Need some advice on planning my backup infrastructure

[prehcm]

Hi there,

I've been using veeam for quite some time but never in a big environment. I've deployed veeam as follows:

1 vcenter server appliance 6.5
2 esxi 6.0 hypervisors
23 VMs (Windows/Linux mixed)

1 VM Win 2012 R2 is running veeam with every necessary role.

Backing up to:
1 (big) NAS via ISCSI

The idea was to add a second backup target (a smaller NAS) and once a week copy a full backup there but this doesn't seem possible as I have to select a minimum of 2 restore points. I've changed this now to 7 so I keep 7 restore points on my small NAS and 30 on the big NAS. This is fine so far but I'd have been happier with only 1 retention point here or the option to copy the last full backup vs. the latest X retention points.

I'm considering reversing this setup and saving say 7 restore points to my small NAS and use a copy job to save 30 restore points to the big NAS + possibly some more generations as apparently there is no option to keep different generations aka weekly/monthly backups in a backup job or maybe I haven't found it?

I was now asked to also add a quarterly backup or copy job to backup 1 full backup quarterly to an external HD. This is meant as an off-site backup to be kept indefinitely and never to be changed or added to. I'm running into the same problem as before that a copy job needs a minimum of 2 restore points.

What is the best way to create a quarterly backup to HD?
I'm currently thinking about creating an unscheduled backup job for this and running it manually after I connect my external HD.

[PTide]

Hi,

I'm considering reversing this setup and saving say 7 restore points to my small NAS and use a copy job to save 30 restore points to the big NAS

That is a good solution. It allows you to keep a short chain of the most recent backups, and keep a longer chain on a separate storage.

there is no option to keep different generations aka weekly/monthly backups in a backup job or maybe I haven't found it?

You can shchedule periodic Full backups. Is that what you want?

I was now asked to also add a quarterly backup or copy job to backup 1 full backup quarterly to an external HD

Quaterly backups can be done via GFS policy, however it's only available in Backup Copy Job and cannot be used with rotated drives.

What is the best way to create a quarterly backup to HD?

Considering the limitations I think you should do the following:

1. Keep 7 restore points created by your primary Backup Job on your small NAS
2. Point Backup Copy Job to the big NAS and set it to keep 30 restore points + GFS policy to put monthly and quaterly Fulls aside on the same NAS.
3. Schedule a script that will copy new standalone Fulls that have been produced by GFS policy to the HD

Thank you

[prehcm]

@pTide: thanks, you addressed all my questions perfectly and confirmed my thoughts.I was worrying I had given too much details or not explained properly but that was not the case.

The only point I might need to clarify is:

there is no option to keep different generations aka weekly/monthly backups in a backup job or maybe I haven't found it?

You can shchedule periodic Full backups. Is that what you want?

What I meant to say is that I was wondering why only backup copy jobs have the option of using a granfather, father, son scheme while actual backup jobs don't?

[veremin]

Your query is discussed in details here; might be worth taking a look.

[prehcm]

thanks for the link, busy reading through those 4 pages but that seems to be more or less exactly what I was asking. will subscibe to that topic!

[veremin]

The main idea here is that if we provided that functionality for primary backup jobs, we would go against our reference architecture and would not be able to artificially protect less advanced admins from sticking to not recommended practice. Thanks.

[prehcm]

I'm very interested in following hte advice I received here and swap the targets of my backup job with the target of the copy job and vice-versa as I realized I only have the option to keep a generation backup using the copy job. With the veeam GUi it seems very simply to simply exchange the targets but what will happen exactly? Will the backup job and the copy job recognize the previous backups/copies and adapt them to the new settings?

[PTide]

Yes, it will recognize backups, however you have to map the new job to the foreign backup files.