Select: Syntesyzed Full to Tape

[ohuetz]

Hello,

I try to use the new forever incremental backup feature for my VMs but want to backup a daily full to tape. So I configured the "virtual full"-option for every day in the Backup-to-Tape-Job. It works fine nearly every second day. On the other days I see a successful backup with 0,0kb and see the following message in the logfile (example):

Code: Select all

[CTapeSynStorageReplacer] Syntesyzed Full is not created: because no Syn Dates Detected between 28.08.2015 00:00:00 and 27.08.2015 19:57:24 for source job [Server]
[27.08.2015 19:57:25] <01> Info     [CTapeSynStorageReplacer] Syntesyzed Full is not created: because no Syn Dates Detected between 28.08.2015 00:00:00 and 27.08.2015 19:57:25 for source job [Server]
[27.08.2015 19:57:25] <01> Info     [TapeStorageCandidate] Backup file This server:D:\Veeam\Backup\Server\Server\Server2015-08-19T190103.vbk:5ecafec5-4879-4b31-9653-fd0ec007e1f8:19.08.2015 20:11:51 was already backed up to tape and did not change since then, skipping.

The last date mentioned in the message (27.08.2015 19:57:24) is the end-time of my Backup-to-Disk-Job which was successful.
Does anyone have an explanation for that behaviour?

Kind Regards

Oliver

[Dima P.]

Hello Oliver,
Can you clarify how your backup to tape schedule is configured? Thanks.

[ohuetz]

Hello Dima,

thanks for the quick reply.

It´s configured to start right after the Backup-to-Disk Job.

Kind Regards
Oliver

[alanbolte]

This feature is not designed to allow you to put a full on tape every day. Your results are expected, right down to the logs you posted (I recognize the date range - note how the start time is later than the current time).

If you want a full on tape every day, you must reconfigure your backup job as reverse incremental. This will require that your most recent backup file is a full; if you make the switch immediately, an active full backup will be created.

[Dima P.]

Thanks Oliver! To sum up:

- Forever forward incremental source job runs every day
- Virtual Full on tape scheduled to be created every day
- Backup to tape job starts every day triggered to start after the source job
- Every second day tape job does not create a virtual full

Reviewing the error message gave me some hints actually:

Backup file This server:D:\Veeam\Backup\Server\Server\Server2015-08-19T190103

According to this line there is no available restore points on disk (all previous restore points where transferred to the tape before). Can you check the source backup to disk job - does it create incremental restore points successfully? By the way, did you enable the incremental backup in the tape job options? Also what it the source job’s retention? Thanks

[Dima P.]

Alan,

This feature is not designed to allow you to put a full on tape every day. Your results are expected,

While I agree that this was not the main purpose of this feature - the described behavior is unexpected: virtual full backup should be created every day if the setup is similar to the described.

[ohuetz]

Backup-to-Disk job produced forward incremental files on every day. I din´t enabled incrementals to tape because I´d like to have only full backups.
According to Alan this feature isn´t for daily use and I`m afraid that I have to change the job-settings back to reverse-incremental.

Alan: could you give a short explanation why the feature does not work with daily backups?

Thanks a lot for your help

Kind Regards

Oliver

[veremin]

What product version are you using? The has been previously an issue with virtual full backup not being created when "processing increments" option was unchecked?

[alanbolte]

Oliver: I waited a bit to see if I get confirmation from someone with more direct knowledge than myself, but don't have a complete confirmation yet. Anyway, my understanding is that this type of full is intended to limit the length of the chain of increments on tape, and for no other purpose; there is a mechanism in place to prevent multiple synthetic backups being written to tape in a short time period. If the creation of the increment being transformed to synthetic full, the beginning of the tape job, and the end of the tape job all fall on the same day, then you may be able to write a synthetic full to tape every day (I could be missing a detail here). Otherwise, there will be relatively frequent skipped days, perhaps averaging every other day.

[Dima P.]

Hello Oliver,
While we keep spinning the internal discussions with QA and Support, may I ask you to open a support case so we could internally check your logs? Thanks

[Marcelo Soria]

Hello everybody.

I'm looking for the same kind of configuration, and I got similar results.
By reading the different explanation, I beleive that if we modify the schedule without linking the Backup to Tape job with the Backup Job, and specifying in schedule to run every day in some time, it should copy a Syntesyzed Full with the last increments and the old full. With this, if the Backup Job complete after the Backup to tape, we'll miss this increment, but we will get this in the next Backup to Tape run.
My concern on this is what will happen when the Backup Job try to apply the oldest increment to the full file if we still are copying backup to tape.

Regards, MArcelo.
(sorry for my english.. my native language is spanish).

[veremin]

Hi, Marcelo,

Can you elaborate what goal you're trying to achieve? Archive only full backup to tapes on everyday basis or something different? Backup job chosen as source for backup to tape job is using forward forever incremental mode, isn't it?

Thanks.

[Marcelo Soria]

Hi, Eremin.

Yes.
The customer have several small branches and they have only two servers and one tape drive (not library) for brunch. They have a small operations, so I trying to keep it simple. They run an incremental forever bettwen the VM's from one host to a virtual proxy in the other host and they do a Full to Tape by daily basis, then remove the Tape to a Fire-Safe box and put the Tape for the next run.
Incremental forever is faster than reverse in this environment, because of this I'm looking for incremental forever.
Right know I'm testing the proposed configuration, I should wait for the second day to verify if virtual full is generated again.

I have two Backup jobs scheduled at 10:00 pm, and I confiugred a Backup to Tape job scheduled at 12:30am. These run from Monday to Friday (Tuesday to Saturday for Bk2Tape) and configured to generate a Virtual full every day from Tuesday to Saturday.

There is a risk in the case of the incremental forever takes more time and overlap the Bk2Tape, in this case I will miss the last increment, but I will get this in the next Bk2Tape run.
My concern is, if this is the case, and the incremental forever should consolidate the old full with the first increment at the end, the Bk2Tape is running a Full copy from vsb metadata, and I'm worry if this could corrupt the copy, or the incremental forever cancel with an error.
For the site, this configuration is more simple for operations, beause the tape copy will be completed in a window time when the operator is present to change the Tape.


Thank you for help.

Regards, Marcelo

[veremin]

Hi, Marcelo,

Firstly, make sure a customer uses at least version 8 update 2 (chances are, by the time you contact a customer update 3 will have been already release). Secondly, uncheck "process incremental" option, since customer is willing to have only full backups on tapes. Thirdly, a missed cycle of backup to tape job due to the overlap or some other reason should not result in corrupted/inconsistent backup chain on tapes.

Thanks.