Feature Requests - Larger retention for the Linux Veeam Agent

[Glitch]

Hi,

Following discussions with Veeam support, in the framework of long-term archiving. (Beyond 2 years)
It would be necessary to be able to exceed the limit of 730 points of restoration of Veeam Agent Linux.

Ticket support : 03396775

[PTide]

Hi,

Although it is technically possible, I would recommend against that as such long backup chain imposes a higher risk of loosing backup data in case some files in the beginning of the chain get corrupted. Do you use Active Fulls in you schedule? If not, then please consider either scheduling periodic fulls. Another option would be to use VBR's backup copy job as it provides an option for long-term retention. Do you aim to keep 2 years of daily backups?

Thanks!

[Glitch]

Hi PTide,

The goal is to achieve retention of 5 years to 10 years. Yes, we know the risks, but our client has imposed your solution.

There is no periodic full with the agent Veeam Linux, we have to indicate the maximum number of points of the agent.
The goal is to reach a minimum of 5 years of archiving for each day. (legal obligation)

[PTide]

Periodic Active Full is already available in standalone VAL starting v3.0. It is also available in VBR mode.

Thanks!

[Glitch]

So there is more limit with the version of Agent 3.0 ?
For example it could be indicated 1825 days before running a periodic full since the agent ?

[PTide]

No, the limit is still the same. Backup copy is the way to go - agents are simply not intended for usage with backup chains THAT long.

Thanks!

[Glitch]

So upgrading the product does not solve the problem of needing to have a long retention. (Or I misunderstood your answer)
Backup copy even fights a limitation to 999 points from the graphical console.

So my question is today is Veeam capable of archiving for very long time for Linux clients or server ? (In one job)

It is a need that other clients may have for "sensitive or vital" containers hosted by Linux hosts.
Example: Linux physical server, hosts containers: Systemd-NSpawn, Docker, Lxc and other similar solution.

Can not the developers put an option to pass the limitation ?
With a warning that releases Veeam if In case of problem.

[PTide]

So upgrading the product does not solve the problem of needing to have a long retention. (Or I misunderstood your answer)

730 restore points alone is a sufficient reason to switch to v3.0 so you can either use Active Fulls on VAL, or switch to Managed by VBR mode to use synthetic fulls. Very lng forever-incremental chains without intermediate fulls will bring you no good.

Backup copy even fights a limitation to 999 points from the graphical console.

You can either split it in two backup jobs running on even/odd days, or utilize backup to tape jobs to offload backups to tape.

So my question is today is Veeam capable of archiving for very long time for Linux clients or server ? (In one job)

No, you cannot set such long retention in one job. The main reason for that is that backups with extremely long retention are supposed to be processed via other means (backup copy, tape jobs, capacity tier).

Can not the developers put an option to pass the limitation ?

I count it as a feature request then.

It is a need that other clients may have for "sensitive or vital" containers hosted by Linux hosts.
Example: Linux physical server, hosts containers: Systemd-NSpawn, Docker, Lxc and other similar solution.

If you are aiming to backup linux hosts with specific applications in place, mind that you might need to specify custom pre-freeze/post-thaw scripts in order to prepare the applications for backup.

Sidenote: Large amount of restore points in a chain will consume enormous amounts of RAM. For 150+ points it is at least 4GB on target VBR server.

Thanks!