Veeam tape labels

[BradJensen]

We are working to integrate our UBD appliance with Veeam in several ways.

One of these is to have two volumes, one that is a normal Windows volume for Veeam Backup Repositories, and a second volume that has Windows Deduplication enabled for tape images.

So the user does their Veeam backups as usual to the normal volume. Then they use Veeam to create a backup tape, which actually goes to our tape images volume with dedupe and replication. This splits each backup into 8 subfiles, which gets around the 1TB per file Windows Deduplication limit. We then dedupe these files and replicate them top another remote UBD appliance. On that appliance we not only store all the tape images, but give the user the ability to write the backup to a real old fashioned tape cartridge for whatever reason.

The problem comes when one tape cartridge can't hold the entire backup. If we need to write multiple cartridges, does Veeam use Ansi 74 tape labels, or something else?

And in general, is there useful information on the tape that we can read to present to the user so that they know what is on the tape? We are thinking this is particularly helpful for longterm file storage, like 7 years or forever.

I have gotten the impression that what Veeam writes to the tape is a synthetic full backup. Is that so, or is it an option?

There are two connection to the UBD appliance from the Veeam backup host. One is 1 GB (or faster ) ethernet for access to the repositories. The other would be a FC HBA to server as tapeout, which would connect to our HBA in the UBD.

[veremin]

If we need to write multiple cartridges, does Veeam use Ansi 74 tape labels, or something else?

Not sure whether I follow you on that. You want to know what happens if there is no space on given medium to locate whole backup file (.vbk)?

And in general, is there useful information on the tape that we can read to present to the user so that they know what is on the tape?

Do you have Veeam ONE deployed? If so, take a look at the report called "Tape backup" and see whether it meets your expectations.

Is that so, or is it an option?

Option.

[BradJensen]

If I write a Veeam backup to my virtual tape image file, it will always be one 'cartridge' because I can write a backup of any length. But if I put that tape image file on a deduplicated volume, replicate it offsite, and then at the offsite location I want to write the tape image to a real tape drive, I need to know what veeam does when the backup is too large for a single tape cartridge.

My goal is to be able to write a set of tape cartridges that Veeam will accept as a tape backup file.

So yes, I am asking what happens when Veeam can't fit the backup on a single cartridge.

[Dima P.]

I am asking what happens when Veeam can't fit the backup on a single cartridge.

While writing to tapes media set is being opened and VBR catalogue keeps the information of the used tape sequence. Moreover, once there is no free space left and new tape should be used – tape service will add the meta info regarding the media set is not closed (frankly speaking, “this tape is not the last in the sequence”) Last tape in the sequence keeps the information about all previously used tapes. Speaking of the data – it is simply placed to multiple tapes in the LTO data stream, which ensures the integrity upon remotes from multiple tapes