Need help architecting tape *archive*

[pufferdude]

We are wanting/needing to use Veeam File to Tape jobs to backup and *archive* files on a NAS (not VM backups). Basically what I want is to make a full copy of the data on the NAS, then move those files to a tape vault (both logically and physically) and then back up new files once a week but when the NAS gets full-ish, again move those oldest files to the archive.

I'm having trouble even picturing what this configuration looks like on the Files to Tape job side, or if it's even doable. I of course can make a full backup of the existing data, but then what? Do I use incremental jobs to get the newly written data (once a week is probably sufficient) and just do incrementals forever from that point on, moving tape to the vault when I want to remove them from the tape library?

Not sure if that even makes sense... just wondering if anyone is doing something similar and can offer some advice.

[Shestakov]

Hello Jim,

You can just schedule file to tape job to run weekly with increments to copy all needed files to the tape.

What do you have on the NAS? If you have backups of VMs, backup-to-tape job will be more flexible and useful. Thanks!

[pufferdude]

The NAS is a CIFS share of video archives... large video and supporting files for editing. There are no VM backups for this case (but I do back up my VMs to tape with normal tape jobs, that's just not relevant to this thread.)

I was mainly having trouble figuring out how I physically move tape from the library to a vault (they are now "archived" and not on the NAS, making room for new/current data on the NAS) and I guess the answer is I just do one full copy at the beginning and then increments for new data forever. Maybe

[Shestakov]

Thanks for the reply.
Yes, you can use file to tape job with increments.
For additional reliability and faster RTO you can schedule Full backup to run once a year.