Offload the Merging of backup files

[Keyser]

Hi.

I know it's been a request for years, but are there any work being done on allowing agents to offload the backup merge process?

We have laptops we would love to use Veeam Agents for, but it's a dead end since the agent does the merging of backup files, which kills our company WiFi.
Our users are very mobile so merging almost never completes (takes 1 - 2 hours) because they meanwhile have moved on or connected to a tunneling VPN.

I have asked this before but why not allow a Veeam proxy on the repository server or elsewhere to take care of the file merging? That way we could do ~weekly backup in less than 15 minutes instead of the 1-2hrs it takes now. I know the argument about "is the backup successfully completed then?", but why not allow us to take the risk and report back to the user agent the next time the user connects?

-Keyser

[Dima P.]

Hello Keyser,

Thanks for the feedback! Mind me asking what repository type are you using? The deal is that merge operation should be performed at the repository side, so it should not consume traffic at all. Thanks!

[Keyser]

Right now I’m using an SMB repository, and that would of course need a Proxy to perform the merge.
But i tried using a Veeam Windows Server backup repository a while back, an that exibited the same behaviour. So as far as I could tell there is no way to have the Veeam repository service perform the merge.

[Vitaliy S.]

Using a Windows/Linux repository (not a file share) will allow keeping traffic locally within the repository (as we start data movers on the repository server) and data would not go back and forth as you see now with an SMB repository.

[Keyser]

Hmm, I'm still not seeing that happening, but I guess that's because I'm using the free agent then?
If the agent is licensed and managed from B&R, will that then change the behaviour?

[Vitaliy S.]

The agent version does not matter here. How do you monitor or track down the traffic going back and forth between the repository and the agent?

[Keyser]

Looking at my network link utilisation on the workstation having the Agent installed. It's definately moving the data back'n forth.

Another question is: If/when I get the offload to work, does the client still have to wait for the merge to complete before the backup is marked complete, or does it finish the job once the incremental is done?

[Vitaliy S.]

The agent has to still wait for the process to complete to finalize the backup job state.

[Keyser]

Okay - so just to make sure: The clients will be time bound by the repository data mover performance in completing the merge? It should be faster than back'n forth over the Network.

Additionally:

1: The free agent runs forever incremental by default - if the Repository Server is ReFS 3.1, will the Merge process then speed up additionally by using fast clone when merging the Full and oldest incremental backup at the end of the chain? Or will that still be old school data moving on disk?

2: Will a Licensed agent change any of this behaviour? Perhaps by doing forever incremental with a weekly synthetic using fast clone (and thus remove the need to merge files at the end of the backup chain).

[Keyser]

One more question: Can Free Agents complete a backup to a repository server if the B&R server is offline? This naturally assumes the repository server is not located on the same server as B&R

[DGrinev]

...
The repository server should be a Windows server machine, in this case, there is a Veeam Data Mover to handle data transfer.

EDITED: the correct answer is down below.

Thanks!

[Keyser]

Okay, so I can do a backup to a repository server with the B&R Server offline.
But why does it have to be a Windows? What about a Linux Repository?

[Keyser]

I'm a little confused now. Can you do a backup to a repository server (both Windows and Linux) when the B&R server itself is offline?

The link you sent seems to suggest there is an issue with the datamover not being available on the Linux Repository. It suggests it gets deployed runtime on linux - wouldn't that require the B&R Server to be online?
https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... l?ver=95u4

[DGrinev]

I am sorry, you need the Veeam B&R server online for authentication and interaction with the backup components.

[Keyser]

Okay - Thanks for clarifying

[DGrinev]

Okay - so just to make sure: The clients will be time bound by the repository data mover performance in completing the merge? It should be faster than back'n forth over the Network.

That's correct, the merge operation will be handled on the repository side if it will be a separate windows-based repository.
In case you have a shared folder repository type, you will need to deploy a gateway server to handle the merge operation.

1: The free agent runs forever incremental by default - if the Repository Server is ReFS 3.1, will the Merge process then speed up additionally by using fast clone when merging the Full and oldest incremental backup at the end of the chain? Or will that still be old school data moving on disk?

2: Will a Licensed agent change any of this behaviour? Perhaps by doing forever incremental with a weekly synthetic using fast clone (and thus remove the need to merge files at the end of the backup chain).

1. The merge will use fast clone.
2. The type of license won't change the behavior.
Both operations you've mentioned are synthetic, so both should utilize fast clone technology at the ReFS repository. Thanks!