see the content of a tape in V12

[Murigar]

I recognize I am late to the show, but if you are still tallying support for this change please count me.
It is important to me to see the actual file contents of a tape.

[ericG_FR]

Hello, new user of veeam, my tests done in v11 allowed me to appreciate this feature. Losing the functionality to see the contents of a tape is like looking for a needle in a haystack when we need to search for information over a long period of time.
So for this change please count me also.

[emiguy]

Please consider this a +1 for reinstating the ability to look at the contents of the tape via the "Jobs" tab on the tape properties -- or at least some convenient equivalent. We have a great number of tapes now, and you have hampered us considerably by removing this feature.

Thanks.

[ITGent]

Please consider adding this back. I have years worth of tapes, and this is my label as to what they are when sitting off site.

[Dima P.]

Hello folks,

We are working to improve and bring this functionality back in the upcoming versions. Thank you for your feedback!

[SmokinJoe]

yes I need to see the contents of the tape. You have customers that use the agent and backup file servers with millions of files. Then you have customers like me that use VMware with CBT to backup SAN disks and the "files" on tape are how many VM's I backup. So my use case I want to know what is on a tape. I have to manually backup hte VIB and VBK when the job has issues, so I really need this feature.

In the mean time. How do I do sql queries to get the contents of a tape?

[david.brunner]

Hello,
I want also to note that we are waiting for this now-missing feature and wait for an fix.
We used to look into the properties of the tape to "offline browse" the inventory of each tape, which is a very useful and also crucial feature. Especially for Archives.

I also created a ticket on this, thinking it is more useful for you instead of a lot of individual posts here, since Ticket Systems are nowadays a measuring tool.

best regards!

[roland]

We also use this feature and it's really required in order to control our tape backup externalisation.
The main utility for tapes is to do a backup externalisation in case of global outage. In v11 and older version it's a manual process. (for me, i don't find another way to control it)
It could be very convenient to have a synthetic view of last backup to tape.
In fact the problem is more global for me and is "How to know which tape is required to recover my entire repository ?"
It's seems that the actual process for backup to tape is to copy only changed vib vbk vbr to tape. If a backup has been copied on a tape a week ago whitout change it's not refreshed.
We can't rely on it because we did'nt know if all tapes are reliable and readable. (i'm not sure if a reused tape because of retention cycle would refresh the next backup to tape)
What we need is to copy "last restore point backup" for all protected vms to the last tape(s) and know which tape is used.
This way we could know clearly that the last tape contains all what we need for global recovery.
For this reason i use today full file to tape backups everyday in order to backup my entire repository. It's a long process if the repository is big.
Don't know if there is a better way to achieve this.... Curious of your idea about that.
Thanks

[sherzig]

Hello everyone,

would a Powershell script help here? I added something to one of my existing scripts.



I will share the link, if this would help you guys.

Cheers,
Steve

[roland]

Thanks sherzig for your proposal. I'm interested with you PS script. thx for sharing

[sherzig]

Hello everyone,

here you are. Script runs on V12 and uses undocumented functions. Readme coming soon. Examples are shown in code.

https://github.com/yetanothermightytool ... peinfo.ps1

Feedback welcome.

Happy weekend.
Steve

[bct44]

Thank you for sharing this Sherzing, it will be helpfull

[roland]

Thx sherzig. Very appreciate

[ignatyev]

The script displays only checkpoints of virtual machines, it's just that the files that were written to the cartridge are not displayed.

Is it possible to write a script that would display the entire contents of the cassette based on the barcode?

From my point of view, the fact that they removed the display of files on the cassette is a big mistake.
We kindly request to return this functionality to the place.

[Dima P.]

Hello folks,

From my point of view, the fact that they removed the display of files on the cassette is a big mistake.

As mentioned above we intend to bring this functionality back as soon as possible. Stay tuned.

