Fast individual file restore from tape (full backup) - how?

[xzvf]

Hi All,

One of our customers have Veeam B&R installed to backup a Microsoft DFS cluster.
When they try to restore one file to its older version (which is only on tape), it took several hours, because it recovers the whole full backup (several TBs) instead of one tiny file.

How can we avoid this?

All method that we start seems to be give the same result, i.e.:
- backups -> tape -> choose backup, point, etc
- restore file wizard from upper ribbon
- files -> tape -> browse, choose, restore files from tape

Guest file system indexing is disabled, as I have read wecan only use it with Enterprise Manager only:
https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=120
https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=120
"VM guest OS file indexing allows you to search for VM guest OS files inside VM backups and perform 1-click restore in Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager."

I have did some searching, but no luck so far.

[Mildur]

Hi Xzvf

For VM and agent backups, you need copy the entire backup first to a repository before you can do a file level restore.
If you like to have fast single file restores, you must use "File to Tape" jobs where you write the original files directly to a tape. Or you can use NAS backup jobs and write it to a tape with a "Backup To Tape" job.

Best,
Fabian

[vmtech123]

I was going to echo what Fabian said.

This is a design issue that needs to be changed.

Either keep the GFS backups longer on storage to restore an individual file from disk, or use file backup jobs for individual files from tape.

Keep in mind NASBackup uses VUL licensees based on amount of data and can get very expensive if you are in the 100's of TB range.

You are correct about indexes and EM. This is a great feature when someone is looking for a file, and you want to see if it's in a backup before mounting it. It won't speed anything up however. Also, in your case, the jobs still need to be brought from tape back to the repo.

[xzvf]

Thank you both!