Veeam Agent for Windows - Hacking Multiple Jobs

[mattbrown80]

Since multiple jobs are not a feature in Veeam Agent for Windows (why?) - we are using the workaround posted here:
https://www.virtualtothecore.com/en/sen ... d-connect/

All of the jobs are targeting a Veeam Server (and not cloud connect directly)

This allows us to schedule the jobs in Windows task scheduler, and use a batch file to import the correct job configuration (which we previously exported as XML) and then run the jobs.

Each job is configured to target a different repository (folder) to avoid the chains getting corrupted.
This all works fairly well, but there is 1 major problem I am trying to overcome.

The Veeam server will only see a single backup job from each agent - which will always be the last one that ran. The chains for the other jobs show in Disk (Imported). This is an inconvenience, but since the data can be restored and the jobs work as expected it isn't a showstopper.

Now we'd like to create Backup Copy jobs to send these backups to a Cloud Connect target. When we configure the Backup Copy jobs we only see the last job that ran as a source (since the other backup sets are 'Imported')

Is there a way to perform a backup copy of a 'Imported' backup set? This would be the ideal scenario. Alternatively we'd have to target Cloud Connect directly from the agent which we'd rather not do since it impacts the production server (vs a copy job that would only impact the Veeam server/Repository/WAN)

Thanks

[Dima P.]

Hi Matt,

Unfortunately, can’t imagine the way to fool the backup copy job logic. Maybe to kick it with the script after the primary job succeeds, then perform config swap at the agent side.

[mattbrown80]

Thanks - this is unfortunate news. I may look at the idea of swapping out a cloud connect job to run right after the job targeting the Veeam repository.

If I go this route - is there a way to seed the data to the Cloud Connect repository? The full backup size is over 20TB, but the incrementals are small.

Also - is there an ETA on when multiple jobs will be available in the product?

[Dima P.]

If I go this route - is there a way to seed the data to the Cloud Connect repository? The full backup size is over 20TB, but the incrementals are small.

You can map the full backup to the VAW jobs.

is there an ETA on when multiple jobs will be available in the product?

We plan to provide this functionality soon.

[tranquilnet]

We are a cloud connect parter and having a multiple job option in the VAW agent would be highly useful and arguably mandatory.

For example, lets say we have a device with no VBR available or we simply want to backup a device to USB instead.

The ideal/common setup for such a client is this:

Backup to local USB and backup copy to cloud connect.

Could you offer a check box to "send a copy to a cloud connect provider" or similar option to copy a backup job (even if only one backup job can be configured) to a cloud connect repository?

For example:



Any chance this could be part of the next release?

Thanks,

-Will

[Dima P.]

Will,

Thanks for the detailed explanation! This not going to be a part of next minor release or update, but we plan to include it in the next major version of VAW.

[tranquilnet]

Great!

I know that Veeam's policy on providing dates is more or less not to provide one, however, could you suggest a ROUGH timeline on when the next "major" release will be for VAW?

Thanks,

-Will

[audax]

@Dima P.

What do you mean by that?

[Gostev]

@Tranquilnet we only do planning for the immediate release, so it's impossible to say... also, the priorities may change as we go anyway, so even if we're planning to include it today - it's not 100% guaranteed, so we don't want to accidentally set false expectations by providing any dates. However, this feature is currently high on our priorities list.

One other thing to note is that we do support multiple *managed* jobs for servers in the upcoming Veeam Backup & Replication 9.5 U3. Also, we always supported the use case similar to one you described above (backup to Veeam repository, then copy the backup to another repository or Cloud Connect).

@audax this must be for Veeam Agent for Linux, which had support for multiple jobs since v1.

[audax]

@Gostev
You're correct. I missed additional tab for each Agent.
I was hoping that web page already contains info for next version around the corner .

[NetFire-mdh]

Let me throw in my support for getting multiple job support in VAW. We could definitely use this, as it would allow us to back up very critical things very often and less-critical things less often.

[Dima P.]

Hello and welcome to the community forums Matt.

Consider your vote added to this feature request. Thanks for your feedback!

[lxk3il]

+1 for this aswell. We have customers with laptops, who want to store backups on the go on their USB-drives and on the VBR server when the are in the office, so multiple jobs (or at least two) would come in really handy.

[Dima P.]

Thanks for your request Lukas!

[HZSJCK]

Without multiple jobs functionality is not Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows Server usefull because
- there is no way to backup different directories in various time windows
- there is no way to backup a lot of files without everyday warning "Unable to exclude files from snapshot: Shadow Copy Optimization Writer timed out"
- there is no way to backup multiple directories to different locations
and more and more and more

Thank you in advance for adding this feature !!!

[Dima P.]

Dear all,

With Veeam B&R U3 you can create multiple managed by Veeam B&R backup jobs, so I encourage everyone to give it a try. Trial with fully functional license can be obtained from our website. Happy testing!

[wolthuis]

We have a large # of SMB customers that want to use local storage or file share and then also to us as a VCC. I just want to add my support/beg for this option of scheduling multiple jobs out of VAC for the agent.

[tranquilnet]

If the device is located in an environment where there is no VBR server, meaning, the device is configured to backup direct to Cloud Connect, how can multiple jobs be created and managed?

Thanks,

-Will

[heinze@hosysteme.de]

@Dima. P:

this is not working for me B&R Update 3 ist installed von VSP Site. But cannt create a Job vor VAW, only vpshere or hyper-v .

[Vitaliy S.]

But cannt create a Job vor VAW, only vpshere or hyper-v .

Can you please clarify what exactly does not work? Creating backup jobs in Veeam B&R or something else?

[nitramd]

+1 for multiple jobs along with the ability to use multiple B&R consoles for said jobs.

[tranquilnet]

In smaller environments where there is no VBR server available, can multiple jobs in VAW be created now? If not, when is this functionality expected to be available?

An example would be:

1) Backup job one to local/NAS storage
2) Backup job two to OneDrive (and/or the ability to run this job after job one completes)

Or, as a temp work around, to effectively accomplish #1 and #2 could a backup job to just OneDrive be created and then let OneDrive sync the files down back down to a local OneDrive folder located on the local drive? (Not my first choice and not sure this would be workable because of the double data transfer but is this a scenario that was taken into account when developing and rolling out the backup to OneDrive feature? If not, what are some example scenarios/situations?)

[tranquilnet]

We ended up building a script to switch between VAW jobs for environments that do not have VBR infrastructure (really small clients).

We will be testing it over the next couple of weeks. I will post our results.

Thanks,

-W