Backup strategy

[redhorse]

Hello,

we are using Veeam since 2 months to backup our 25 ESX-VMs on two Hosts and it's working pretty good. Now, I want to improve my backup strategy to be conformed to the policy of our organisation. Here's what I want to do:

1. Perform a reverse incremental backup of all machines every day (takes about one hour)
2. Keep the last 21 restore points on disk
3. Backup the latest full backup on tape every day, so I just need one tape in case of restore -> That's our policy, I have to do it!
4. Perform an active full backup once a month (takes about five hours)

To save tape space and to reduce backup-to-tape time I want to limit the tape backup on full backup files and set to incremental every day without ever doing a full backup. Makes this sence? There should be only the latest backup on every tape, no reverse incremental file or older full backup files.

My backup repository is big enough to Keep 21 restore points including two full backups on the same time. I need this space because after an active full backup the last full backup produced by reverse incremental will be left on disk until it isn't necessary anymore due to the retention policy, am I right?

Is it enough to perform an active full backup once enough?

Kind regards
RedHorse

[foggy]

To save tape space and to reduce backup-to-tape time I want to limit the tape backup on full backup files and set to incremental every day without ever doing a full backup. Makes this sence? There should be only the latest backup on every tape, no reverse incremental file or older full backup files.

Not sure I fully understand the first sentence. Are you effectively stating that you need to offload the latest VBK file to tape everyday? That's what I can read from the last sentence, anyway. Though it’s always recommended to use forward incremental mode in case of copying to tape (because such mode guarantees that only small increments will be transferred to tape rather than the whole full backup, as in case of reversed incremental method), all you have to do is just find the latest VBK file in a given folder (this can be done with the help of PowerShell, for example) and instruct your tape software grab it to the media. Also note that the upcoming Veeam B&R v7 will include native tape support thus facilitating the whole process and eliminating the need of extra tools in your setup.

My backup repository is big enough to Keep 21 restore points including two full backups on the same time. I need this space because after an active full backup the last full backup produced by reverse incremental will be left on disk until it isn't necessary anymore due to the retention policy, am I right?

Yes, you're right.

Is it enough to perform an active full backup once enough?

Yes, with reversed incremental mode the need for performing active full backup isn’t that strong. Performing full once every 1-3 months is more than enough.

[redhorse]

Not sure I fully understand the first sentence. Are you effectively stating that you need to offload the latest VBK file to tape everyday? That's what I can read from the last sentence, anyway. Though it’s always recommended to use forward incremental mode in case of copying to tape (because such mode guarantees that only small increments will be transferred to tape rather than the whole full backup, as in case of reversed incremental method), all you have to do is just find the latest VBK file in a given folder (this can be done with the help of PowerShell, for example) and instruct your tape software grab it to the media. Also note that the upcoming Veeam B&R v7 will include native tape support thus facilitating the whole process and eliminating the need of extra tools in your setup.

Yes, I need to offload the lastest VKB file to tape everyday. We use Backup Exec for our tape backup, so could I use this backup options instead of using PowerShell:

- Backup everything in my repository without *.vrb
- Backup incremental

There is no need to run a full backup to tape anytime later, am I right? There should be the latest .vbk and .vbm file on every tape, that's all I need for restore that state, isn't it?

[foggy]

- Backup everything in my repository without *.vrb

Keep in mind, that if the job will be started at the moment when there are several fulls exist in the repository, all of them will be copied to tape.

There is no need to run a full backup to tape anytime later, am I right? There should be the latest .vbk and .vbm file on every tape, that's all I need for restore that state, isn't it?

Yes, that's correct.

[redhorse]

Keep in mind, that if the job will be started at the moment when there are several fulls exist in the repository, all of them will be copied to tape.

I think every full backup file will be copied on tape only once because it is an incremental backup-to-tape Job. Exampe: There are two VBK files on disk after performing an active full backup, but the older one should be on the tape of the day before so it wouldn't be copied on tape again. Is that right?

[foggy]

Assuming this is how BackupExec performs incremental tape backup, yes. Never used it in this way.

[redhorse]

Assuming this is how BackupExec performs incremental tape backup, yes. Never used it in this way.

Yes, it works! Here are the results of my tests:

Veeam
- Reversed Incremental daily
- active full monthly
- Restore points to keep on disk: 20

Backup Exec 2010 R3
- Incremental Tape backup of the backup repository (\\backup-server\D$\Veeam\*.* /SUBDIR)
- Exclude Reversed Incremental File (\\backup-server\D$\Veeam\*.vrb /SUBDIR /EXCLUDE)
- Backup type: Incremental - Reset Archivebit

Result:
- each tape backup includes the last backup file (vbk-file) and the last backup chain metadata file (vbm-file)
- only one tape is needed to restore the last backup
- backup of reversed incremental files (vrb-files) are not necessary because the state of the day before is located on the tape of the day before as a vbk-file.

[foggy]

Thanks for sharing, could be valuable for future readers.