Backup Copy Active Full with Wan Accelerator

[obroni]

Hi,

I know that during normal use, the WAN Acclerator will read from the target repository if the required block doesn't exist in the WA Cache, before transferring the block across the WAN.

I have 2 questions about this behaviour:

1. Does this mean that if you run an active full, the bulk of the data will be copied locally at the target end?
2. Could this behaviour be used if a unencrypted seed has been done and then you wish to enable encryption without having to either reseed or copy everything over the WAN?

[foggy]

During active full run previous backups in target repository are not used to search the block in, since this mechanism works within a backup chain (full + increments) and active full starts the chain anew. WAN cache is used though.

[obroni]

Thanks for the quick reply foggy. Thats a pain. In the case of #2 can you think of any clever tricks that could be done to acomplish it.

ie how about:

1. Import unencrypted backup on SP side
2. Map to dummy backup job
3. Create new encrypted backup copy with source as above dummy job
4. Replace old backup with new encrypted one
5. import/remap encrypted job on client

Or are there any veeam internal tools that you can supply an encryption key to and it will read through a vbk and spit out a new encrypted vbk?

[foggy]

Haven't tried myself, but the described approach looks viable.

[obroni]

Ok, I have tested this and I think it would work if the VM originally came from your own vCenter, but in this case I am trying to do this with a foreign VM and the backup copy job fails as it can't contact its own vcenter as its now in our enviroment.

[foggy]

Right, access to vCenter the VM originally comes from is required for the backup copy job.

[obroni]

Thanks for confirming, looks like its a reseed then.