NetApp SnapVault - Backup to Tape Question

[dannyboy]

Hi,

I'm investigating Veeam as a tape backup solution rather than an end to end protection solution. Essentially, I'm looking for an VM aware solution to backup a LUN to tape but allow me to restore individual VMs rather than the whole LUN. The LUN will be a mirror sitting at a SnapVault destination.

I see that Veeam has snapshot explorer capability - it also has tape backup capability, but:

a) Can Veeam back up that vaulted LUN to tape (from the secondary rather than the primary)
b) Would it just backup/restore at the LUN level - or would it allow restore of individual VMs? What is the granularity?
c) What would I need to license? Do I need to license backup server / proxy at the secondary site - or do I need to license all the source VMware hosts at the primary sites (even though I'm not intending to use Veeam for anything other than tape).

Any information would be appreciated. Many thanks.

[veremin]

a) Can Veeam back up that vaulted LUN to tape (from the secondary rather than the primary)

Nope, though, it can use vaulted LUN as a source for backup job that then can be archived to tapes.

or would it allow restore of individual VMs? What is the granularity?

It would allow you to restore individual VMs, as long as you create backup jobs first.

[dannyboy]

So I imagine I'd need to do something like clone from a snapshot - mount the cloned LUN on an ESXi host/cluster and then create a backup job against that.

Presumably my licensing requirement would be against the cluster I was doing the backup against?

[veremin]

Nope, you don't need to mount anything, as secondary storage array can be used as backup source. (follow this configuration guide)

Once the backup jobs are configured, you will be able to archive their data to tapes, thanks be to backup to tape functionality.

In this case, Enterprise Plus license will be needed.