Daily backup to tape

[martin_nz]

Hello,

I am new to Veeam and am getting around how the tape backup works. Previously I was using Backup Exec to back up my data on a tape for each day of the week (Monday to Thursday) and then revolving Friday tapes and monthly tapes. This was pretty simple to understand.

I am wanting to replicate this sort of backup routine in Veeam. I have backup jobs that go to a NAS box complete with incrementals and from there I would like to then take this data to tape each night and formatting the tape prior to the nightly backup taking place.

What would be the best way to implement this?

[veremin]

What backup mode does the source backup job use? Do you want to have only full backups or incremental ones, as well? For how long should the tape backups be preserved?

[martin_nz]

Currently I have a backup job going to the NAS box as normal incrementals. I only want to have one full backup daily on each tape. There will be a tape for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and several Friday ones and these will be overwritten each week. I have also been looking into the option of using reverse incremental backups and just taking the full backup that it appends to and putting that on tape.

[veremin]

On the media pool select:

1) "Create new media set for every backup session"
2) "Protect data for one week"

As to copying only latest full backup, you should disable "copying increments" option and ,then, chose one of two available options.

[martin_nz]

Thanks for your reply. I have set my backup jobs to run as reverse incrementals and only backing up the full backup file.

What would you recommend for retention on the incrementals? When during retention does it create a new full backup?

[veremin]

Since you're using reversed incremental mode by source job, increments won't be copied to tapes. That's by design.

Or you're talking about source backup job, what retention it should have and how often full backup should be performed?

Thanks.

[vmff]

The next problem you're going to have, is as soon as your active full runs, Veeam will try to copy both full backups to that tape... let me know how you get around that one. Thanks

[martin_nz]

Sorry - yes I meant the source backup job.

[veremin]

What would you recommend for retention on the incrementals?

It depends on your company's needs and desires. More specifically, on RPO requirements.

When during retention does it create a new full backup?

With reversed incremental mode, you can perform active full backup once a month or two.

Thanks.

[martin_nz]

Excellent. I have it under control now.

Thank you so much for your help.

[veremin]

You're welcome. Contact us, if other help is needed.