[KSM@mwsc.vic.edu.au]

Hello,
Case # 06077368
We have been using Veeam Backup and Replication for a few years.
Never had any issues until the last upgrade to version 12.
With the tape backup jobs, we were able to look at the properties of a tape and see what jobs are written, from incremental to full backup with the dates.
This feature disappeared after the upgrade from 11 to 12.
Is anyone else facing this issue?
Any fix?
Without the tree structure view it is impossible to see the list of jobs and it is not possible to restore a single job!
Hope someone can assist me.

[sherzig]

Hi @ignatyev

the script also displays Agent Backups that are stored on tape. What else are you missing?





Steve

[Mildur]

@KSM@mwsc.vic.edu.au

Hello Santhosh
Moved your question to the existing topic. As mentioned by Dima, we will bring the list back as soon as possible.

Best,
Fabian

[stevehathaway]

Hello folks,

As mentioned above we intend to bring this functionality back as soon as possible. Stay tuned.

Add me to the list - I work for an MSP providing BaaS to a number of our clients. We backup the repository at the weekend - when we have a problem with the library - we need to determine which jobs were written & which ones need to be re-run. Checking the media was the only sure-fire way to determine this.
Another of my clients is a medical practice backing up over 250TB - I'll be suggesting they stay on v11 until this is resolved.

[stevehathaway]

The script displays only checkpoints of virtual machines, it's just that the files that were written to the cartridge are not displayed.

Is it possible to write a script that would display the entire contents of the cassette based on the barcode?

From my point of view, the fact that they removed the display of files on the cassette is a big mistake.
We kindly request to return this functionality to the place.

I tried the script - only got a confirmation of the barcode; am I missing something here?

PS C:\temp> .\vbr-get-tapeinfo.ps1 -Barcode AKH675L7
TapeMedium value: AKH675L7
PS C:\temp>

[david.brunner]

I am unsure if I am understanding it correctly:

The bug is that we cannot see the contents, what is written on the tapes, via the GUI (see initial post with pictures). I am also missing it, like posted before
But tapes written with v12 DO have the content in the database - right?
Otherwise the script of sherzig would not work.

Meaning if I switch to v12 now and the bug is getting fixed later (as mentioned by Dima for example) then there is no information lost in between?

If this is assured, I could finally start switching.

[HannesK]

correct, there is no information loss in any case.

[pablo.gutierrez]

Dears, after upgrade v12; several customers requesting to restore the option to view the content of the tape through the "Files" tab in the tape properties.

This functionality is important for viewing archived backups on media.

[stevehathaway]

Tried escalating this one:
Reply from management

"Hi Steve,

Unfortunately, our support team don't have the ETA on when this feature will be re-implemented in the latest VBR version. I find that there are some cases been created to raise the same request, and our RnD team is informed. I would suggest to ask for a update in the RnD forums, and create a new support case if you haven't done so for this request, and ask our Support Engineer to add the support case number to the feature request comment in order to bring more attention to RnD team. "

So appears that we'll all have to keep bugging the R&D team until this is resolved.

[kushma]

Veeam has removed this feature without any formal information to their happy customers.
Recently, we have upgraded Veeam Backup and Replication from V11 to V12 version and unable to find the files inside LTO drive.

Hope Veeam will soon provide solution for V12.

[lukklin]

+1

I've got many bad comments from our customers about the removal of this feature

[Mildur]

Hello

Yesterday, we released a new patch for Veeam Backup & Replication v12 (P20230718).
With the patch, you will see the content on the tape as you have in v11.
https://www.veeam.com/kb4420



Best,
Fabian

[ChriFue]

Perfect, thanks!

[ReggieNoble]

Looking good. Thank you very much!

[TWSS]

Hello,
I am happy
You can see in the tapes under properties again what was backed up on the tape.
Just install the last possible Veeam update P20230718.

Thanks to Veeam, I have been waiting for this since the switch to V12.

Many many thanks