I only need incremental file backups but restores request all the tapes

[Sloan]

I have users with an application that does its own unique full backups to disk daily and then I'm using a file to tape job to write those files to tape. They keep 3-4 days worth of backups on disk. As every backup they write nightly to disk is a full I never need/want to do a full tape job. I only need to back up the new files that were written to disk the previous night.

I disabled the full backup schedule and only schedule the incremental, however it appears that if I try to do a restore the system wants to request every tape back to the initial job run instead of just the most recent tapes. I've played with different media sets but no luck yet. Am I missing something I can set where Veeam won't try to do a full restore when I pick a incremental restore point?

[Dima P.]

Hello,

Can you please clarify what Veeam B&R version you are using? Additionally, please let us know how media set creation option is configured in media pool properties (the one that you are using for incremental backup). Thanks!

[Sloan]

9.5 Update 4b (the original 4b, not the one released a few days ago)

I had the media set to create a new media set for every session but that wasn't working. I've changed it back to always continue using the current set so that I get better usage of my tapes. Creating new sets every time I was continuously sending tapes offsite with 4-5 TB free and chewing through my available tapes.

[lyapkost]

Hi Sloan. Another thing to clarify: are the old tapes requested in the restore wizard before starting restore or during the restore job which waits for one of these tapes? In the first instance, would you please start the restore since there's a good chance the old tapes aren't really required (only GUI issue). In the second instance if you're positive that these tapes were written in 9.5 U4b, it's better to open a support case.

[Sloan]

That is a very good question. The wizard is telling me that it needs tapes. Let me test if it actually tries to use the tapes or not and I'll post a response next week. I THINK in a different restore once I saw the interface specify a tape but then not use it so you may be onto something...

At the least hopefully I'll learn the internal working better for tapes. I've only used tapes for Veeam for about 6 months and before that all my tape experience was via a Symantec/Veritas product which shall not be named. But with that product I know it only tried to restore from a specific date. If you wanted a full restore of a server or folder you had to tell it to use all the needed backups and sometimes you want that granularity.

[Dima P.]

Sloan,

Thanks for the heads up! With file to tape jobs you can do all the required restore operations:

- restore a single file from entire data set. In such case you need to select the file versions and you wont be prompted for the older media, only for the tape tape keeps the desired file versions)
- restore single folder from entire data set. In such case multiple tapes might be required (since data might be allocated on different media)
- restore entire data set for the selected date (in such case we might need more tapes: if the file was written once and then was not changed tape media that keeps such file will be required)

Please let us know which type of restore you've used and when you where prompted for the additional media. Cheers!