Full txt Catalog of file\volume data

[TechZombie]

Hi,

Currently we are using BackupExec for our compliance backups. These are month end Worm tape backups that emails a full txt document of the files and volumes backed up on the tape. These are created by duplicating the last full backup job that had been stored to local disks.

I would like to move this job over to Veeam. The main issue I am having is producing a full txt document of the files and volumes that had been backed up. I know you can do indexing but the file it creates is not readable outside of Veeam.

I am wondering if there is a way of producing a txt file of the backup data that was recorded on the WORM media. I have searched and have not found a solution, when I called support the recommended a hardened repository with retention rules set up. At this point that isn't possible for us and we would like to continue using the WORM media.

Has anybody had luck or experience with this?

[HannesK]

Hello,
and welcome to the forums.

Just to clarify: you are backing up virtual machines with Veeam. Then you write the image files (one file per VM) to tape. And you like to have a list of files that is inside the VMs?

Question: what is the purpose of that? Is it possible, that this txt file was useful at the time when backup was done file-based somewhen in the past? With image based backup, always the full machine is backed up. So nothing can be lost (except you manually exclude things)

Best regards,
Hannes

[TechZombie]

Hi Hannes,

Sorry for the delayed response, I have been out for the holiday.

I am backing up both VM images and physical with the agent.

The txt file is to show all the files that had been backed up from each server. We fall under financial regulations and having the full catalog of files in a document is how it has been done in the past. I have asked our compliance department to see if this is still necessary and they said it is. I can go back to see if they are ok with just documenting what servers had been backed up (but I don't think that will be enough). However, I don't think that there is a way of doing that either. Unless I use the success log that is emailed upon job completion.

The txt file wouldn't need to be created when the worm backup job completed as long as it was created from the original backup.

[HannesK]

Hello,
hmm, we have many financial customers and those who came from file-based backup managed to explain "full backup" to their compliance departments. With block based backup, there are not even files that we back up. In the end, the backup image is creating the "full picture".

The Veeam index is an export of the master file table (MFT). Theoretically, you could do the same by mounting the backup somewhere and use whatever tool you prefer to export MFT to text. All that can be automated with PowerShell, but I think it's useless work.

Best regards,
Hannes

[TechZombie]

Thanks for the follow up, Hannes. Our compliance department is a bit "old school" with their thinking. But I will try to see if this can be presented to them in a different way. If need be I will look into exporting the MFT.

Have a good day.