Guide to rotating backup drives?

[AMBxxx]

I'm in the process of migrating from Altaro to Veeam (licensing issues). I think my problem is trying to apply Altaro methods of working to Veam. I've been through the documentation - it's very good at telling you what everything does, but not so good at telling you how to do stuff.

This is what I'm trying to do:
1) Nightly backup to local HDD of 10 HyperV VMs.
2) Second backup to a USB drive. I have 3 drives that are rotated weekly.

I created a backup job to do 1 easily enough. It's been working for a week without a glitch.
For 2, I selected the 'Configure secondary destinations' with 2 backup copies to 2 of the USB drives. All the drives have 'backed by rotated hard drives' selected.
Only one USB drive is ever connected. This gives me lots of errors as it's trying to backup to both drives. There seems to be no way to associate the 2 drives. Swapping the drives led to an empty backup being created. No idea what happened there.

I then tried to create a backup directly to USB, but I see no way to give 2 drives without creating another backup copy job.

What am I missing?

[Dima P.]

Hello and welcome to the community Andrew!

1) Nightly backup to local HDD of 10 HyperV VMs.
2) Second backup to a USB drive. I have 3 drives that are rotated weekly.

You need to configure two separate repositories for these jobs: first would be a regular volume, second - repository with rotated drives.

If that's already done please clarify how the secondary repository is configured - i.e. is that a Windows server with both rotated drives registered as volumes? Here is the detailed guide onAdding Backup Repositories with Rotated Drives. Cheers!

[AMBxxx]

All the help takes me to the same place - how to add the drives - that's the easy bit. Both drives are registered as volumes. I feel like I'm going round in circles.

[Dima P.]

Can you please clarify if you've configured separate repository for the secondary job with rotated drive option enabled (you need to connect USB drive to the managed server you are adding as repository to register it correctly)?

Only one USB drive is ever connected. This gives me lots of errors as it's trying to backup to both drives. There seems to be no way to associate the 2 drives. Swapping the drives led to an empty backup being created. No idea what happened there.

To make sure we are on the same page - backup job can use one USB drive while it's running (there is no way to use multiple removable media during a single job run), but you can swap rotated drive without any issues as soon as backup job is completed.

[AMBxxx]

When you say 'configured separate repository', do you just mean 'secondary destinations'. If so, yes.

I'm on holiday this week, will take anothe look when I get back.

[AMBxxx]

I'm not sure if what I'm trying to do is so obvious that I can't see the problem, or if there's some secret hidden in the dreadful documentation. This is what I have at the moment:
1) Backup configure to external drive ONE that all works if I just have one drive.
2) A backup copy of job created in 1 with external drive TWO connected.
3) After a successful backup has run to ONE, I swap the drives so that only TWO is connected.
4) Subsequent backups fail as it's looking for ONE

Where are the step by step guides? As I said earlier, the documentation tells you what everything does, but doesn't tell you how to do something as simple as this.

[veremin]

- Add rotated system as backup repository
- Enable this option in the repository settings
- Point backup copy job to the repository
- Run jobs

If this does not work or you still see the given issue, kindly, open support ticket, as the described scenario should work fine.

Thanks!

[AMBxxx]

I've seen all that before - what's 'rotated system'? I don't understand how you link a specified USB drive to an existing repository?

[DGrinev]

1. You can create a repository based on the Windows Machine with the attached USB hard drive.
2. You can create a CIFS repository type, but it's the less recommended approach.

Thanks!

[AMBxxx]

Yes, I can do all that. The bit I can't do is add a 2nd drive to a backup. Everyone is very good at providing links to the documentation, but not saying how to make stuff work.

Looks like I'll be heading back to Altaro.

[DGrinev]

1. You should plug-in USB stick into the Windows Machine which is used for the Backup Repository
2. Go to Veeam B&R Console -> Backup Infrastructure -> Choose the repository and open properties
3. In the Repository Editor Wizard go to Server step -> populate\rescan available disks
4. On the Repository step -> make sure the path to the backup folder correct
5. Go to Advanced settings -> select This repository is backed by the rotated hard drives
6. Go through the next steps and finish the wizard
7. Choose the repository as a target in the backup job settings

I hope it helps. Thanks!

[foggy]

And you do not need to specifically add a second drive - I think this is the part that confuses you. You just create a repository as Dmitry has outlined in the post above and start backup copy job. After the first backup is created, switch the drive making sure the path is preserved. The next backup copy job run will create a backup on the second attached drive - no need to introduce the drive otherwise. After both drives have successful backups created, you can switch them without bothering the path is still the same - Veeam B&R will recognize the 'known' drives in future.

[AMBxxx]

That's the first time someone's mentioned keeping the path the same - thank you. I'll give that a try today.

[Mugen]

I feel your pain.
i've went through virtually the same thing with veeam support. asking more or less the same question
feels like they talk at you, send you links that are a bit broad and they keep going

veeam support.. designed for people that dont need to call us.
potentially great product let down by woeful support.

[foggy]

I am sorry that you had a bad experience with our support, that's rather an exception, to be honest. Could you please share the case ID so we could take a look to see where it was handled inappropriately? Thanks!

[Mugen]

hi

bee below

Case # 04717707

[foggy]

Thanks, I've asked support management to review the case.