Disable VBK renaming? and Encryption/changed blocks?

[nikpolini]

Does the Registry setting DisableVBKRename work in the Endpoint Agent?

My reasons are I want to use rsync and VPN between 2 Raspberry Pi + 2TB USB HDD, one is onsite holding the initial backups (via SAMBA share) and the other is offsite at a friends house.... Only want to move changed blocks... so need the VBKs name to remain unchanged after the injection of oldest VIB.

Also great that the agent allows encrypting the backups now!
Hmmm.. How does that affect the block changes after injection? will the whole VBK be different once injected block are added?

[Dima P.]

Hi nikpolini,

The workaround you are referring to applies to Reversed incremental backup mode. Unfortunately, Veeam Agent for Windows runs in forever incremental backup mode which means incremental backup eventually is merged into full backup. In theory, you can configure periodic full backups and sync only the inactive part of backup chain.

[HDennis]

Hello,

Would like the option to disable the VBK renaming after a merge has been performed.
I'm currently doing local backups to my NAS. Afterwards I do a copy to the cloud. (Just to be on the safe side.) However due to the renaming of the VBK after a merge operation, the entire VBK needs to be uploaded again.
Would be nice to keep only 1 VBK name and let backup dedupe do the rest for the upload. (Total VBK to upload is around 210GB at the moment. Up speed is 20Mbps, so it would take around a full day to upload.)

[Technogod]

Unless your backup supports change block tracking it wouldn't understand how to upload the changed blocks. It would still upload the entire file. That is why I'm using B&R and Agent.

[Dima P.]

Hello and welcome to the community Dennis,

Due the nature of forever forward incremental backup mode vbk rename won’t work. Try the periodic full backups and sync the inactive backup chain as suggested above.

[Technogod]

How is this going to fix his problem? Once you perform a periodic full it will start a new backup chain. You would then need to sync the new full backup.

[Dima P.]

You can sync inactive backup chain because it won’t be modified by merge.

[Technogod]

This still won't fix the problem. You need to have a current backup. You will still have to sync the current full backup.

Quote: My reasons are I want to use rsync and VPN between 2 Raspberry Pi + 2TB USB HDD, one is onsite holding the initial backups (via SAMBA share) and the other is offsite at a friends house.... Only want to move changed blocks... so need the VBKs name to remain unchanged after the injection of oldest VIB.

[HDennis]

Hello Dima,

So you suggest to create a periodic full (once a month)? Creating a new full backup will start a new chain, yes?
So I configure to keep backups for the last 45 days, but then also set to create an active full once each month? This way it will only need to upload a full VBK once a month and VIB injection is never really run?

I suppose this is better than uploading the VBK each days after retention starts to kick in, but still...
Would be better to be able to have only 1 VBK.

[Carnie]

I got the same problem. Are there any plans to change this behaviour and get the chance to keep the .vbk filename ? Can i use a different Veeam Product with an acceptable price for personal usage to achieve this ? I really like veeam and it would be a pain in the ass to move to another solution for a minor thing like this.

[iknowtech]

I also could use the ability to Disable VBK renaming on the Veeam Agent for WIndows, for the same reasons as the the original poster.

[Dima P.]

Folks,

Even if we make the disable renaming option available it won’t solve the problem. Default backup mode is forever incremental and full backup is being modified during merge process. As a result, you have to copy the full backup chain every time.

The only option is to copy the unmodified backup files (or inactive backup chain) which is produced when periodic full option is enabled. In case you are using Veeam Backup & Replication repository as a target backup copy job works with agent backup files smoothly (all backup modes are supported)

P.S. Dennis sorry it seems I missed your post. Active full disables the merge of the incremental backup into full.

[iknowtech]

Even if we make the disable renaming option available it won’t solve the problem. Default backup mode is forever incremental and full backup is being modified during merge process. As a result, you have to copy the full backup chain every time.

I suppose that would really depend on whether whatever 3rd party solution that is being used to sync the backups offsite is capable of only uploading the changes to the main VBK file after each merge, wouldn't it? Every day you would be synching the days incremental and the changes to the main VBK. As it stands now you sync the incremental and full newly renamed VBK everyday.

The only option is to copy the unmodified backup files (or inactive backup chain) which is produced when periodic full option is enabled. In case you are using Veeam Backup & Replication repository as a target backup copy job works with agent backup files smoothly (all backup modes are supported)

P.S. Dennis sorry it seems I missed your post. Active full disables the merge of the incremental backup into full.

If I set the "Keep backups for the past "45" days when the computer was running. Then set the Active backup for Monthly. And the computer was on everyday of the 45 days. Then essentially you would have two backup sets, where the older backup set wouldn't get deleted until the newer backup set reached approximately its 15th incremental is that correct? But I am trying to wrap my head around what would happen if the computer was only on for 28 days out of the 45 for instance?

[xamoel]

Hi,
I use Veam to backup my server 2012R2 to my Synology.
All these files are then sent via WAN to a remote Synology.
As the WAN speed is really slow, I made the first backup in LAN. As all other backups are only incremental and about 500MB, I can backup them up using WAN with ease.

But recently I noticed the backups stopped. So I started looking what was wrong, and noticed that the initial Veam backup keeps changing the filename to represent the new date.
Can I set Veam to keep the original filename of the initial backup?
Otherwise Synology detects a change of file and starts backing up the huge first backup.

Thanks.

[Dima P.]

Jason,

Then essentially you would have two backup sets, where the older backup set wouldn't get deleted until the newer backup set reached approximately its 15th incremental is that correct?

The first (inactive) backup chain will be deleted by retention when the last increment in the chain is retired.

xamoel,

Can I set Veam to keep the original filename of the initial backup?

Unfortunately, it's not possible, but I noted a feature request based on this forum thread. Thank you!

[CKLee]

Hi All,

Apologies for reviving an old discussion but I have been watching for this to be implemented and to date still has not been (that I'm aware of), and it's already halfway through 2019.

To highlight the point how much this would mean to those of us asking for this feature to be implemented, here is a typical case :

The folder holding all my backups is approx.. 2TB in size. This folder is sync'd to another location daily.
If I just sync'd that folder as is, over 1TB of data needs to be copied across (that's every day). Across our slow internet link, this was unachievable.
If I manually renamed the VBK files at the target end to match the new VBK filenames at the source before starting the sync, here is the relevant section from the log files :-

Transfer amount saved due to partial file updating : 1.1TB
Remaining actual transfer amount for eligible files: 85.7GB

So, as you can see, the difference is significant.

Please consider putting this feature in to the next earliest release.

Thanks.

CK

[Dima P.]

Hello K. Lee,

Mind me asking if it's possible to install Veeam B&R community edition for your environment? In has integrated backup copy job which can copy the backup files from one repository to another and it's absolutely free? Thank you

[CKLee]

Hello Dima,

Thanks for your reply.

I will look into Veeam B&R CE to find out a bit more about it, in particular, what sort of remote targets are supported by the backup copy jobs. Does it have to be another B&R instance ? If so, this limits our choices of what we can use as targets for our offsite copies.

CK

[Dima P.]

Here is a link to the download page: Veeam Backup & Replication Community Edition 9.5.

what sort of remote targets are supported by the backup copy jobs. Does it have to be another B&R instance ?

Not at all. You can register storage as a repository with a single Veeam B&R console and use it as a target for your backup copy jobs. To learn more about Veeam Repositories take a look at this Help Center article: Backup Repository. Cheers!