Tape job moves files rather than copies.. ?

[DCW]

Hi team,

I have a tape job which looks at 2 repositories and moves the full backups to tape each month.

Job 1 ) a back up copy job taking a monthly full (and the minimum of 2 incrementals veeam backup copy jobs force you to take)
Job 2 ) a monthly linux veeam agent job

However must to my unpleasant surprise the backup copy job contents is nearly completely gone, and the agent job repository is empty. Everything has been written to tape nicely though.

Is the default behavior of a tape job to move the backup files rather than copy? I'm now in a position where I need to call back all the tapes to copy data back onto my network so I have faster access to these backups.

Thanks!

[HannesK]

Hello,
no, the tape job does not move anything. The only thing it can do is "copy"

However must to my unpleasant surprise the backup copy job contents is nearly completely gone

well, you only have two restore points (incrementals) configured. So there is only one full and two increments and depending how long you waited, there might be monthly full backups

a monthly linux veeam agent job

just to make sure, I understood you: you are running backup just once a month?

Without having the full job configuration (restore points, schedule), I guess that you just need to wait longer and your monthly fulls will appear.

Best regards,
Hannes

[veremin]

Take a look at this diagram; should help you understand backup methods better.

I assume your backup copy job uses forward forever incremental method, which means each day the oldest restore point gets moved forward, basically wiping out previous restore points. Seems like this was exactly what you found out after leaving backup copy running for several days.

Thanks!

[DCW]

Hello,

Ok so perhaps my backup copy job configuration is wrong and this is why my full backups are disappearing, unsure what's wrong about is as I copied the config off a a previous veeam install where this process ran fine.

My Backup Copy job is set to retain 24 monthly backups, Restore Points is set to 2 - from my understand this is how many incrementals are kept. What setting is there in the backup copy job which could actually causing fulls to be deleting/over writing?

Thanks

[HannesK]

Hello,
as I don't see information about the schedule of the backup copy job and the backup job... I recommend to use the restore point simulator and click "manual run".

https://rps.dewin.me/?m=3&s=1000&r=3&c= ... ,NaN,NaN&e

When did you start your backup copy job? What is the schedule of the BCJ. What is the schedule of the backup job? I don't expect that anything got deleted as you configured 24 monthly backups.

Best regards,
Hannes

[veremin]

My Backup Copy job is set to retain 24 monthly backups, Restore Points is set to 2 - from my understand this is how many incrementals are kept. What setting is there in the backup copy job which could actually causing fulls to be deleting/over writing?

If you're saying that some time ago there were several GFS monthly full backups in your backup repository and they disappeared suddenly, then, reach our support team - cause with the provided configuration those restore points should have stayed on backup storage. Unless you haven't played with the retention policy, setting and applying different settings.

Thanks!

[DCW]

Thanks guys, I was trying to avoid it but I'll log a ticket and let you know how it plays out. I started this backup copy job September 2019 however with backup's being overwritten or deleted (whatever is happening) I've lost all my 2019 backups minus Novembers backup, can't work out how this is going so wrong.

[veremin]

Kindly, provide us with the support ticket ID (whenever you have one) - we would like to understand the issue and its cause better. Thanks!