Discussions related to exporting backups to tape and backing up directly to tape.
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UT2015
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Failed to detect backup files to copy to tape

Post by UT2015 »

Hi,

we have a backup-to-disk-job which performs once a week an active full backup and the other days an incremental backup. The retention policy is set to 30 restore points.

We had a problem with our backup server. We were running out of disk space, so the planned active full backup (to disk) failed. Our only chance to get Veeam working again was to manually delete the last vbk-file from disk (why is it not possible to delete any restore point, especially incomplete ones?)

After that we reduced the retention policy to keep only the latest 14 restore points on disk and removed the oldest vbk- plus the following vib-files. After that we started our backup-to-disk-job with "Active Full". The full backup was then successfully performed, some more old vbk- and vib-files were successfully cleaned up by Veeam.

We now have the problem that our backup-to-tape-job is not working anymore. It stops with error message "Failed to detect backup files to copy to tape from Backup-To-Disk backup job".

In the logfile of the job can be seen that it tries to backup the missing vbk-file of the first mentioned failed active full backup. This file was manually deleted. Because it contained incomplete restore points, it was not necessary for us anymore.

Although we executed "Rescan repository" on the backup repository, we are not able to run the tape job. We do not want to reduce the retention policy any further, because we want to keep the restore points of the last 2 weeks. The backup chain (files on disk) is actually not corrupted, because we only deleted some incomplete full backups and directly performed a successful active full after that.

Is there any other way to clean up the Veeam database to get rid of the deleted file?

Regards,
UT2015
Shestakov
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Re: Failed to detect backup files to copy to tape

Post by Shestakov »

Hi,
UT2015 wrote:why is it not possible to delete any restore point, especially incomplete ones?
It is possible. However, note that if you delete restore point from the middle of a chain, the end of it becomes useless.

Is there any other way to clean up the Veeam database to get rid of the deleted file?
UT2015 wrote:Is there any other way to clean up the Veeam database to get rid of the deleted file?
Database can be clean through technical support, but I believe there is no need in your case.
How did you delete the files, using "Remove from Inventory" or "Delete from Disk" option?

Thanks!
UT2015
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Re: Failed to detect backup files to copy to tape

Post by UT2015 »

It is possible. However, note that if you delete restore point from the middle of a chain, the end of it becomes useless.
But I deleted the last restore point from the end of the chain. This should not corrupt the chain.
How did you delete the files, using "Remove from Inventory" or "Delete from Disk" option?
I had to delete the files in the filesystem. There is no way in Veeam to delete a single restore point, only all restore points of a backed up system. This is the missing function which I asked for above.
Database can be clean through technical Support
This should be a basic function accessible to everyone. Because otherwise as described above there is no way to keep old backups if the disk is full. The only supported way in that case seems to be to throw all backups away and to start a fresh backup chain.

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UT2015
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Re: Failed to detect backup files to copy to tape

Post by Shestakov »

There is a way to delete restore points chain via UI.
If you Delete from disk the restore point will be both deleted from VBR database and file system.
Thanks!
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Re: Failed to detect backup files to copy to tape

Post by UT2015 »

Veeam actually did not detect the missing files. The deleted vbk/vibs are still displayed as existing in the backup properties view (they are not marked with a red cross as in the linked help screenshot).

There is no function to forget or delete a restore point, actually there is no context menu at all. Is this a V9 feature?

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UT2015
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Re: Failed to detect backup files to copy to tape

Post by Shestakov »

No, it`s not v9 feature, it`s available for years in all editions.
The point is if you delete the backups manually via windows file browser, the files will retain in VBR database. That`s why you need to delete them through the GUI.
UT2015
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Re: Failed to detect backup files to copy to tape

Post by UT2015 »

That`s why you need to delete them through the GUI.
But that is not possible.

As already described above in the Backup Properties view, showing all the restore points of a backed up system (screenshot from https://helpcenter.veeam.com/backup/vsp ... point.html) I am not able to delete anything because there is actually no context sensitive menu when clicking right mouse button.

In the other view (https://helpcenter.veeam.com/backup/vsp ... _disk.html) I am only able to delete complete backups which I do not want. I want to keep the backup but delete only single restore points, which were already deleted from disk.
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Re: Failed to detect backup files to copy to tape

Post by Shestakov »

UT2015 wrote:As already described above in the Backup Properties view, showing all the restore points of a backed up system (screenshot from https://helpcenter.veeam.com/backup/vsp ... point.html) I am not able to delete anything because there is actually no context sensitive menu when clicking right mouse button.
You can right-click only on the greyed-out .vibs which are already deleted. It will remove records from Database and you will be able to run the job again.
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Re: Failed to detect backup files to copy to tape

Post by UT2015 »

As I already wrote twice before: There are no greyed out items! Veeam did *not* recognize the missing files, although the repository was rescanned many times. This seems to be a (severe) bug, which leads to throwing all backups on disk away!

