Backup system HDD to external HDD

[raphaelmsx]

Hi people.

Just installed the free version of Veeam Agent for Linux in order to do full system backup and bare metal recovery.

I have two HDDs, the system HDD with Fedora installed, and a blank external HDD mounted to /backup.

I tried to configure a backup job of the entire system HDD to the external HDD, but it won't allow me, saying that the destination (/backup) is the system drive to be backed up (which of course is not), so, how do I exclude this mount point, or how to correctly do what I am trying to do?

Thanks in advance.

[PTide]

Hi,

It seems that the agent includes USB drive in the backup too.

Please try to select only your local system drive in 'Volume level' mode.

Thanks!

[raphaelmsx]

Ok, with your advise I could select the destination drive without problems, but the backup job failed.

[error] Failed to create volume snapshot
Faile to take volume snapshot
Failed to perform backup
Child execution has failed. Exit code: [1]
Failed to load module [veeamsnap] with parameters [zerosnapdata=1 debuglogg...
Processing finished with errors at 2020-06-30 10:56:43 GMT´

In the backup mode I tried to select "disable snapshot" but it won't let me.

Both drives are ext4.

I have exported the full log, but I couldn't find how to attach it here.

[PTide]

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Failed to load module [veeamsnap] with parameters [zerosnapdata=1 debuglogg...

This line means that veeamsnap module could not be loaded. Try to verify whether it's running or not:

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lsmod | grep veeamsnap

If the output is empty, then try to load it manually:

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modprobe veeamsnap

Which Fedora version do you use?

Thanks!

[raphaelmsx]

Using Fedora 32.

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lsmod | grep veeamsnap

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modprobe veeamsnap
modprobe: FATAL: Module veeamsnap not found in directory /lib/modules/5.6.19-300.fc32.x86_64

[PTide]

Fedora 32 is not officially supported yet. You might want to check @mike2307's patch

In the backup mode I tried to select "disable snapshot" but it won't let me.

Does it give you any errors?

Thanks!

[raphaelmsx]

Fedora 32 is not officially supported yet. You might want to check @mike2307's patch

Ok, so I tested on a fresh installed Fedora 31 (which is supported), and the errors were exactly the same.

In the backup mode I tried to select "disable snapshot" but it won't let me.

Does it give you any errors?

No, it simply won't let me select this option.

Thanks.

[PTide]

Ok, so I tested on a fresh installed Fedora 31 (which is supported), and the errors were exactly the same.

What was the output for modprobe veeamsnap on Fedora 31?
Do you use Secure Boot by any chance?

No, it simply won't let me select this option.

It seems that you are trying to switch between volume-level and file-level modes which is not supported - once you specify backup mode (volume/file-level) you cannot change it, you need to create a new job.

Thanks!

[raphaelmsx]

What was the output for modprobe veeamsnap on Fedora 31?

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modprobe: FATAL: Module veeeamsnap not found in directory /lib/modules/5.6.19-200.fc31.x86_64

Do you use Secure Boot by any chance?

No.

No, it simply won't let me select this option.

It seems that you are trying to switch between volume-level and file-level modes which is not supported - once you specify backup mode (volume/file-level) you cannot change it, you need to create a new job.

Not really, once you told me to try volume-level mode, I just created a new backup job, not tried to change the last one.

Additionally, I reinstalled Fedora 31, and noticed this when installing veeam again:

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Loading new veeamsnap-4.0.0.1961 DKMS files...
Building for 5.6.19-200.fc31.x86_64
Building initial module for 5.6.19-200.fc31.x86_64
Error! Bad return status for module build on kernel: 5.6.19-200.fc31.x86_64 (x86_64)
Consult /var/lib/dkms/veeamsnap/4.0.0.1961/build/make.log for more information.
WARNING: Package not configured! See output!
warning: %post(veeamsnap-4.0.0.1961-1.noarch) scriptlet failed, exit status 1
Error in POSTIN scriptlet in rpm package veeamsnap

Thanks.

[PTide]

Well, Fedora is supported up to 5.4.14. We are releasing an update soon to support more recent kernel. Until then the only option would be to use the patch mentioned in my previous post.

Thanks!

[raphaelmsx]

Hmm, I've seen that patch page and have no idea how to do it, I even don't know if they are talking about patching the kernel, veeam or whatever... and if I read correctly, it's going to need to work with some source code and recompile it (which I have no clue how to do it), so I think I'll just wait for the next update.

Thanks.

[raphaelmsx]

Hi again.

Some additional information: I performed the same tests on three supported platforms: Debian, CentOS 7 and CentOS 8.

On Debian and CentOS 7, everything worked, I could perform the backup and bare metal restore, but CentOS 8 was giving the same error of Fedora 32 and 31.

And here is the output of modprobe veeamsnap on CentOS 8:

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modprobe: FATAL: Module veeamsnap not found in directory /lib/modules/4.18.0-193.el8.x86_64

Thanks.

[PTide]

Same problem as with Fedora - kernel 4.18.0-193.el8 belongs to CentOS 8.2, while the latest supported version is 8.1

Thanks!

[raphaelmsx]

Oh, ok, so I will wait until a new version compatible with Fedora 32 is released.

As I said before, I tested with Debian, it's not the distro I use, but I can say that this product is excellent: very simple to configure and flawless full system backup and bare metal restore.

I tried numerous other free (as in free beer, I don't care if it's closed or open source) Linux full system backup solutions (ie: image backup), and none could match veeam simplicity and are too troublesome to configure a simple backup job, and no simple solution to do a bare metal restore.

Some may suggest Redo Rescue, Clonezilla, etc... yes, they perform well, but I'm talking about doing full backup of a live system (and in the background), not having to boot via CD/USB to do it, and in that regard, veeam is perfect.

Thanks.

[dovla091]

now I know that this is a free tool, but still development is super slow. Fedora 31 is supported and soon to be EOL, while new F33 is around the corner, so I see that if this F32 is still not supported kinda funny. It is a perpetual game of cat and mouse... new OS is released and 1 year after devs "supports it"...

[PTide]

4.0.1 is out (as a part of VBR v10a RTM), please check it here.

Thanks