GFS tape backup doesn't wait, skips some source backups and ends.

[Chalky]

When my GFS tape job runs at 00:00 (12:00 a.m.), it skips over some of my source backups and reports '29/12/2021 12:14:22 AM :: No backup files found, and tape job ends with success. Then, I have to trigger that GFS tape job manually, it finds the missing backups and puts those on tape. I do this every day.

Q. Why doesn't it wait for those backups to appear? Is there any anywhere in the product that I can influence that behaviour - scheduling maybe?

Path is like this:
[*]At 00:00: 6 x backup jobs from VMware+SAN to Repository 1.
[*]Continuously: Copy job from Repository 1 to Repository 2.
[*]At 00:00: 1 x GFS tape backup job with Repository 2 as the source.

I'll usually get 3 or 4 source jobs ending up on tape, and 2 or 3 skipped with that 'no backup files found'.

I've logged ticket with Veeam support #05198254.

[PetrM]

Hi Nathan and Welcome to Veeam R&D Forums,

Looks like a technical issue and I think it would be best to wait for the conclusion from our support team. But just out of curiosity: did you try to schedule this job 5 min later, for example at 00:05 ?

Thanks!

[Chalky]

Hi there, we haven't tried that yet, has been suggested by support team also, but what's of interest is that the tape job does wait for some sources, just not all.
And it's not consistent, it'll happily wait 3 hours for some sources, but other days it won't even wait 10 minutes. Previous experience with GFS tape jobs running at anything other that 00:00 has been a bit odd, seems to get confused about what constitutes 'today's' backups.

[Dima P.]

Nathan,

Can you please check if the option to Process the most recent restore point instead of waiting in the job properties is enabled? Thanks!

[Chalky]

Hi, I understand from the support case team that this is a known, new issue in v11a, and no hotfix will be provided

No we deliberately don't have 'Process the most recent restore point instead of waiting' - we want it to wait, to ensure that if latest backup is not placed on tape that we know about it (policy is latest backup on tape same day). Previously (v9.5 & v10), this worked fantastically well.

[lyapkost]

Hi Nathan. Which exact version are you at? This behavior is strange and shouldn't occur. It is not known as a global problem. Please ask to escalate to QA, I'd like to see the logs. But first, please, follow the advice to move the tape job start time to 0:05. In some cases there vere issues when source and tape jobs start an the same moment.

[Chalky]

Hi, version is 11.0.1.1261 P20211123.

Case has been escalated (to Level 2) already - and I have asked to escalate to QA.

I had been told tape job must start after Backup Copy job ends, but I will try your suggestion of starting 5 mins later & report back.

I would love to receive known issue reference numbers when discussing this stuff with Support - public portal for that would be amazing!

[Dima P.]

Hello Nathan,

We will review your case details with the RnD folks to understand if that's an infrastructure specific issue or not. Thanks for the update!