Veeam 9 GFS & Big Tape Jobs - Tape Parallel Processing ?

[WinstonWolf]

Hello ,

I have 4 Repositorys for 4 VM Backup Jobs . In Repository 1 is an File Server Backup with an 6 TB vbk . In Repository 2, 3 and 4 are respectively 1.2 TB vbks

Now i use Tape Parallel Processing . I create two Tape Jobs on wich every Job backup 2 Repositorys to tape . in two Different Media pools .

Now with Version 9 i plan to use GFS .

BUT : I read that GFS dont support Tape parallel processing .

Is than GFS the right decision when big vbk. Files should Backup to Tape ?

Michael

[Shestakov]

Hello Michael,

Indeed, you can`t enable parallel processing for GFS media pools.

Do you want make both media pools as GFS ones? How much time does a single tape job take?
Thanks!

[WinstonWolf]

A single Tape Job when it creates an virtual Full on Sunday needs 16 Hours . For the Daily vib Backup to Tape it needs 16 till 25 minutes .

What i want is the Following :

-2 Backup Jobs with respectively 2 VM Backups inserted with Daily inkremental Backups to Tape in an Mediapool
-On every Sunday start an new Mediaset
-On every Mediaset should be an Full and the inkrementals from the last Week ( with an virtual Full Backup )

So we can Backup 4 Weeks every VM on every Day , right ?

But further we need 2 monthly Backup to Tape Jobs with only the last vbk File from the VM Backups .
This Media Sets we plan to Long term Storage.

[Shestakov]

If you want to implement tape GFS, you need to create a new media pool with a type "GFS Media Pool". It has 4 media sets (weekly,monthly etc.), so if you use the media pool as a target, you can`t create a new media set each time.
Looks like you need 2 media pools, a regular and GFS one for long term backups.

[WinstonWolf]

Why not two GFS Media Pools ?
For every Tape Job one GFS Media Pool .

[Dima P.]

Hey WinstonWolf,

Parallel processing for GFS media pools feature is planned as a part of further GFS media pool enhancements, so thanks for posting – it shows we are on the right track.

Current GFS Media Pool implementation allows to backup only full (or virtual full) backups to tape for long term archiving. In order to backup incremetals in conjunction with full backups to tape you may want to use the simple media pool approach. We keep collecting the GFS improvement requests in this thread.

Now, regarding your backup plan

-2 Backup Jobs with respectively 2 VM Backups inserted with Daily inkremental Backups to Tape in an Mediapool
-On every Sunday start an new Mediaset
-On every Mediaset should be an Full and the inkrementals from the last Week ( with an virtual Full Backup )

This looks like a regular media pool. You set up a tape job to create a virtual full backup on Sunday/Monday and backup to tape to run ‘as a new backup file appear’ or at the end of the week. Export should be set prior scheduled virtual full backup creation, so your media set will always keep the first full backup followed by incrementals

2 monthly Backup to Tape Jobs with only the last vbk File from the VM Backups .

Perfect place for the GFS media pool, since you want to keep full backup on tape on long-term basis. GFS media pools has four separate independent media sets to better orchestrate the full backup schedule and overwrite protection periods. If you would like to use one particular media set, let’s say monthly, you can set the overwrite protection period to 0 in GFS media pool settings and disable the unnecessary media set.

[Rettep91]

What about making two GFS Media Pools? Is it possible to assign a tape drive to each GFS Media Pool?

[Dima P.]

Rettep91,

It is possible to assign a library or standalone drive to a media pool. However, it’s not possible to add a single drive from specific library (you have to add the whole library instead).

[Steve Hummel]

Hi,
I am still waiting for the ability to use both a GFS Media pool and all of my tape drives. I have been waiting patiently for over two years now. I want to deploy Veeam to our main site, but will be unable to do it without both of these features. Can you guys make an actual commitment on when this will happen? This seems like a ridiculously simple "fix" compared to all the other updates that have been accomplished in the last two years. Pretty please with sugar on top, make these features work together....

[Dima P.]

Hello Steve.

This feature is planned.

[taurus1978]

just run into a situation where i needed a GFS Tape Job and tried to use parallell-processing.

So definitly agree that GFS Jobs need "Parallell Processing Option" and a scheduler option to specify the "DAY AND the TIME". Not only the day.
Because most customers want to do tape copy during specific time ranges

[Dima P.]

Patrick,

a scheduler option to specify the "DAY AND the TIME". Not only the day.

With existing GFS schema you do not tape out all the restore points for the selected time period. Instead, you write only latest restore point for the given day to make an archival (GFS) full backup on tape media.

[Alien]

Dear Dima,

why can not I schedule a GFS Media Pool job to run at a time other than midnight? We backup at every night, and the tape backup can work in the day.

[Shestakov]

Hello Petr,
Tape GFS starts waiting for new restore points at 0:00 and once it appears, VBR will create GFS restore point. If no new restore points created during the day, at 23:59 VBR will create and write GFS restore points of all remaining source objects.
Here is a related topic with details.
The option to set different behavior is in progress.
Thanks!