Best practice for archiving a session???

[LeoJBI]

Hello,

I have a question regarding best practice or recommended procedures?

When we make a major change to an application on our network (example: Sharepoint, Inventory program...etc.), we tend to get a snapshot before conducting the upgrades. We then hold onto those snapshots until we are certain of the stability. This means the snapshot could be around for a couple of months before the OK is given to remove them. Of course, you know with Veeam these can sometimes reek havoc!

My question;

Can I conduct this practice within Veeam? Run a backup and than set that aside until I am certain we do not need it? Is there a simple method of placing particular backup sessions off-line as an archive?

[dellock6]

Hi Leo, I never let a single snapshot grow for more than a week onestly... If your company needs two months to validate an upgrade, than you have a problem somewhere else.
Anyway, from Veeam standpoint, you can do a manual backup of the VM before the major change, and keep this backup outside of the retention so it would not be deleted. On the other hand, If you want to copy the VM "with" the snapshot you took from vSphere, you would need to use VM copy since this job copies also all the snapshots of the VM. None of these are elegant solutions, but if you cannot workaround on snapshot age, they could maybe fulfill your needs.

Luca.

[LeoJBI]

Thanks Luca,

Honestly, we would never revert to a backup after a few days on a database. I think we just have a paradigm of needing a tangible copy to hold onto when it comes to backups. However, to appease my database folks, I would like to be able the hand them a copy. Just so they feel that sense of security.

But, for other sources - our file library. I need to consider a method were I can archive data files and have the ability to restore them if the request is ever made.

[tsightler]

This is pretty much the exact use case that VeeamZIP was built for. To perform a VeeamZIP backup, simply select the "Virtual Machines" tab from the left hand window, browse or search for the VM you want to keep a "one-off" backup for, right client, and choose VeeamZIP. Walk through the quick wizard and tell it where you want the VeeamZIP backup storage and now you have a file to hand them that can restore anything from a single file to the entire VM quickly and easily.

http://technodrone.blogspot.com/2012/06 ... veeam.html