Daily Backup to Tape

[lostsurfer]

Having trouble setting up my backups to tape. I can get my jobs to tape however they continue to write to the same tape continually until the said tape is full. If i want to do two weeks of backups, one backup to tape daily (I know it's a waste of space), and then have the next backup run to the next tape how would i configure this? Wanting to do Mon-Fri Job Wk1 and then Mon -Fri Wk2 set. Any suggestions would be great!

[Dima P.]

Hello and welcome to Veeam community,

If i want to do two weeks of backups, one backup to tape daily (I know it's a waste of space)

You have to set up two separate media pools with needed retention (one for daily tapes with 1-day retention and another with 14 days, to keep 2 weeks of your tape backup) and two separate backup to tape jobs, pointed to the same target.

I can get my jobs to tape however they continue to write to the same tape continually until the said tape is full.

Such behavior can be changed via media set creation option of the media pool - check this help center article.

[veremin]

If i want to do two weeks of backups, one backup to tape daily (I know it's a waste of space), and then have the next backup run to the next tape how would i configure this?

Do you want to have 2 weeks retention on tapes, copy backups to tape once a day, and also close a daily medium, once it's written? If so, you need to set daily schedule for a tape job, then, in setting of given media pool enable "create new media set for every backup session" option, as well as, "Protect data for 2 weeks" one. Thanks.

[lostsurfer]

Thanks for the quick responses!! What I'd like to do is similar to how I have backups for BE. I'd like to do two week sets (i.e -Mon Wk 1, Tues Wk 1, Wed Wk1, etc) and then (Mon Wk2, Tues Wk2, Wed Wk2, etc). Mon thru Sunday for each week. But I'd like to just label each tape once, and then rotate by Week so that Veeam will pull Mon Wk1's tape; write the backup to it, kick it out and then backup to the next tape the following day. This would make it easier for my backup admin so he can keep track of tapes and just pop in two weeks of tapes in the deck and pull each previous days for off site storage.


*** So I will need to select create a new media set, this will write the next job to the next available tape? Is there a specific naming convention that I need to use that veeam will recognize or does it pull from a specific slot number order? ***

[veremin]

What I'd like to do is similar to how I have backups for BE. I'd like to do two week sets (i.e -Mon Wk 1, Tues Wk 1, Wed Wk1, etc) and then (Mon Wk2, Tues Wk2, Wed Wk2, etc). Mon thru Sunday for each week. But I'd like to just label each tape once, and then rotate by Week so that Veeam will pull Mon Wk1's tape; write the backup to it, kick it out and then backup to the next tape the following day. This would make it easier for my backup admin so he can keep track of tapes and just pop in two weeks of tapes in the deck and pull each previous days for off site storage.

With the setting I've described, a backup server will backup to a tape daily, taking a new medium each day. The retention will be equal to 2 weeks, meaning that medium will be overwritten on biweekly basis; seems to be exactly what you're after.

So I will need to select create a new media set, this will write the next job to the next available tape?

Correct.

Is there a specific naming convention that I need to use that veeam will recognize or does it pull from a specific slot number order?

It will take a tape from the specified media pools. Medium can be either free one or with expired retention. Tapes with the expired retention are given priority.

Thanks.

[lostsurfer]

I appreciate all the help, I'll get to it!

[veremin]

You're welcome. Let's know how well everything goes. Thanks.

[lostsurfer]

Well I went through the process and last night the job ran, but looking a the success log it shows me that nothing was written to tape. A multiple list of vibs and vbks all have check marks but end with "this server requires retry, postponing". Any ideas?

[Dima P.]

Hi lostsurfer
From the top of my head, it looks like source files were locked by the another backup job. Is that possible?

[lostsurfer]

Not in this case no...it's pretty strange. Looks like 4 of 5 backups fired off no problem. Looks to be the first backup of the set that sees this error....def weird.

[Dima P.]

Understood. If such behavior persists, do not hesitate to contact our support team - they could check the logs and let you know the exact root of this issue.