Veeam and file level backups of exchange and SQL

[kestral]

I'm currently evaluating Veeam Backup and Replication and was hoping someone might be able to answer a few questions.

Our current tape backup software does file level and application specific backups (it's Exchange and MS SQL aware) and performs backups of exchange and SQL using VSS and truncating the logs on successful completion. I see that Veeam also does this on VM backups, but I was unable to determine if it was able to do the same on file level backups of exchange and SQL. I'd like to be able to do file level backups as I dont really need to store the entire VM on tape (happy to have it on disk).

There is an option to use VSS on file level backups but it didn't mention if logs were going to get truncated. I'm assuming they don't.

Also, with tape backups, is de-dupe active for them ? As I back up a number of windows and linux VM's, dedupe would likely reduce the size.

Thanks,
Andrew

[Dima P.]

Hello Andrew,
I’ve moved your post to Tape dedicated subforum since the functionality you are looking mostly relates to the existing tape features of Veeam B&R.

I'd like to be able to do file level backups as I dont really need to store the entire VM on tape (happy to have it on disk).

This one is completely covered by existing File to tape job functionality of the VBR. This feature is included in all editions (even in Free edition), so its worth checking. For more details please refer to this Help Center article How Archiving File to Tape Works

There is an option to use VSS on file level backups but it didn't mention if logs were going to get truncated. I'm assuming they don't.

Correct - VSS can be enabled, but without log truncation.

Also, with tape backups, is de-dupe active for them ? As I back up a number of windows and linux VM's, dedupe would likely reduce the size.

There is no deduplication - only hardware compression option is available . However, if you are talking about putting VM backups to tape – deduplication can be enabled within the regular backup to disk job.

[kestral]

Hi Dima,

Thanks for the reply. With the last response, does that mean that if I use dedupe to disk then backup the disk to tape that it will in effect have a deduped backup ?

[Dima P.]

Yup, if the deduplication is set up on the backup job level, the deduplicated backup file will be placed on tape. Same applies to the compression, so at some point its might be useless to have both compressions enabled in disk and tape job simultaneously.

[veremin]

Speaking about VSS, be aware that in case of file to tape job no specific VSS aware application logic will be performed, such as freezing application, preparing it for successful restore, etc., in contrast to ordinary backup jobs. Thanks.