Full Synthetic VBK Redundancy via incrementals?

[banstyle]

So I've got a weird request / question for everyone.

We are currently running Veeam in our environment using synthetic fulls and 'transform previous full backup chains into rollbacks'. We love this, since it works great with our tape backup- we backup the full synthetic every week, backup the incrementals using differential in ARCserve over the week, and we're pretty covered.

Except in one scenario: Lets say we lose our NAS and all Veeam files, so all we have are tapes. Now, imagine that one of the tapes in the the last full backup tape-set is corrupt.

This leaves us in the following situation:

• A full backup set, but one week prior to where we could be.
• A differential tape from the week before with forward increments leading up to the bad full tape set.
• A differential tape from the current week with reverse increments leading back to the bad full tape set.

Would we be able to recreate the full backup that is captured on the tape-set with this set of data?

My feeling is the answer is no, due to the way the full backups are done.

But here is where the wrench is: If Veeam provided us with the 'incremental' backup that happens when the full synthetic is made, and that was set down next to the full file, we would have a full set of incrementals to work with and recreate the virtual machine as it stood on the day the full backup happens... or am I mistaken here?

Does Veeam save the incremental that is made when applied to the synthetic full? Can we capture this as a VIB or VRB? Is there a way to get this data without having more than one job, since I fear that I could not apply incrementals made from one job to another job's full?

Or is this what Active full backup is for?

Basically, re-worded, I think we're looking for a way to have a chain of incrementals that is redundant to the synthetic fulls we generate. So if the full is broken, the VM can still be recovered in it's state on the day of the full.

Thanks in advance for any answers or feedback!!

-Seth

[banstyle]

Bump?

[Gostev]

Sorry, looks like we missed your topic due to public holidays. I need to double check with the devs, but I am almost sure that our product does create and save the VIB file to disk, and only initiates synthetic full once the VIB is captured and saved to disk successfully. In theory, this should give you plenty of time to capture it before it is processed (since it will be the last to be processed). Thanks.

[banstyle]

Thank you for your response, Gostev. I'll run a test job and see if we can intercept the VIB file as it's being created.

[edit]

I was just thinking, how hard would it be to add a 'Don't Delete VIB File Created for Synthetic Full' option in the UI? I believe this would be a huge feature for anyone sweeping to tape. We'd set the Archive bit on the file after it's creation and sweep it into the daily tape job following the fulls.

Thanks Again.

[banstyle]

Hi Gostev-

Just curious if you were able to follow up with the devs and find out what the software was doing when running the synthetic full.
We were able to see the VIB being created in some of our logs, but we're having a hard time figuring out a method for capturing the file before it's deleted, especially when our jobs run for different lengths because of the amount of change happening daily.

Thanks again.

[Gostev]

Yes, I confirmed that what I said above is true. I agree you would need to get creative about capturing this file. May be some script that monitors the folder for new files, and copies them automatically?