Incremental Backup File - consistency when writing to tape

[egroeg]

Hi all,

Scenario is a medium sized veeam backup (around 6TB) incremental to UNC path.

Backup Exec then targets this UNC path to write all the data to tape.

My veeam backup runs every 30 mins conducting a reversed incremental, the backup window is small - around 10 minutes.

What happens if Backup Exec is attempting to write the incremental backup file WHILST veeam is actively writing data to this file? Will the RevInc file be inconsistent - what measures are there to prevent BackupExec from writing the RevInc file whilst it is in an inconsistent state?

Thanks.

[Alexey D.]

Hello George,

B&R locks backup files for writes when the job is working. This approach prevents other applications from accessing the files, so I think that Backup Exec's job would probably just fail.

[softflame]

It depends on several things, including how you set up the underlying storage, and how you set up your backup software.

For Backup Exec options see - https://www.veritas.com/content/support ... 8-99535599

NetBackup has a better quote (from https://www.veritas.com/content/support ... -126559472)

Snapshots are a point-in-time view of a source volume. NetBackup uses snapshots to access busy or active files during a backup job. Without a snapshot provider, active files are not accessible for backup.

[Gostev]

This thread is actually 9 years old however, Veeam will not support such "workarounds" to process locked backup files, because they may result in an inconsistent state of backup file written to tape. Thanks!