Backup for road warriors, not detecting network status

[mephisto]

Hi guys,

I've been trying to POC Veeam Agent for a customer as we use another vendor for laptop backups at the moment and I was hoping to migrate them to Veeam agent due to Cloud Connect functionality. The problem is, with a file level backup, if the computer is not connected to a network the backup will fail and retry again I think in 5 or 10 minutes, and will keep doing it I think for about 5 times until it fails completely and then will only try again next following day.

I tried the option to detect when network is up, but that doesn't work for file level backup. The only way is doing a system image level backup which then detects when network is up, but it is not possible over wifi/4G mobile hotspot in remote locations, it is simply impractical.

There should be a option to do file level backup that waits for network status to be up and then starts backing the machine up. Lots of road warriors have intermittent connectivity when they are at customer premises or working on a train and as it is the file level backup from Veeam doesn't work.

I've spoken to support case 02416861 and they recommended to come here and propose this feature, which I believe would apply to lots of other people.

Thanks!

[Dima P.]

Hello mephisto,

Thanks for the feedback! Have you tried to use 'disable backup over metered connection' option in conjunction with backup cache functionality?

[mephisto]

Hi Dima,

backup cache only works for image level backups, not for file level backup.

[Dima P.]

True, sorry I forgot that you are running file level backup. And metered connections? Is it possible to add the mobile host spot network to the list of metered connections in Windows and use this settings in VAW? Thanks.

[mephisto]

Hi Dima,

No metered connections, as my concern also is that their connect to multiple WIFI networks as they are on the road, so if we set up the software to operate based on a registry setting identifying it as a metered connection still is not going to do the trick

It would simply need to detect connection dropped, hold the backup, resume once connection is back up. Or then use the backup cache, so sends part of the backup job whenever a connection is available, then pauses, and resumes sending it again next time it is connected. It should detect the connection though, not just have a hardwired retry X times over X amount of seconds.

[Dima P.]

mephisto,

Noted, thanks for sharing! We will discuss you feedback with the RnD team.