Veeam tape archive question...

[KevinW]

Hi, I'm currently thinking of doing some regular housekeeping on our Veeam backups to keep disk usage down.

Currently we have a policy in place whereby a vmware folder which contains a number of virtual machines is backed up. A backup copy job then pushes these backups to a remote site (so they are available in case of a vmware cluster failure)

Currently we have a legal requirement to keep backups for around 7 years, but we anticipate that we would run out of disk space before then.

I was hoping to have a scenario whereby we could archive off a load of vms to tape every 6 months or so to be stored off site but I was unsure about how to do this.

I was thinking of maybe setting a "file to tape" job to run every 6 months which would point at our veeam backup repositories. I could then change the retention policy on our backups to around 6/7 months (rather than years) to keep the datastore size down.

I'm hoping that I could restore the veeam backup files from a tape (or pool of tapes) at a later date as long as the whole backup chain exists.

Am I on the right track with this or is there a better way? I'm assuming that the all data required for a backup is stored in a single job folder stored in the repository.

I would be grateful for any help on this

Cheers

Kev

[Dima P.]

Hello Kev,
Yes you can achieve it by creating the file to tape job.

I was thinking of maybe setting a "file to tape" job to run every 6 months which would point at our veeam backup repositories. I could then change the retention policy on our backups to around 6/7 months (rather than years) to keep the datastore size down.

Its should look like this:
- Create a media pool
- Add tape media to this media pool
- Specify the desired retention. I assume for long term archiving never overwrite tape media option is the best. Since the retention is applied to the media (not to the data on tape).
- To use all existing free space media set creation option should be set to 'Continue to use current media set"
- Create a file to tape job with no schedule and both Full and Incremental backup option targeted to the previously created media pool

I'm hoping that I could restore the veeam backup files from a tape (or pool of tapes) at a later date as long as the whole backup chain exists.

To restore from an increment you must restore the complete backup chain (previous increments and the first full).

Here are the links to useful resources:the Veeam B&R user guides or Online Help Center > Tapes

[KevinW]

Thanks Dmitry,

I was hoping this would be the case, but I needed some sanity checking to make sure I was on the right track.

I think I'll do some testing with a standalone Tape drive, but I was hoping to get some kind of tape autoloader device similar to what we have for our IBM kit.

Do you know if veeam supports these kinds of devices out of the box?

Cheers

Kev

[veremin]

Speaking about VB&R compatibility with different tape devices, as long as, the correct drivers (OEM drivers from device manufacturer) are used, and the drive is shown properly in Windows Device Manager under correct name (as opposed to generic device), it would be automatically supported by Veeam Backup and Replication.

While installing drivers, make sure to install non-exclusive ones.

Thanks.

[KevinW]

That's good to know, thanks Guys!

I'll get back to you if I have any issues.

Cheers

Kev

[KevinW]

Hi Guys,

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but after juggling a few projects I've finally got around to testing this.

I've set up a repository on my Tape archive server and have the relevant "backup copy" jobs copying data to it.

I would still like a job which backs up this repository every few months to store offsite (which is fairly easy to implement), but I like the idea of backups copying immediately on to tape as they arrive to minimise data loss in case I have a hardware failure.

I've set up a copy to tape job pointing at the repository and selected "As new backup files appear" in the "Schedule" tab but this doesn't appear to notice any "backup copy" increments - is this correct? is it just for backup jobs?

If this is the case then I'm not sure would what would be the best way to achieve what I'm after? I guess it's looking like two separate jobs... is this the case?

Your help as always is much appreciated.

Thanks

Kev

[veremin]

How your backup to tape jobs are configured? Are both process incremental and full options enabled?

[KevinW]

Hi Vladimir,

Thanks for the quick response - Yes I have currently one Backup to Tape Job which is pointing at a single repository. The "Process incremental backup files" checkbox is checked for this Job.

The only items in this repository are from "backup copy" jobs which have arrived from other sites.

Does this help?

Cheers

Kev

[veremin]

Kevin, the described behaviour doesn't look expected. Kindly, open a ticket with our support team, and post case number here, so that, I can ask QA team to take a look at it. Thanks.

[KevinW]

ok I'll do that...

Cheers

Kev

[veremin]

As mentioned, don't forget to post its number here. Otherwise, we won't be able to follow the case. Thanks.