Any way to Validate a Backup?

[HannesK]

+1 for "some way" to validate standalone backups (button, automatic, Veeam.Backup.Validator.exe standalone...)

[RubinCompServ]

+1 for a method to validate Agent backups

[Dima P.]

Hi folks.

Thank you for your posts. This feature is planned.

[sebastian_h]

Backup is all about recovery. However, IT directors report that only 5%* of their backups are being tested.
(https://www.veeam.com/verified-recoverability.html)

+1 for backup validation in Veeam Agent.

Has anyone actually tried to restore a Windows full disk backup to /dev/null with Linux?

[Dima P.]

Hello Sebastian.

Volume level recovery can be performed only via agent installation or Recovery Media. Last works only with backup files associated with operating system (so you cannot use Recovery Media for Linux with Veeam Agent for Windows backup files).

[sdet00]

Count me in for this feature being critically important. By sheer chance I discovered that my backups are being corrupted due to failing storage hardware, thankfully before I actually needed them... no warnings whatsoever. The ability to validate backups in Veeam Agent for Windows is incredibly important.

[Dima P.]

Hi folks.

Health check functionality is planned for next versions. Thank you!

[RubinCompServ]

Dima,

Thanks for following up on this. Do you mean it's planned for 10.0, 9.5u4, or just some point in the future?

[Dima P.]

Do you mean it's planned for 10.0, 9.5u4, or just some point in the future?

Since it's a VAW feature we aim for the next VAW major release.

[ThomasR]

Since it's a VAW feature we aim for the next VAW major release.

I'm sorry that I have to ask but when do you think this version will be released?

[Dima P.]

ThomasR,

What type of functionality are you looking for? Ability to check agent backup with Veeam B&R SureBackup job or built-in Health Check option in Veeam Agent for Windows? Thanks.

[ThomasR]

I'm looking for a function, that checks the existing backups for health and makes sure that it is able to restore these backups. According to you, veeam is already working on a function that will be implemented in a new build. I'd like to now when this update will be released

[Dima P.]

Thanks! We cannot disclose any release dates but I can say that health check functionality is in the upcoming major release.

[sdet00]

Look forward to checking out health check functionality. This will be a game changer for Veeam on bare metal. Can't wait.

[3Daniel42]

Will this be available for the Free version as well or only for the paid ones (I have just switched to veeam and are utterly surprised that the health check is not done automatically)? just imagine you do backup to one of these chinese fake USB sticks)?

[Dima P.]

Daniel,

We plan to include health check functionality in all Veeam Agent for Windows editions. Cheers!

[lucius_the]

Great news! Thank you

[Anakha56]

+1 Can't wait for this feature!

[audax]

+1
It is really not necessary, because Dima promised it for next major release, but I had to tell someone. It releases some steam .
After doing backups with WAV for more than a year, first time I really needed backup, it failed with LZV decompress error. FLR didnt help because I needed BMR. I tried all restore points and none worked, best result was around 30%.
Backup was done to (internal) 1TB mirror volume. I checked both (WD) disks with WD Data Lifeguard Diag SW (full surface scan) and got no bad sectors at all, so it must be VAW problem.
I will switch to some other backup SW until this major release is out, because I do like WAV.

[Dima P.]

audax,

That sounds strange, I can imagine backup file landing the bad block (which may corrupt the backup) and then being replicated on a storage level but they you must see the bad blocks during scan. Do you have a SMART output for these drives?

To be precise about the root cause we also would need your debug logs for the analysis, so may I ask you to submit a VAW case and share the case ID? Cheers!

[audax]

Hi Dima,
thanks for showing interest in my case.
I didn't write the whole story, it is little longer.
This happened like two weeks ago.
Machine, I was talking about, is just a host for a bunch of VMs, running in VMWare WKS. Machine itself is not important, VMs are. But hosts Windows registry got corrupted and instead of loosing time with registry recovery, I just did BMR.
When recovery failed, I started to search for my USB key with Windows installation, but somehow I tried to reboot computer anyway. To my surprise, Windows started normally and I was able to login. Then I checked VMs and one VDMK was corrupted, but chkdsk managed to repair it. All other VMs were ok.
So, BMR managed to fully restore Windows and error happened in the middle of VDMK, which got restored also by chkdsk. So, happy ending nevertheless and I didn't bother with opening support case. But my trust in Veeam was seriously shaken.
Below are screens of HD smart results. Both disks are in mirror volume, managed by Windows 10 Storage Spaces. Windows are build 1703. It could be Storage spaces error, but I hope that after all this time, MS learned to manage simple mirror.
WD Lifeguard diag:

Smart:

[x3mike]

I had two similar problems in the past weeks:

In one situation I exchanged the hard drive of a friend's notebook: I created a Veeam Agent backup to a new external hard drive, changed the drive (a torture on this Asus notebook) and tried to recover from the external media. The recovery failed at 30% with a CRC error ... Fortunately the old disk still existed and I was able to make a 1:1 copy.

In a second situation I secured my second notebook with Veeam Agent on my Backup & Replication Server 9.5. After a repair I had to restore it. This recovery also failed: the LZ4 uncompression error occurred during recovery. Fortunately I was able to restore the device with a newer Rescue Media (2.2 instead of 2.1). I would have expected it to work with the older media.

After these two cases, my confidence in the security of the backups has declined. Therefore the validation of the backups is absolutely necessary for me. A failure due to an unvalidated backup would be fatal for my productive systems.

So that's why: Validation of backups is a must. Without validation, a backup is just a random security!

Best regards,
Michael

[chaycock]

It seems like this error is way too frequent in terms of reliability. Perhaps they should amend their storage scheme to include some FEC/ECC so that minor errors could actually be corrected. Yes, that would increase the amount of storage required to store the backups, but to me, that is a very worthwhile trade-off for having more reliable backups.

[staunts]

Hi all. Is the verification part of Veeam Endpoint (Free) version yet. The software saved my bacon last week , but am wondering if my backups are being validated and the risk of not being able to recover are a concern.

[HannesK]

Hello,
and welcome to the forums.

Yes, https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/agent ... tml?ver=30

Best regards,
Hannes