Switch from storage replication to Veeam copy job?

[pkelly_sts]

I have a few physical servers with centrally managed Veeam agents. For various reasons it was originally deployed using storage replication to get the backups off-site rather than using Veeam copy job. I'd like to try to switch to Veeam copy job but I can't orchestrate a re-seeding of the backup and it would take days over the WAN so I was wondering if, given that I can break the replica & convert the replica storage into "production" which would be an exact copy of the original, could I then create a backup copy job & map the copy to this version of the data?

On previous deployments I've had the ability to create a copy locally, dump that to external storage & ship to site but as mentioned above, that would result in a duplicate of data which we don't have the luxury of space to achieve.

Thoughts?

[Dima P.]

Hello Paul,

If I remember correctly we do support backup mapping for backup made with managed by backup server jobs to backup copy, but I'll double check that. Stay tuned.

[pkelly_sts]

Thanks Dima.

[Mildur]

Hi Paul, Hi Dima

If the guide is correct, then mapping the backup copy job to existing backups is only supported for backup files, which was created in a backup job in the standalone mode:

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=100

The following limitations apply to a backup that can be used as a seed:

• [For the periodic copy mode] You can map a Veeam Agent backup copy job only to a backup created by the following types of jobs:
  • Backup copy job that processes backups created by Veeam Agent operating in the standalone mode.
  • Backup job created in Veeam Agent operating in the standalone mode.

[pkelly_sts]

Hmm, thanks for that info - as it happened I just realised I could temporarily clone the existing storage at the destination, spin it up as a repo & actually test it but when I go to map a backup it simply doesn't list any mappable backups in the repo so I guess concurs with what you've found.

Looks like the only option is the way I've done it in the past which is to create the copy job locally first, then transport that to the destination & remap.

[Dima P.]

Hello Paul,

Yup, sad news are - mapping works only for standalone jobs but not for backup copy. I've noted an improvement request base on this post. Cheers!

[pkelly_sts]

Not quite, unless I read it wrong, you can map to a backup copy, but the copy you are mapping to has to have been, in itself, a backup copy so it's really only an issue if you need to manually seed a backup copy off-site, though to be fair that's likely to be the main use-case for mapping backup copy jobs in the first place, and this process requires extra local repository capacity.