How to schedule full backup that no need rely on the previous backup?

[jlo]

I want to schedule a full backup monthly at the specific date of each month.
When create/edit the backup job. At "Storage > Advanced > Backup tab". Under "Backup mode". There are 2 options - "Reverse incremental" and "Incremental".
I know "Incremental" will create a single "VBK" full backup with "VIB" incremental backup. This is not what I want.
So the only option I can choose is "Reverse incremental".
At the first month it created the "VBK" successfully. Then I moved the backup file to elsewhere.
At the second month. The backup failed with reason "Cannot find the previous vbk file".
My goal is want Veeam to create an individual full backup monthly without depends on any previous backup. But I cannot find any configuration for this. Is this backup method exist or not?

[Egor Yakovlev]

Hi Jlo,
easiest way to achieve your scenario is to schedule VeeamZIP via Windows Task Scheduler - no matter of main backup job schedule and settings, without dependency on backup chain type, with no link to existing retention or backup location whatsoever - you will have a standalone Full backup on the day\time you need in place you want.
/Cheers!

[jlo]

Hello Egor,
VeeamZIP seems to be the solution. But my backup settings are quite complicated. And I don't know using powershell to submit the backup job can fulfill my requirements or not.

My current backup job has below settings:
1. Include multiple virtual machines
2. Some of the VMs have exclude disks
3. Notification was set to send email if the job is not success
4. Application-aware processing settings are different for different VMs
5. Guest file system indexing settings are different for different VMs
6. Guest OS credentials was choose to use a specific AD account

According to the "Start-VBZip" guide you provided. I don't see those parameters can take care what I mentioned above.

[Egor Yakovlev]

Yes, VeeamZIP is quite generic in terms of advanced configuration options.
How about cloning your main backup job and disable it's schedule, to trigger it by Monthly script with Start-VBRJob $job -FullBackup? You will have Full backups only, with separate retention and that approach will have all power of exclusions, guest interaction, indexing and notifications you have set in the job settings...only downside I see is that we will have to backup your production servers twice this day.

[Gostev]

What about simply using Export Backup functionality to export the existing restore point from the given day of the month as a standalone full backup? This functionality was specifically designed to "create an individual full backup without dependencies on any previous backup".

[saxchick]

What is the effective difference between a VeeamZIP job and an export job? They are both "standalone" backups, right? and you can restore single files or the entire VM from both, right? Any significant differences (other that the disk space taken up by the actual files)?

[veremin]

VeeamZIP - VM one-time full backup backup created directly from infrastructure
Export Backup - VM one-time full backup created from already existing restore point

[Valle1975]

Good morning to everyone..
I read this interesting post..
I explain my actual configuration for a weekly delocalization copy to USB Drive: I use a normal BACKUP JOB with retention "2" (I can't set one), that I run Manually always FULL ACTIVE.
What is the different between my solution and here showed VeeamZIP Solution?? Pro and Versus about both???
Thanks.

[Egor Yakovlev]

Active Full and VeeamZIP are quite close - both perform full VM read from production infrastructure.
- Backup Job has a little bit more configuration options(granular guest interaction job scheduling, integration options etc), could be pre-configured in UI and follows specified retention. Backup job targets VBR Repository only.
- VeeamZIP is manual - that is, you need to select VMs and specify options, like destination, each time(unless scripted). It uses global options for all selected VMs and does not follow usual "x points" retention. VeeamZIP Target could be local\shared destination without need to add Backup Repository to the UI(as per Backup Job), creating backup ad-hoc at the location of choice for the moment of job run.
/Cheers!

[jlo]

Thanks to everyone. Seems that I have another 2 options to make an individual full backup with advanced configuration. They are:
1. Job without schedule and use Windows Scheduler to trigger Start-VBRJob with "FullBackup" parameter.
2. Export previously backup from restore point.

I will go try the option 1 first. The job configurations are same as my original job except "Run the job automatically" was not selected. Backup mode is "Reverse incremental". I will let it trigger by Windows Scheduler. Then manual delete the full backup. Wait for the next run to see if it require the previous backup or not.

[Egor Yakovlev]

You can also cleanup the chain(read "delete all backups") using scheduled task with Remove-VBRBackup as well!
/Cheers!

[HannesK]

a repository with rotated hard drives option set should also work. in that case the job does not care about missing backup chains

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=100