After upgrading to V9 and rescanning the repository, the items were greyed out and could be removed. Once again, a basic functionality which does not work correctly in Veeam (V8).

You wrote above that in case of aborted/invalid restore points the best way is to delete those restore points via GUI. How shall that be done if only greyed out items (=missing files in the file system) can be deleted?

I still don't see how it is possible to delete a restore point from backup chain without deleting it directly in the file system.

Regards,
UT2015
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Re: Failed to detect backup files to copy to tape

Post by Shestakov »

I might mislead you a bit, sorry if so. Let`s start over.

To delete a single restore point you need:
1. Delete the .vib manually in the file system
2. Perform a rescan
3. Remove greyed-out restore point from UI.
If you did first two steps and the vib(s) is not greyed, please contact Veeam support team.

And "Remove from Inventory" / "Delete from Disk" applied to the whole chain deletion.
Hope that`s clear. Thanks!
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Re: Failed to detect backup files to copy to tape

Post by UT2015 »

If you did first two steps and the vib(s) is not greyed, please contact Veeam support team.
VIBs were not greyed. After upgrading to V9 they were actually greyed out.
To delete a single restore point you need:
1. Delete the .vib manually in the file system
2. Perform a rescan
3. Remove greyed-out restore point from UI.
It would be *a lot* easier, wise and intuitive if one could just remove a restore point in UI without having to delete it in the filesystem and without having to performing the rescan first.
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Re: Failed to detect backup files to copy to tape

Post by Shestakov »

UT2015 wrote:VIBs were not greyed. After upgrading to V9 they were actually greyed out.
Are you able to delete them now?
UT2015 wrote:It would be *a lot* easier, wise and intuitive if one could just remove a restore point in UI without having to delete it in the filesystem and without having to performing the rescan first.
Agree. We will discuss it with R&D team. Thanks for the feedback!
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Re: Failed to detect backup files to copy to tape

Post by UT2015 »

Are you able to delete them now?
Yes.
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Re: Failed to detect backup files to copy to tape

Post by Shestakov »

Great!
You may also enable health check in the jobs advanced settings to check the chain periodically. And in case any restore point is corrupted, newer ones will not be affected.
Thanks for the feedback once again.
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Re: Failed to detect backup files to copy to tape

Post by UT2015 »

Agree. We will discuss it with R&D team. Thanks for the feedback!
Have you discussed this already?

Shall I open a feature request somewhere? The request is quite clear: In the properties of a backup job (Backup & Replication / Backups / Disk / Properties) all restore points on disk are displayed. It would be very effective if one could delete restore points in that view. Currently this is only possible if the corresponding files are deleted on disk first (e.g. in Windows Explorer), which is not good.
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Re: Failed to detect backup files to copy to tape

Post by Shestakov »

I`ve talked to R&D guys and it turned that having the feature we are talking about many users accidentally deleted their restore points and contacted support team to get them back.
In general the request seems sane, but how often do you need to delete the restore point manually?
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Re: Failed to detect backup files to copy to tape

Post by UT2015 »

I don't think that it is better to delete restore point files manually in file system. The risk to destroy something is higher. If the restore points could be deleted via GUI, Veeam could automatically warn the user if a chain gets destroyed e.g.

So with V9 it is not possible to get Veeam running again (without deleting files in the file system or without deleting all backups), if the disk is full one time?
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Re: Failed to detect backup files to copy to tape

Post by Shestakov »

UT2015 wrote:I don't think that it is better to delete restore point files manually in file system. The risk to destroy something is higher. If the restore points could be deleted via GUI, Veeam could automatically warn the user if a chain gets destroyed e.g.
Let`s count that as a feature request which is taken into account.
UT2015 wrote:So with V9 it is not possible to get Veeam running again (without deleting files in the file system or without deleting all backups), if the disk is full one time?
By get Veeam running again do you mean backup job? Datastore has to have space for snapshot creation, so if datastore is full backup job will not finish successfully. It`s recommended to use Veeam ONE for being notified of the low space.
Thanks!
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