Along with this we dumped Backup Exec 2010 R3, which was used to backup directly to tape.
Backup Exec was configured to create full backups on Mon, Wed en Fri.
Incrementals on Tue and Thurs.
For that we used a tape robot, holding 8 tapes.
We used 2 sets of 8 tapes (16 tapes), 1 set of 8 tapes per week.
Worked like a charm. (eventually
)So every monday an employee switches the 8 tapes, and takes home the 8 tapes from the week
before. (off-site backup)
Since we migrated to new hardware, this was our chance to finally get rid of Backup Exec
We use veeam for most of our customers because it's simple and fast.
However we don't have any xp with veeam and tapes.
We also know that veeam can't do backup to tape directly, so we placed a simple synology
214+ with 2x 4TB in raid 1 as a target for backup to disk.
Full backup size is 1,6 TB, restore points to keep is set on default: 14.
The thing is, I want to know for once and for all what the best config is for this setup.
(backup to disk and then to tape for off-sites)
The good thing about having a backup to disk now, is that we can do fast restores.
In the old situation we had to ask the employee to bring the tapes she had at home, along
to the office etc...
Currently the backup to disk is configured as following:
- 8 VMs
- 14 restore points
- Reverse incremental
- secondary target: back up to tape job
Currently the backup to tape is configured as following:
- Backup files: the backup to disk job
- Full backup: the media pool which contains all 16 tapes.
- Incremental backup: the same media pool which contains all 16 tapes.
- starts as soon as backup to disk finishes
Now, for the backup to disk part:
What I want is being able to go back 2 weeks, like in the past, which I think is ok at the
moment with the current config for backup to disk.
I've got no clue how reverse incremental works, I've read pages with complex explenations,
but there's no-one which can explain it in an easy way, which options do what.
From what I've heard is that you should not use 'incremental' since it doesn't clean up
the older backup sets and your disk runs out of space?
So we use reverse incrementals, and this seems to work out.
Apart from that, we don't enable active full.
Why would you wanna do this?
Why, for example, not just a full every day? (diskspace?) (since you have to tick one of
the radio buttons for incremental and reverse incremental)
Is it required or is it best practice to take a full every week?
I see that the first backup it makes it a full, and then it creates incrementals forever
and cleans up the restore points older than 14 days.
So why would you want to create an active full?
For the tape part:
The backup now works, but I don't think it's working like it should.
I've created 1 media pool which containts the 16 tapes.
Yesterday was monday, and it only wrote +- 800 GB to the tape.
So I think that it created some sort of incremental to the set of this week.
Meaning that the tapes, needed for a restore, are spread over the 2 sets.
So I think I have to create 2 pools:
- Week 1 which holds 8 tapes
- Week 2 which holds the other 8 tapes
Next up: when you configure a tape job, you can set a media pool for full backup and a
media pool for incremental backup.
Since I think I should create 2 pools, with each 8 tapes and only have 1 tape job, how
does this fit in?
Because:
- 1 tape job: requires config for media pool for full and incremental.
But I have 2 sets of tapes.
Do I need to configure 2 back up to tape jobs and schedule them to run every other week?
I can't select multiple media pools for the full and incremental backup in the tape job.
Apart from that, is it required to devide the week 1 pool into subpool?
Like: tape 1 to 6 are inceremental tapes and tape 7 and 8 are full backup tapes?
I doubt it's clear what I'm trying to explain, so here's the scenario's on which I don't
know what to do:
Possible config 1:
*** MEDIA SETS ***
- Media set 1 - Week 1
* Tape 1-8
- Media set 2 - Week 2
* Tape 9-16
*** TAPE JOBS ***
- Backup to tape - Week 1
* Full & Incremental on Media set 1 - Week 1
- Backup to tape - Week 2
* Full & Incremental on Media set 2 - Week 2
In this config, I'm hoping Veeam is smart enough to decide on it's own which tapes to use
for full and which to use for incrementals?
Also here: I don't know if it's possible to get this scheduled, so that the jobs run every
other week.
Both jobs configured to backup from the backup to disk as source.
Possible config 2:
*** MEDIA SETS ***
- Media set 1 - Incremental Week 1:
* Tape 1-6 = incremental
- Media set 2 - Full Week 1:
* Tape 7-8
- Media set 3 - Incremental Week 2:
* Tape 9-14 = incremental
- Media set 4 - Full Week 2:
* Tape 15-16 = full
*** TAPE JOBS ***
- Backup to tape - Week 1
* Incremental Media set: Media set 1 - Incremental Week 1
* Full backup Media set: Media set 2 - Full Week 1
- Backup to tape - Week 2
* Incremental Media set: Media set 3 - Incremental Week 2
* Full backup Media set: Media set 4 - Full Week 2
But I don't know if it's even possible to get this scheduled... Like in possible config 1.
Both jobs configured to backup from the backup to disk as source.
So bascially:
- Backup to disk: why reverse incremental and what's the use or best practice for the active full's?
- Tapes: How do I correctly configure my tape jobs to permanently have 2 sets of tapes, which each contain a valid backup for that week.
Thanks in advance.
PS: we're currently using a trial, so I don't have a support ID.