Backup Seeding Feature Request

[aaron@ARB]

After it didn't work with 8, I upgraded my VBR and
I tried it with vbr 9 also same result. Do they want me to re log a request so it can upload the logs that will show it or is there a way to re supply new logs ?

Is there any definitive process documents to achieve this functionality as to ensure that it is being attempted correctly to avoid any confusion?

[Mike Resseler]

Not sure re process documents... But I just asked support / QC and yes they would like you to log a new request with the new logs

Sorry about this

Mike

[aaron@ARB]

Will re log in 14 hours when back in the office as just got off a plane.

Cheers, Aaron

[Mike Resseler]

Cool,

Thanks

Mike

[aaron@ARB]

Just logged request 01767780 with the latest logs

[aaron@ARB]

Okay... with a lot of too'ing and fro'ing with Konstantin (*high five*) from Veeam support It is now working. A quick summary on how to do this is below for those that need to do it (you will see why you really would have had no hope figuring it out yourself)

Before you start the below, domain authentication is suppose to work but i couldn't work it out. The format is suppose to be %domain%_%username% for the folder you create in step 1 but i couldn't make it work, so i dropped back to using a local user account which does work.

1) Copy backup folder from original server to a VBR 9.0U1 repository. This part is is important, it wont work with any lower version. Now to do this you need to create a folder off the root of VBR repository in the format of %VBRHOSTNAME%_%VEB_TO_VBR_Username%. So, using mine as an example, my VBR host is called ARBBackup and the username that I enter into VEB to connect to the VBR repository is 'ARBComp'. So the folder that I create is called "ARBBackup_ARBComp" In that folder just copy the seeded backup directory. In my case the folder is called "Backup Job SADC1" so if my repository was located in F:\Backup I would have to create the following path "F:\Backup\ARBBackup_ARBComp\Backup Folder SADC1" which would contain the backup VBK and VBM files.
2) Re-scan the repository. The imported backup is now shown in the repository under “Backups -> Disk (imported)”
3) In VEB configure the jobs properties as before. In my case I am backing up the “Entire Computer” to a “Veeam Backup and Replication Repository”.
4) Select the VBR repository and set any other options you wish.
5) Select Save / Finish
6) Now at this point you NEED to see that the backup has moved from the Imported section to the normal Backup (Disk) section with the rest of your backups. If you don't see this then the seed wont work, it has to move.
7) Re-scan the repository. You wont see any changes here... just do it, as it updates the Veeam DB with metadata file, failure to re-scan will throw an error at the VEB end which will result in the backup not running at all.
Start the job
9) Checking the VEB job log you can now see that it is running in incremental mode

Code: Select all

[21.04.2016 15:10:00] <01> Info     Job session is running in incremental mode

10) Have a well earned drink.

Depending on how big your backup file is this may take a while the first time as the metadata needs to be checksummed and the changes transferred which depending on the speed of your link.... may take some time.

If anyone has any questions on this please do let me know, i've had a rough ride with this feature but have a handle on it now.

[Dima P.]

Aaron,

Additional thanks for sharing well documented solution. The drink is, indeed, well deserved

[jhh]

Aaron,

Tried your instructions exactly but my backup just won't move from imported to backup. Any suggestions what to try?

[Dima P.]

Johan,

Please open a support case, as the said behavior does not sound like expected. Thanks.

[aaron@ARB]

Aaron,

Tried your instructions exactly but my backup just won't move from imported to backup. Any suggestions what to try?

The local user account matches the folder name structure you create on the vbr repo? The local account have permissions to move the folder on the underlying datastore?

[jhh]

Yes the account matches the folder name structure and it has permissions on datastore.

I will open a support case.

[Dima P.]

Johan,

Please share the case ID. Thank you.

[jhh]

Just managed to get it to work, case 01800804.

The backup suddenly just moved from imported section and I don't know what was different this time since I've tried som many different folder and account combinations over and over again.

Used a domain account (same account that was used to do the initial backup) and the exact same folder stucture as the initial backup. My initial backup was done to a Veeam repository created on a USB disk attached to the very same server that I backed up with VEB.

[Dima P.]

Johan,

Indeed, the folder structure must be preserved – otherwise you will get a new backup chain. Thanks for getting back to us and sharing the solution!

[bhwong]

I'm trying File level backup to a shared folder on local network as seed. When I move the shared folder to remote site and update the destination, it refused to backup into the existing shared folder but create another shared folder with _1 added to the folder name as a new full backup instead. There is no option given for me to map existing backup as seed. What did I do wrong?

[Dima P.]

