Backup-to-disk and backup-to-tape overlap

[RaymondV]

Hi,

We make copies of our backupfiles to tape once every week, and use forward incremental with synthetic fulls on Friday and transform to rollback. We have a pretty large amount of data to backup and writing to tape almost takes a week. If we add more VM's there will be an overlap: tape is still being written to when the transform to synthetic full starts. In Veeam v7 this caused the writing to tape to stop because the full backup file was changed.
I wonder if there is a resolution in v8, like keeping the backup-to-disk job on hold as long as it is being taped.

Kind regards,
Raymond

[veremin]

You can switch source backup job to new forward incremental - forever backup and, then, let backup to tape job create synthesized full backup on regular basis. Thanks.

[RaymondV]

Hi Vladimir,

Thanks for the reply. Using forever incremental crossed my mind. Do you think this will work with 300+ restore points? We want to keep as much restore points as possible but only have space for one full backup on our repository.

Kind regards,
Raymond

[veremin]

Since you're after long term retention and also happen to have tape device, why not to use it for that purpose? If I were you, I'd lower retention of source backup job and let tapes meet my "long term retention" requirements. Thanks.

[RaymondV]

We have switched to forward incremental, but run into trouble with the tape jobs. The problem is, our tape job takes days. During those days, every day a backup-to-disk is run. As soon as the backup-to-disk job finishes it tries to merge the incremental data into the full backup file. The full backup file changes and the tape job will fail with the following error: Failed to create backup metadata info. Error: Matching tape backup was not found.

Is there any way to work around this? An option to hold the merging process until the tape job finishes would be an ideal solution for us.

[veremin]

What retention settings does a source backup job have? Also, can you specify some window (may be, during weekend) during which the initial full backup will be transferred to tape mediums. Once it's done, only incremental data will be copied to tapes; such operations shouldn't take that long. Thanks.

[RaymondV]

We have set the retention to 65 days. We have the policy to make a full backup to tape once every month (now once every week while we are still testing). So there will definitely be an overlap between disk and tape jobs. I figure a workaround would be to set retention to say 99 days just before the tape job starts and then set it back to 65 days when it has finished. If there is anyone who can tell me how to change the retention for all disk jobs at once using Powershell I would be very grateful

I have just manually started the tape job (98 VM's) and I immediately noticed that synthesized full backup is only used on 2 of the VM's. For all other VM's it just transfers the full VBK-file. There doesn't seem to be any difference in the source jobs so I wonder what triggers this behaviour. Is there any way to force Veeam into using synthesized full backups to tape instead of transferring the VBK-files?

Regards,
Raymond

[veremin]

We have the policy to make a full backup to tape once every month (now once every week while we are still testing). So there will definitely be an overlap between disk and tape jobs.

As you might already know, now you can create a full backup directly on tape, using synthesized full functionality. So, with backup jobs specified in forward forever incremental mode, there is no need to perform active full backup on disks.

if there is anyone who can tell me how to change the retention for all disk jobs at once using Powershell I would be very grateful

Create a post in the corresponding subforum, and I will be glad to assist you with that.

Is there any way to force Veeam into using synthesized full backups to tape instead of transferring the VBK-files?

Initial full backup has to be transferred to tapes. Once it's done, only incremental data should be copied to tape mediums (as long as, source job utilizes forward forever incremental mode). The synthesized full creation is controlled by "schedule" button.

Thanks.

[RaymondV]

Thanks for all the clarifications. I have just posted a question on the Powershell subforum regarding the restore points.

Regards,
Raymond

[veremin]

You're welcome. Should other help be needed, feel free to contact us. As to your question, I've already provided the script that should meet your expectations. Thanks.