Difference between copying the VBK file vs. the Backup Job?

[vmff]

I'm trying to figure out what the functional difference is between running a Tape job of the VBK file vs. the backup job itself as the source for the copy?

We're struggling with the issue of not being able to only offload the most recent VBK in a backup job to tape. As a workaround, we manually backup the VBK file to tape using the file option for the Tape Job. If I read these tapes in a non-Veeam server's tape drive; will they both simply show a VBK file on the tape?

Hopefully that makes sense. Thanks for any help!

[PTide]

Hi,

Backup To Tape allows you to

- automatically track which tape contains which restore point (ease of management).
- pull backup files as they appear

What kind of policy do you use in your backup job?

Thank you.

[vmff]

Normally it is a 'Backup to Tape' job type, that runs on a schedule, with a reverse incremental backup job as the 'Backup Files' target. When there is more than one vbk in the retention, we use a 'File to Tape Backup' type to just get the one vbk.

[vmff]

Thanks for the info, that partially answers my question, but not sure I'm grasping the other part for certain. Veeam is always doing the writing of the backup, my question is, does it write to the tape differently depending on if it is a file backup job of a .vbk vs a backup copy job of a backup? I'd assume for deduplication purposes the data blocks would be nearly identical either way. My curiosity asks, what does the file system of the tape look like depending on the backup to tape job type?

Is that more clear? Thanks

[PTide]

Had to delete my previous post due to some inaccuracies not to confuse other people who could find it in future.

does it write to the tape differently depending on if it is a file backup job of a .vbk vs a backup copy job of a backup

No, it does not matter, the format stays the same. The difference is that there is some extra logic behind Bakup To Tape allowing to manage backup chains more effectively.

I'd assume for deduplication purposes the data blocks would be nearly identical either way.

By default all deduplication and compression happens when you write backups to disk. If you enable hardware tape compression you'll not get much size reduction, most likely. Probably it will just make your tape job to proccess longer, as compression requires some extra time.

what does the file system of the tape look like depending on the backup to tape job type?

Tape filesystem stays the same, no changes. Veeam writes files in the same manner in all cases, using the MTF (Microsoft Tape Format) industry format. However there is no guarantee that tapes written by Veeam will be read with no difficulties on a non-Veeam machine. On the other hand, you can use FREE version of VBR in order to extract files/backups from tape.

[vmff]

By deduplication, I'm referring to Veeam's dedupe friendly compression level in concert with a separate, proprietary, deduplication appliance; not Veeam's own deduplication features. From your answer's, it sounds like the data is the same.

Thanks!

[PTide]

Hi,

By deduplication, I'm referring to Veeam's dedupe friendly compression level in concert with a separate, proprietary, deduplication appliance; not Veeam's own deduplication features. From your answer's, it sounds like the data is the same.

Yes, the data is the same in both cases, whether it's a File To Tape job or Backup To Tape. The only difference is that when you use the latter it also copies .vbm metadata file to tape as well. Compression level in job advanced settings is what defines the compression ratio thus influencing the effectivity of a dedup-appliance.