Backup Schedule for NAS and USB

[kurt]

I'm wondering what the best way to schedule my backup jobs would be.

We have about 900 gigs (8 windows virtual machines, 2 Linux) to back up.

I have NAS storage that I'll be backing up to which has 5 TB of space. We're planning to upgrade that in a few months. I also have eight 1.5 TB USB3.0 drives. I plan to sync a folder on the NAS using robocopy to one of the USB drives twice a week so that the usb would contain a full backup.

I'm thinking that I'll need to create two backup jobs. Both will sync to the NAS device to two separate folders. One of those folders will be synced to the usb drive on Tuesday and Thursday.

What would you recommend as far as # of save points, backup mode, synthetic fulls, periodic fulls, and schedules?

Thanks

[Vitaliy S.]

Hello Kurt,

I would recommend having a weekly incremental backup schedule (either Reversed or Forward mode, see the differenece here - v5 Choosing Backup Mode.zip) with a periodic Full backup scheduled on weekends.

Could you please clarify why would you want to create 2 separate backup jobs? If you're going to point them to the same NAS, then having a failed NAS device would cause corruption for both backup jobs.

Thank you.

[Bunce]

Because one of them is being synced to external HD, thereby maintaining a disconnected copy (that would survive corruption is something were to happen to the NAS)

[Vitaliy S.]

Yes, I understand that, but you can also have a single job that will be synced to an offsite storage. In this case there won't be any extra (double) impact (snapshots etc.) on production VMs, and you'll have the exact same backup copy on both storages.

It's just another possible approach

[kurt]

I can't have the same backup in both locations because the NAS has 5TB and I'll be upgrading it to a 10-20TB NAS. The USB drive only holds 1.5TB so it can only hold one full backup job. Having a backup job specifically for the USB drive means I can have it only store 1 full backup which will fit on the drive.

This is how I'm thinking of setting up my jobs. Please let me know if it looks ok or if anyone has any suggestions. Thanks

USB Job:
Backup to NAS (Run script to copy to USB drive after job completes)
4 restore points
Backup Mode: Incremental, uncheck enable synthetic fulls.
Check "Perform active full periodically". Choose weekly on Friday.
Optimal compression
Lan target
Schedule: run daily 11:30 pm on week-days

NAS Job:
Backup to NAS
15 restore points
Backup Mode: Reversed Incremental
Check "Perform active full periodically". Choose Monthly on first Sunday.
Optimal compression
Lan target
Schedule: run daily at 6am on sunday

[Vitaliy S.]

Both job configurations look good, though please note that with Forward Incremental backup mode (USB job) you would have 2 full backups on the second week (see "Restore Points and forward Incremental" topic for additional details), so make sure you have enough space for that.

[Bunce]

Yes, I understand that, but you can also have a single job that will be synced to an offsite storage. In this case there won't be any extra (double) impact (snapshots etc.) on production VMs, and you'll have the exact same backup copy on both storages.

It's just another possible approach

Ahh, I thought he was doing just one Veeam backup, but then using the Sync-To-USB feature of the NAS to get a copy to the external HD - which would only have incurred one snapshot operation.

FYI, the QNAP NAS's now support 3TB external HD.

[Kevin_TAN]

We're using the same process for offsite copies. I've been using a PowerShell script to copy the last successfull full backup along with the incrementals to a USB drive (swapped daily) attached to our NAS. The job is configured for incrementals each weeknight and then an active full backup on Saturday evenings. It just moves the previous backup to a "1" folder and then copies the latest VBK and VIB's to the USB Disk, this keeps two weeks of backups on each USD disk.

Using Veeam 5.0.1.198 (64-bit) on Server 2008 R2 64-bit

Comments and suggestions are welcome. I know it could definately use some error checking.

Kevin Jordan
Technology and Networking

Code: Select all

#Run this command in powershell to allow the script to run unsigned.
#set-executionpolicy remotesigned
Add-PSSnapin VeeamPSSnapIn

############# Set these variables for your environment
$jobName = "Veeam Job Name"
$offsite = "UNC path to USB drive"
$logfile = "local log filename"
$emailFrom = "from email address"
$emailTo = "to email address"
$subject = "Veeam Copy"
$smtpServer = "servername or IP"


$now = date
$job = Get-VBRJob | where {$_.Name -eq $jobName}
$backup = Get-VBRBackup | where {$_.JobName -eq $jobName} 
$body = ""

############# Create the WriteLog function
Function WriteLog ([string]$Entry) {
   Write-Host $Entry;
   If ($logfile -ne $null) {Out-File $logfile -append -inputobject $Entry;}
   $global:body = $global:body + "`r`n" + $Entry
}

WriteLog ("Started " + $now)

if ($job.GetLastResult() -eq "Success")
{

############# Delete the oldest files
 rm -recurse $offsite\1

############# Make a new folder and move the current files there
 mkdir $offsite\1
 mv $offsite\*.v?? $offsite\1 

