VAL: Is there a way to force a full backup?

[hajek]

Hello,
Is there an option with VAL to force a full backup, for example, once per week. As I understand it the only backup method for VAL currently is forever forward incremental. We have some concerns about possible backup chain corruption, for example if the system crashes during the full backup file merge. One thought I had was to create a series of backup jobs where each might have 7 restore points and cycle through these (e.g. have 5 backups configured and every week delete and recreate the oldest) in order to create the overall 30 restore point retention that we want while getting a full backup weekly. This seems fairly inefficient and a bit of management overhead so wondering if anyone has any suggestions? Have I missed an option in veeamconfig to force a full?

thanks

[PTide]

Hi,

There is no option to create a full backup ATM, however it is on our roadmap for a future release.

Thanks

[fluxbox]

for the time being you can use 2 different backup jobs for the same object, preferably to 2 different destinations.
and then use cron to run them alternatingly e.g. even/odd date

[iom100uk]

Does anyone know if this ever got off the roadmap and into the product? The long backup chain makes me very nervous, and I'll need to think about how to shorten the retention time for GDPR compliance.

[DGrinev]

Hi Ian and welcome to the community!

The answer is definitely yes, but I can't share any ETA at the moment. Thanks!

[PTide]

Ian,

Does anyone know if this ever got off the roadmap and into the product?

There is no active full in standalone VAL 2.0 at the moment, however you can switch VAL to "Managed by backup server" mode and configure/start active full via VBR console. In case you don't use VBR, full backup can be triggered by toggling the source-encryption settings.

Thanks

[iom100uk]

Have you got any guidance on switching VAL to "Managed by backup server" mode? I backup to a VBR repository at the moment, but can't start a full active. I'm using VAL v2.0.0.400 and VBR 9.5.0.1536

[PTide]

Hi,

Yes, this article describes it. Please note, that if you switch the agent to 'managed' mode that will force the agent to start the backup chain anew, i.e. full backup will be triggered.

Thanks

[jorgedlcruz]

Hello,
With the announcement of VAL 2.0.1, which you can download today, you can perform this by doing the next, of course with your jobID:

Code: Select all

veeamconfig job start --id 12fe4e30-f704-4f91-99a4-d2672dce9b64 --activefull

If you tail the log you will see the new check, mind the Is active full? [true]:

Code: Select all

root@lonhst01 [~]# tail -200 /var/log/veeam/Backup/BCJ-jorgedel/Session_20180706_131724_\{2bf2e809-3793-4c72-ac7a-8e188c4f7f17\}/Job.log  
[06.07.2018 13:17:24] <139841517832032> lpbcore|   Sending PID: [9105].
[06.07.2018 13:17:24] <139841517832032> lpbcore|   Sending Session UUID: [{2bf2e809-3793-4c72-ac7a-8e188c4f7f17}].
[06.07.2018 13:17:24] <139841517832032> lpbcore|   Waiting for a command.
[06.07.2018 13:17:24] <139841517832032> lpbcore|   LpbManSession: Starting backup job.
[06.07.2018 13:17:24] <139841517832032> lpbcore|     Job UUID: [{12fe4e30-f704-4f91-99a4-d2672dce9b64}] (normal priority).
[06.07.2018 13:17:24] <139841517832032> lpbcore|     Is active full? [true].
[06.07.2018 13:17:24] <139841517832032> lpbcore|     System information:
[06.07.2018 13:17:24] <139841517832032> lpbcore|       Running [lsb_release -a].

Cheers!