Backups spanning multiple disks

[muhfugen]

I have a server with a 20TB RAID which I would like to backup to external disks for a offsite backup. Due to the size of the RAID, it isnt possible to back it up to a single disk and to rotate them periodically. Obviously lugging around large disk enclosures between sites would be a major hassle. I was wondering if it there anyway for Endpoint backups to span multiple disks which would not be connected simultaneously?

[Mike Resseler]

Hi, Muh,

No, I'm afraid that this is not possible. Veeam Endpoint Backup will create a single VBK file as backup.

Just to understand better, that server, is it having one single large data driver? (e.g. that 20 TB minus what is running on the C-drive?).

[Dima P.]

Might be possible to split the source files/disks via backup job settings and create multiple standalone full backup files one by one.

[muhfugen]

Mike, yes it is a single large data drive which is about 75% full.

Dima, unfortunetly that would be administratively intensive. A lot of the files which take up most of the space are in a single directory and are 20GB+.

[Dima P.]

Any chance you are using Veeam Backup and Replication? I was thinking that you could use the file to tape job in conjunction with any Virtual Tape Library (like Quadstor). File to tape is supported in VBR FREE and the said VTL is also a free solution.

[muhfugen]

Yes I am using Veeam B&R as well. I ended up doing as you recommended but with Starwind's VTL software. It is technically working. However cumbersome as you cant manually specify tape barcode IDs, and speeds are pretty slow too, 20-40MB/sec to a USB 3 UASP HDD which should be capable of at least 100MB/sec. Veeam B&R reports the bottleneck being 99% at the target. The strange part is that in the task manager on the Target, the USB HDD never gets near 100% disk activity.

It would be nice if B&R had a way to verify tapes. Is there any chance you guys could create a feature request to verify file to tape backups? I read through the forums, and the justification for not having this feature so far is that real tape drives can have great non-recoverable error rates. VTLs on the other hand, especially with desktop class disks are a couple orders of magnitude worse.

[Dima P.]

Glad that you found the solution!

The strange part is that in the task manager on the Target, the USB HDD never gets near 100% disk activity.

Have you checked that computer’s USB controllers support UASP?

It would be nice if B&R had a way to verify tapes. Is there any chance you guys could create a feature request to verify file to tape backups?

Yes, we have this request noted, however it has a low priority - hardware libraries verify the data on a block level during write operations, so frankly speaking tape backup is always verified. I am not sure backup VTL, though. I guess it depends on the vendor’s implementation.