Hi bhwong,

There is no UI option – once job find the backup in the specified location its going to be mapped automatically. Did you migrate the backup chain with its own folder structure? Kindly, review the instructions given above.

[bhwong]

Hi Dima,

The instructions mentioned this:

"Copy backup folder from original server to a VBR 9.0U1 repository. This part is is important, it wont work with any lower version."

Does this mean incremental backup only works with VBR 9.0U1 repository and above? I'm using a QNAP SMB shared folder.

And where does the folder structure begin? If my seed is located at: \\192.168.1.100\ns4bkup\VeeamBackup\Backup Job NS4,
I should point to which folder?

• \\192.168.190.191\ns4bkup\ or
  \\192.168.190.191\ns4bkup\VeeamBackup\ or
  \\192.168.190.191\ns4bkup\VeeamBackup\Backup Job NS4?

[Dima P.]

That should work \\192.168.190.191\ns4bkup\VeeamBackup\Backup Job NS4\migrated backup files inside

[bhwong]

I point to \\192.168.190.191\ns4bkup\VeeamBackup\Backup Job NS4\ and VEP add another subfolder of the same name inside and backup new files here: \\192.168.190.191\ns4bkup\VeeamBackup\Backup Job NS4\Backup Job NS4. Is this the correct behaviour for incremental backup?

My previous backup was to \\192.168.190.191\ns4bkup\VeeamBackup\ and VEP add another folder with _1 added here: \\192.168.190.191\ns4bkup\VeeamBackup\Backup Job NS4\Backup Job NS4_1. It was a full backup and at about 50% (around 800GB), it stop by itself with this error:

7/12/2016 7:21:20 AM :: Error: Timed out to wait until the size of mount cache will be less than threshold Agent failed to process method {FileBackup.SyncDirs}.

What does this error mean? Will be great if we can add a agent at remote site to optimize WAN traffic.

[bhwong]

It doesn't work. It's performing full backup into \\192.168.190.191\ns4bkup\VeeamBackup\Backup Job NS4\Backup Job NS4\new full backup files inside
Despite a full back here: \\192.168.190.191\ns4bkup\VeeamBackup\Backup Job NS4\migrated backup files inside

[Dima P.]

Please open a support case and let the team investigate this issue, don’t forget to include the case Id to this thread. Thanks.

[bhwong]

I have problem sending support case as well. The webpage informed me that I must submit from the app, but the app said that my email is not registered with Veeam. After clicking register and received the verification email and have clicked on the link in the email. I update the status and it repeat the whole thing again saying that my email address is not register with Veeam. zzz....

Update: It finally let me submit after 10 minutes.

[Vitaliy S.]

Yes, there might be some delays in updating/synchronization registration info between our website and support system. Please let us know your case ID for future reference.

[bhwong]

My Case ID is # 01853775

[bhwong]

How do I tell if VEB is performing an incremental instead of a full backup without waiting for days for it to fail?

May I know if incremental backup will add into existing folder or create a new folder?

[bhwong]

FYI, Konstantin Primakov from Veeam support has found out that this was due to permission issue. When I did the backup to the external USB drive in Veeam, it was using my domain account permission. But after I transfer it to the NAS at the remote site, I configure it to use the NAS local admin account that has no access to the seed which preserved my domain account permission. As we cannot add NAS local admin account into the seed folder on the NAS, we have to amend the credentials in Veeam to my domain account permission instead. Hope this is helpful to others who encounter similar issue!

[bhwong]

Support feedback that VEP cannot perform incremental backup after it has detected multiple backup failure and suggest that I do a full backup to a local storage and migrate to offsite again.

However, I find that this is too troublesome and there is little changes, so I counter-propose if it is possible to wipe clean the configuration so that it does not aware that there were multiple backup failure in order to get it to perform an incremental backup instead. Unfortunately, it appears that after wiping off the previous configuration, it still refused to perform an incremental backup. I suspect that it won't do one because it has no record of a previous full backup. Am I right? Is it possible to overcome this?

[Vitaliy S.]

Depending on the backup failure reason, it is, indeed, a correct statement that VEB requires full backup to be done in order to fix the entire chain. Yes, there might be still records in the DB about the previous backup chain, so please discuss it with our support team directly, maybe they will be able to propose a workaround for that.

[bhwong]

Unfortunately support has no workaround. So I have to redo everything from scratch again. But lesson learned. Hopefully the software can also be more improved to be more flexible in overcoming the incremental backup difficulties.

[Dima P.]

Hi bhwong,

Make sense - thanks for sharing! We will definitely look into your request.