############# Copy the files from the current recovery point up to and including the latest full backup
 WriteLog ("Starting the copy for job: " + $jobName)
 Foreach ($file in $backup.GetStorages() | sort CreationTime -Descending)
  {
   Copy-Item $file.Filepath $offsite
   WriteLog ($file.Filepath)
   If ($file.Filepath -ilike "*vbk") {Break}
  }      
}

Else
{
 WriteLog ("The most recent Backup Job status was " + $job.GetLastResult() + ", therefore skipped the copy.")
}

$now = date
WriteLog ("Ended " + $now)

############# Send Email notification
$smtp = new-object Net.Mail.SmtpClient($smtpServer)
$smtp.Send($emailFrom, $emailTo, $subject, $global:body)

[kurt]

Both job configurations look good, though please note that with Forward Incremental backup mode (USB job) you would have 2 full backups on the second week (see "Restore Points and forward Incremental" topic for additional details), so make sure you have enough space for that.

Thanks for the tip. What's the best way to avoid having two fulls? Should I just switch it to reversed incremental? By the way, is there a way to manually delete a backup\restore point from a job? For example, right now my USB job has two fulls stored on disk. I want to delete the oldest full but I don't see an option in veeam to do that.

[Vitaliy S.]

Well...retention policy is fairly straightforward with Reversed Incremental backup mode, that's right, meaning that you'll have only 1 VBK all the time. Both modes have its own pros and cons which are covered in our sticky F.A.Q. topic.

By the way, is there a way to manually delete a backup\restore point from a job? For example, right now my USB job has two fulls stored on disk. I want to delete the oldest full but I don't see an option in veeam to do that.

Yes, that's right. There is no way to delete restore points manually within the GUI, as everything is handled by the retention policy settings. You can remove it manually, though I wouldn't recommend doing that, as removing those files wouldn't remove available restore points in Veeam SQL configuration database.

[kurt]

I switched my backup job to reversed incremental and there are now 2 VBK files for my 1 job. I thought it would only have one>?

[Vitaliy S.]

Yes, there would be only one. Seems like a previous VBK file has not aged out yet. Could you tell me what is your retention policy? In addition, how many VIB and VRB files do you have now?

[kurt]

Yes, there would be only one. Seems like a previous VBK file has not aged out yet. Could you tell me what is your retention policy? In addition, how many VIB and VRB files do you have now?

Restore points to keep on disk: 4
Reversed incremental
Perform active full backups periodically: weekly on Friday.
Run the Job Daily on week-days

Could it have messed up because my trial expired on the night of the backup? I purchased the program and ran another backup and there are still 2 fulls. Is it because I'm telling it to do a full on Friday?

[Vitaliy S.]

That's right. When you schedule another full run, that causes two VBK files in place. According to your rentetion policy settings, the previous full should be deleted on Wednesday. Thanks!

[kurt]

That's right. When you schedule another full run, that causes two VBK files in place. According to your rentetion policy settings, the previous full should be deleted on Wednesday. Thanks!

I'm not sure how to accomplish what I want then which is:

A full on Fridays with a snapshot on weekdays. I never want more than one full backup in the folder. Basically there needs to be a minimum of 1 restore point and a max of 4. I don't care if all the snapshots are deleted after the new full is created on Friday because I have them stored on usb drives.

If I don't schedule the full on Friday then I have a forever reverse incremental which seems scary. A new full once a week feels better.

[Gostev]

No way to accomplish this with active fulls in the picture.

I'd say, learn to trust incremental forever! Keep in mind that we did not even have other backup options for years, and our users did not really mind. And if you want to be 100% sure, well SureBackup is in the product at your service.

[kurt]

ok. quick question. Lets say I'm using synthetic fulls or active full backup and I choose the day Sunday but my job schedule is set weekdays only. Is the job still going to work properly?

[Gostev]

No - in 5.0.1 there is a bug currently with such setup, full backup will never happen. This is going to be fixed.

[kurt]

No way to accomplish this with active fulls in the picture.

I'd say, learn to trust incremental forever! Keep in mind that we did not even have other backup options for years, and our users did not really mind. And if you want to be 100% sure, well SureBackup is in the product at your service.

Ok. I guess I have two options for this job.

1. Reversed incremental without periodic active full backup.
or
2. Incremental, enable synthetic fulls, and enable transform previous full backup chains into rollbacks

With both these options, I would only have one vbk. Which type of job would be best?

[Gostev]

They are pretty much the same, except 1 will provide consistent backup performance everyday, and 2 will provide much faster incremental backup (VM will sit less time on snapshot) at the cost of long processing time on the full backup day (weekend).

The biggest difference between these two backup modes is really not important to you (1 really shines for use cases when you need to take full backup file with you every day). Other differences are quite minor.

I do not know if you had a chance to review FAQ, specifically backup mode comparison matrix referenced earlier in this thread, but all of this (and more) is covered there.