Recovery from Tape - Needs major work

[MikaelG]

+1 For restore file directly from tape. Please implement, it would save us hours. We´ve never had a reqason to restore a VM from tape, but individual files, that happens regularly.

[tym]

+1 for direct file restore from me as well. 40TB file server here -.-

[vhughes]

Granular file restore....

+1 for direct file restore from me as well. 40TB file server here -.-

+1 for direct file restore as well.

[B.F.]

Guys,

We understand that file restore from VM on tape is also a very important functionality. We are looking into this feature request.

Patiently waiting for this feature as well. Since Veeam offers the ability to pull a single guest file from a regular backup / replica, this would be a nice tape backup addition. Guess for now we'll be doing file backup instead of VM backup to tape.

+1 me please

[Iain_Green]

A lot of posts on here.. What is the latest for this request on the road map?

[veremin]

We cannot provide any comments regarding features road map.

[lobo519]

(sigh) Here I am - restoring a 300gb vm from tape so I can restore a 139KB file...

[B.F.]

I was hoping that 9.5 U2 will help address this but it doesn't appear to based off of the feature list.

[foggy]

Correct, this update doesn't provide this functionality.

[UT2015]

Very disappointing that this basic functionality does still not exist in Veeam

[B.F.]

Perhaps there are just more technical hurdles to overcome when dealing with linear media vs random access?

[lyapkost]

Correct. That's not just a simple improvement that may be introduced in update but a major feature.

[nfma]

+1 for granular file restore.

I was writing a manual for our customer on how to restore files from tape and raised an eyebrow when I saw that this feature was missing and had to append a workaround starting with "when you want to restore a file from tape, first you need to restore a restore point into a primary repository..."

[agrob]

is there already an improvement in the upcomming Version 10?

[foggy]

Hi Andre, no news re: v10 in this regard so far. You can track all the announcements here.

[kpier883]

Have really been considering Veeam B&R, but have grave concerns about this limitation. The first request for this functionality in this thread was in July 2014.

Veeam needs three years and still hasn't addressed this feature request Doesn't seem to be much of a priority.

I have been considering Veeam as a replacement for my company's current backup product, but this seems like a big limitation to me.

Kirk

[B2r2]

HI Kirk

As a work around I started backing up files to tape which worked fine for a time but then I hit another wall where the database for SQL express got to big and started failing.
I wasn't aware you needed to have a minimum of SQL standard in a production environment for simple jobs like backing files up to tape.
I do like Veeam and would recommend it to anyone but you currently you do need to plan for simple things like backing files up to tape and recovering from tape.
Currently in the process of buying and installing SQL standard so that I can start backing files to tape up again.
This does not get around the fact you need adequate storage to recover a file located on a VM, but it does allow you to plan the recovery of files that you think you may need to recover from tape.

Craig

[Bartfliet]

Hello everybody,

I'm trying to restore a single file from tapes. I've loaded up the appropriate tapes from a month and a half back. Though when I go to the tapes in "veeam backup and replication" I can only see the VBK files, and not individual files in those VBK.

When I go to "restore from tape" and click the "add" button to choose a location I can browse to the needed VM server, but again, I can only see severeal VBK and two VIB files. Is there a way to see the files held in those VBK files on the tapes, or a way to do a search for the file I needed?

Thanks in advance!

[veremin]

If you enable indexing in backup job settings and add backup server to Enterprise Manager, you will be able to search individual files residing on tapes. Thanks.

[applc]

I understand that currently it is not possible to do a granular restore from tape. But I see that you can restore a VM from tape back to a repository. Once that is in the repository, can a granular restore be done from there?

[veremin]

If you're using per-VM chain, you can restore a particular VM to repository. Otherwise, a whole backup (most likely, containing other VMs as well) will be restored there. After that, you will be able to perform granular item restore. Thanks.

[mtaggart]

+1 for granular file restore

3+ years and waiting ... tap, tap, tap, tap ....

We get told by those from Veeam in the forum to post things like this, that we'll be considered and yet, this one thread has been around 3 yrs and it's still not in the product despite a lot of feedback stating it's very much needed.

What gives? We did as asked.

[B.F.]

My patience has expired for a robust file to tape solution. Needing to pay for SQL just for tape backup?

Has anyone found an good alternative for file to tape backups using tape library's like the SuperLoader3?

Thanks

[TimKnight]

Here's the 2018 request for a faster recovery method from Tape, when dealing with individual files.

Happy New Year!

[tommmoe]

+1 for me, have been waiting for this feature for a long time and I still get roasted by my managers about how long it takes to restore a single file from our file server and that we should use Backup Exec again

[dra]

+1 Here too...

FLR from Tape in a one-step process is probably the only reason why we don't use Veeam for our Backups (we only use it for Replicas.)

I'm frankly looking for any excuse to move away from our current Backup system.

But with some relatively beefy file servers (17+ TB) having to first restore everything to disk to get at individual files/folders is not really a workable solution.

I guess going by the length of time this request has been brewing, and putting my coders hat on, I can see this is not an easy problem to solve (due to the nature of the backup technology)

So, is there any chance of some feedback as to whether we can expect this feature to come about in the short-medium term, or are we just dreaming?

[Ioannis.T]

+1 we tape users need some love on restoring.

Since I am using both Veeam and Backup exec let me say that backup exec also has to restore the entire VMDK before restoring the individual file (but it can be done in one step/job). So if you have a 7TB file server, you will have to restore all of the 7TB and increments in order to restore a single file. As stated in the documentation "Tape backups require a staging location that is at least as large as the data that you back up. Backup Exec extracts the granular data to the staging location while it is being cataloged.". Also, GRT does not support encryption at rest, which is why we do not or rarely use it.

[agrob]

i would also like to hear a feedback on this. Restore single file is still an import task as most of the restore request (at least in our company) are for missing files.
it is one of the thinigs which makes completely switch from other vendor to veeam a "show stopper"

[StephanG]

+1 for me too. Had to restore 7 TB recently to start 4 VMs in Surebackup to recover a file from a SharePoint Recycle bin (and find out who deleted it)

[rileybloke]

Hi All,

I have a backup job with 17 objects that creates a 1.1TB file. And this backup is offloaded to the tape server.
If I had to recover a file or VM from this backup, does the tape recovery process need to stage the entire backup file from tape somewhere and then extract the VM or file from it, or does it extract the individual file or VM direct from the tape?

Thanks
Phil