Move ReFS based repo and keep fast clone benefit

[SebastiaanT]

So I have a ReFS volume formated with 4k that has 77.6TB of data but with block cloning is only 9.5TB on disk.
I created a new disk with 64k blocks as recommended by veeam and want to move the data. How can I copy this data without needing to copy that 77.6TB of data and keeping the space savings from the block cloning?

[veremin]

Saving coming from block cloning cannot be migrated from one volume to the other. You can point a job to the new 64K volume, wait till required retention is reached, and delete obsolete points present on the 4K volume. After that, convert the old volume to 64K as well. Thanks.

[SebastiaanT]

Then I would have to remove the retention, mapping the backup job to other storage would otherwise require to copy the retention to the new location.
Is this a limitation of ReFS and is it something that will be adressed in the future?

[veremin]

It's the way the said functionality has been designed by Microsoft. Unfortunately, we don't have any insights regarding them taking this limitation away in foreseeable future.

[bubbagump]

The title says it all. The traditional way to move a repo is simply to copy it to its new location and do a map (https://www.veeam.com/kb1729). However, it seems with the ReFS block/fast clone, the cloning does not carry over and a lot more space is needed on the target. Is there a way to move a repo between ReFS volumes and carry over the cloning? Google has been worthless thus far.

[veremin]

Currently, there is no way to achieve what you're after. And be aware that the limitation is not imposed by Veeam. Thanks.

[squebel]

Hello, this is a very old article BUT I'm wondering if the advancements in v12 have been able to overcome this limitation? I am doing a storage refresh and have volumes that I need to empty out that have massive block clone savings. Is there a way to leverage some of the v12 changes to maintain this block clone savings?

[Mildur]

Yes, v12 allows you to move backups with FastClone:
https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=120

Best,
Fabian

[squebel]

Hey Fabian, in this blog post https://community.veeam.com/blogs-and-p ... mover-3864 there is mention about being able to use this new feature for rebalancing SOBR extents and for extent evacuation but I am not able to find any documentation that mentions how to do that for those two scenarios. Any ideas?

[Mildur]

Both operations (UI buttons in the backup console) are linked in the FastClone user guide:
https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=120

Please be aware, backup jobs won‘t be able to run when you use one of those operations. If you have a huge amount of backup data, maintenance window could be multiple hours/days.

Best,
Fabian

[squebel]

Thank you, Fabian. That was the page I was looking for to answer my questions!!