1 day of retention, you can schedule reverse incremental mode.

[rsberzerker]

If I understand the documentation correctly Dima P. linked to, and I may not, unchecking the process incrementals means Veeam will only backup whatever is the current full. When I looked a previous tape job, I did see 1 vbk and several vib files. Since I am running, per support due to another issue, forever forward incrementals, my 1 and only vbk is about a month and half old.

What I want to do with my tape backups is to take whatever state my VMs are in now and back that up to tape, not whatever state they were in over a month ago. Scheduling reverse incremental mode, as I mentioned earlier, didn't work and support put me on forever forward, which is working just fine, except for tapes.

[Shestakov]

If I understand the documentation correctly Dima P. linked to, and I may not, unchecking the process incrementals means Veeam will only backup whatever is the current full. When I looked a previous tape job, I did see 1 vbk and several vib files. Since I am running, per support due to another issue, forever forward incrementals, my 1 and only vbk is about a month and half old.

Your understanding is correct, you either have 1 full backup on disk(forever incremental mode) and at least 2 on tapes or 2 on disk (incremental) and no synthesized fulls on tapes.