are backups aware of free space

[rborhara]

i have a VM 4.5TB in size this is provisioned space, actual used was only 380GB
Doing a backup with Backup Exec too 45mins.
Running a full backup with Veeam it took 10hours+ for first backup
Is veeam supposed to backup this not used space? or should it have only backup the 380GB of data

[nielsengelen]

Keep in mind that we will read all the blocks for the first full backup where I guess with Backup Exec you had an agent in-guest? However if you enabled BitLooker (https://helpcenter.veeam.com/backup/hyp ... locks.html) we will exclude (and thus not backup) deleted data which isn't really there meaning your backup file will be based on the actual size used (I guess somewhere around 200-250GB maybe).

If the VM doesn't change much an incremental backup will be very fast due to CBT being in place.

Could you also tell us a bit more about your production storage and backup storage?

[Shestakov]

What Transport Modes has been used for the backup?
I would also make bottleneck analysis to define the slowest element.

[rborhara]

Hi I'm using SAN transport mode
backing up from Backup Server to a Dell Dr4000 dedupe deivce using a dedicated network for DirectSAN modes

I have a whole load of other jobs that work fine, but this 1 VM being 4.5TB in size looks like it backed up 4.5TB of data on the first pass, all the incrementals take 20mins or so including the awful merge process
Also the ex lude deleted file blocks option is not available on Veeam update 3 which is what I'm running, that sounds like the culrpti . why Veeam 8 OOTB doesn't do that I'm not sure

[Vitaliy S.]

Version 8 didn't have BitLooker available, that's why some "dirty" blocks which are reported as used by VMware API are also backed up in your case.