Disk to tape backup for DR

[gmorris]

I have not used Veeam but I am interested in it and would like to know if it is possible to backup the Veeam backups to SAN and then copy the backup to tape for DR it seems great for disk to disk but how about from disk to tape?

[Vitaliy S.]

Hi, Glen!
Yes, sure, you can do that without a problem. Veeam Backup allows users to perform a post backup job script. And one of the most common scenarios in such case is to run a custom script that will write a ready backup file to the tape as soon as the backup process is finished.
Hope I've answered your question, and if you have more, please feel free to ask.

[Gostev]

Glen, you may find this topic useful too (describes the same concept, just not with tape)
How to backup to removeable storage: RoboCopy and PowerShell

[TrevorBell]

Glen,

This is what i do ...

Run Veeam backup at 17:00 everyday ( backup 33 Vm`s in VCB SAN mode ) the files that are made goto a \\machine_name\Veeam Backup folder...

At 22:00 everynight our main Backup Exec runs for exchange sql and other physical servers this includes the \\machine_name\Veeam Backup folder... So in the morning when all done the tape/tapes are took offsite.


Im sure there are lots of different ways but if you use BE 12.5 you can you this method it works for me.

[mdornfeld]

Glen,
I also had this dilemma. I do exactly what TreverBell (previous poster) does for our backups. One thing that I'm not sure was spelled out that should be is that Veeam does NOT do tape backups. You have to have your own standard backup software to do that (Backup Exec, Arcserve, Tivoli, Commvault... whatever)..

The solution mentioned by vsafarov is there, but just didn't end up being all the practical for us.

One thing I'm eagerly waiting for from Veeam is the ability to have my tape engine (Arcserve) be able to tell Veeam to do the following:
1. Resume a Backup Job Schedule
2. Stop the scheduler for a particular backup job
3. See if a Veeam backup job is still in progress.
The advantage of this method is then I won't have to play silly games with timing.

Good luck

[Gostev]

One thing I'm eagerly waiting for from Veeam is the ability to have my tape engine (Arcserve) be able to tell Veeam to do the following:
1. Resume a Backup Job Schedule
2. Stop the scheduler for a particular backup job
3. See if a Veeam backup job is still in progress.

I don't know anything about Arcserve, but assuming that it has minimal support for custom (scripted) scenarios, you should be able to do this today because you can easily control Veeam Backup jobs from command line. Arcserve scenario would start Veeam Backup job when necessary, wait for exit code, and the proceed with tape archiving of the produced backup.

[mdornfeld]

Thanks Gustov. I'm sorry to steal this message from gmorris, but to press a bit on your last message.

ArcServe can do pre and post jobs, but I'm not looking to do exactly what you proposed in your last message. I'm looking to do the following:

Pre-job command batch:
Stop the scheduler for a particular backup job (what is the veeam command for this)
Start loop
If the backup job is still in progress (what is the veeam command for this)
Then sleep 300 seconds
Else break
End loop

Run Tape Job

Post-job command batch:
Resume the backup job schedule. (what is the veeam command for this)

This way I can let a job run on it's normal schedule of every x hours, and when my tape drive gets around to it, it can start the tape backup of the latest D2D backup without worrying about Veeam restarting the next job.

[Gostev]

Matt, you description above is correct, except that you do not need to "Stop" or "Resume" the backup job schedule. When you choose to control Veeam Backup jobs from external app, you typically disable built-in Veeam scheduler altogether, and do everything from 3rd party app, or from Windows scheduler with some fancy scheduled script that runs "job+tape" sequence on specific days only, while running the Veeam Backup job alone on all other days.

Command to start the Veeam Backup job can copied from job settings "Summary" pane on the last step of the Backup Job wizard.

And after starting the job, your script should wait for job's process to exit, and check its return code to be 0 (success). I will need to double check with developers on what error codes that EXE file returns though. And how it would be best to implement this part.

Hope this helps.