Restore file from tape without restore all the backuped VM

[deji]

Hello,
We currently use Microsoft DPM server as backup solution and think to change for Veeam.
So we are testing to verify that it will match our needs.
One of our need is the capability to create a backup of our file server VM to disk and backup disk to tape.
The other capability that we need is the availability to restore individual file backuped to tape without to have restore all the backup tape.
Is Veeam B&R capable to do this?

Thank you for your help

Regards

dominique

[Mildur]

If you do a „Backup to Tape“ Job and you want to restore vm guest files, then you need to restore the backup file back to the repository first:
https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=110
Veeam cannot mount a vbk from the tape to use it for file level restores. Restoring the entire vm back to the hypervisor can be done directly from tape.

A workaround for this limitation:
If you have done a „File to Tape“ Job with the file server as a source for the job, then you will be able to restore single files without staging it to the backup repository first. With this workaround, veeam writes all files and folder from the fileserver directly to the tape and not as a veeam backup file.

[deji]

Hello,

Thank you for your answer.
That's what I understood reading doc.
It's a pity because in the case of backup to tape it takes a lot of time and a lot of storage space to restore maybe just one file and in the case of file to tape all the workload is on the file server.
Too bad.

Regards

Dominique

[Dima P.]

Dominique,

Thank you for your feedback! By the way there is an option to perform a direct VM restore from tape. With this functionality you do not need to land the entire backup to a staging repository, instead entire VM gets published to your hypervisor. That might help when you have multiple VMs sitting in a large backup file and you do not have enough free space for entire backup file.

[SmokinJoe]

It's a pity because in the case of backup to tape it takes a lot of time and a lot of storage space to restore maybe just one file and in the case of file to tape all the workload is on the file server.

Yes VEEAM's backup to tape is not friendly when you want to do a restore of one file for a file server(end user deleted file). For a file server it might be better to just buy a "normal backup" program for that and keep doing the LAN free backup with VEEAM.

I have seen someone expose the ZFS snapshot versions via NFS/CIFS and have veeeam do daily fulls. In this way if the first full takes 100,000 blocks but every daily takes just 1 new block you could have 50 daily backups with FreeNAS and only use up an additional 50 blocks on your NFS filer. With this model you could revert your storage to the day you want and restore files from that one daily snapshot.

Too bad the folks at VEEAM don't see the value in using TrueNAS.

Thanks,
Joe

[Dima P.]

Hello Joe,

I have seen someone expose the ZFS snapshot versions via NFS/CIFS and have veeeam do daily fulls. In this way if the first full takes 100,000 blocks but every daily takes just 1 new block you could have 50 daily backups with FreeNAS and only use up an additional 50 blocks on your NFS filer. With this model you could revert your storage to the day you want and restore files from that one daily snapshot.

To me it sounds like an NDMP backup: NDMP Servers Backup to Tape.