Help on backup method and retention to tape

[pizzafish]

Hi, was hoping someone could clarify something for me so I can get it straight in my head. I'm new to using Veeam, so any assistance would be appreciated.

We have 14 VM's that need backed up, split into the following categories:

A) 5 Servers that need backing up daily - we only need about 1 weeks worth of backups to fall back on at any one time.

B) 6 Servers that really only need backing up weekly (or maybe twice weekly) as not much changes on these servers. Just need keep a couple of weeks of restore points.

C) 3 Servers that need backing up daily - we also need to have a long retention period for data on these. We currently back up to tape quarterly on these, although due to the retention set on the incremental job here, it's actually only the last months data we end up with on tape as the older chains have already expired.

For A) and B), I guess I can just use Forever Forward Incremental - and just have a backup with the number of restore points that I want? That way I've always got a weeks backup? I see that as being the least intensive in terms of storage space requirements.

For C) however, is it possible to store 3 months of backups on disk using Forever Forward Incremental (I realise this chain would be rather large), and then copy that entire chain to tape every 3 months - but preserving every increment in the chain on tape 'as is' so that I have a fully taped history of daily changes to files. Does that make sense? i.e. I might be asked to go back and locate an iteration of a file that was changed\deleted at some point, for legal reasons. Is there a better way of doing this? I don't want to roll that entire chain into one backup file as I'd lose the history of file changes and just end up with the most recent files, wouldn't I?

[foggy]

For A) and B), I guess I can just use Forever Forward Incremental - and just have a backup with the number of restore points that I want? That way I've always got a weeks backup? I see that as being the least intensive in terms of storage space requirements.

You considerations are correct.

For C) however, is it possible to store 3 months of backups on disk using Forever Forward Incremental (I realise this chain would be rather large)

Yes, this is possible. If you're concerned with the chain length, you can set 1 month retention for the backup job and schedule monthly tape backups, for example, instead of quarterly.

and then copy that entire chain to tape every 3 months - but preserving every increment in the chain on tape 'as is' so that I have a fully taped history of daily changes to files. Does that make sense? i.e. I might be asked to go back and locate an iteration of a file that was changed\deleted at some point, for legal reasons. Is there a better way of doing this? I don't want to roll that entire chain into one backup file as I'd lose the history of file changes and just end up with the most recent files, wouldn't I?

Yes, you considerations here are also valid and this makes total sense.

[veremin]

C) From my perspective, in this case you should create a files to tape job selecting the backup job directory as it source, disable a schedule for it (you'll run it manually or automatically via script once in 3 months), and point to a media pool that has "create media set for every backup session" option enabled.

Also, you can use backup to tape job instead of files to tape one, but sometimes you might face a situation when additional virtual full backup is created on tape mediums, since the source job is using forward forever incremental mode.

Thanks.

[pizzafish]

Awesome, thanks - that makes sense! Glad I've got it right in my head anyway. Cheers

[veremin]

You're welcome. Kindly, keep us updated how well everything goes in your case. Thanks.