Copy existing backups with encryption

[karsten123]

Hi everyone,

i have to copy existing backup files from one repository to another.
Unfortunately the files are not encrypted. But this is mandatory.

Is it possible to copy the files with encryption and preserve all restore points.

GUI and powershell solutions are welcome.

Thanks guys

[HannesK]

Hello,
the only way to introduce encryption to existing backup data is a backup copy job where encryption can be enabled (well, also capacity tier with encryption would be encrypted, but that sounds out of scope of the question)

But the backup copy job does copy only the latest restore point. With BackupCopyMirrorAll registry key the whole chain would be copied, if BCJ in "mirror mode" is used ( fulls will become increments on the target side).

Best regards,
Hannes

[veremin]

Do you have to perform the migration right now, or can you wait some time? How long is the retention period? If not too long, you can enable encryption in the backup job, create a new full backup, wait till all restore points a backup chain consists of are encrypted, and copy them to the target repository. Or you can add an immediate backup copy job (as Hannes has suggested), point it to the target repository, and wait till it reaches the necessary number of restore points. Thanks!

[karsten123]

Hi Hannes, hi Vladimir,

the immediate copy with the registry key sounds promising. Thank you for your suggestions. I will give it a try.

But i have only the backups without the backup jobs because it backups allready to a new target.
Is it possible to create a new backup job, map existing backups to it and then copy it with immediate copy mode with encryption enabled?

Thanks again.
Karsten

[veremin]

Should be possible. Thanks!

[karsten123]

Hi,
i did figure it out.

What i have said, the backups were orphaned because the original backup job was cloned and deleted to target the new repository.

What i have done:
- create a backup job for the vms in the backups. i did a restore of a missing vm to select these too.
Map the original backups.
- create a backup copy job in immediate copy mode with the original retention, encryption and the new target repository
- create the registry setting BackupCopyMirrorAll for the copy job
- activate the copy job and wait for all restore points to copy. done

I have checked the source and the new copy backups and everything seems to be ok.

Thanks.
Karsten

[veremin]

Thanks, Karsten, for taking the time and sharing the verified solution with the community; much appreciated!