New *.vbk full backup instead of continuing backup chain ...

[Didi7]

Hello everbody,

let's try to explain, what happened and what we did. We have a source StandAlone ESXi host and a target VMware Cluster. VMs have been moved with Veeam from the source StandAlone ESXi host to the target VMware Cluster this week.

We also have two Veeam B&R servers. The first one did backups on the StandAlone ESXi host, the second one is targeted to backup VMs on the VMware Cluster. Both have Veeam B&R 12.3.1.1139 installed.

We integrated the VBR Repository server into the first VBR server and copied the repository contents onto the new VBR Repository server using Copy function in VBR. Then we removed this new VBR Repository server with these 8 VM backup chains and integrated it into the new VBR server configuring two repository directories in VBR and did a repository scan.

We could see Backups => Disk (Imported) => 8 VMs.

The new B2D backup job was already available and so we decided to move one backup chain from one VM for testing purposes from the imported repository to the target repository and all this worked very well so far.

We could see ...

Backups => Disk => 1 VM
Backups => Disk imported => 7 VMs

Then we activated the new backup job for the moved VM last evening, but unfortunately a new backup chain was created, because the VM was moved from the StandAlone ESXi host to the VMware cluster.

Can this be fixed somehow, so that no new backup chain is created?

Thanks and best regards,
Didi7

[Mildur]

Hi Hypervisor

Then we activated the new backup job for the moved VM last evening, but unfortunately a new backup chain was created, because the VM was moved from the StandAlone ESXi host to the VMware cluster.

Can this be fixed somehow, so that no new backup chain is created?

This is expected behavior. Even if it's the same VM, the MoREF in the vCenter database compared to the standalone host does not match. ESXi and vCenter create their own unique MoRefID for each managed VM. And Veeam Backup & Replication tracks VM through the MoRefID. Therefore, a new backup chain is required.

We have our vCenter migration tool, but it doesn't support standalone host to vCenter migrations. There are unsupported workarounds with database edits, but we do not support them.

Best,
Fabian Kessler

[Didi7]

Hello Fabian,

yeah, I remember there was a change in the MoRefID and therefore I looked into other threads here. That's what I was afraid of. In this case, we need to keep the old backups for a couple of weeks until the new backup chain develops.

The new backup infrastructure is still a temporary backup solution, but the new backup chain can later be imported into the final backup infrastructure and imported into a Veeam Hardened Repository and we hope that Backup Copies can be moved as well between repositories.

The VMs are now placed in the target VMware Cluster, which is part of a central vCenter, so that MoRefID's won't change anymore

Thanks and best regards,
Didi7