Recommendation for daily backup of specific VM

[mr.sarge]

We have to backup a VM with millions of smalls files every day. With traditional backup it takes to long so I want to backup the VM with Veeam instead Backup-Exec Agent.
I installed Veeam 5.0.1 on a Windows 2003 R2 64Bit server that is directly connected to the SAN. Additionaly on this server is installed Symantec Backup Exec 2010 and Vmware VCB Proxy.
I want to make a backup to disk with 7 days retention and a backup to tape. What is the best method for backup to not allocate much space on disk and encrease backup-speed? I'm a little confused about the three backup methods (reversed incremental, incremental, daily full backup) so I'm asking for a recommendation.

thanks a lot,

Sarge

[Alexey D.]

Hello Sarge,

Have you already read our stickied F.A.Q.: >>> READ THIS FIRST : [FAQ] FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS <<< ?
It also contains comparison table to help choosing a backup method which fits you better.

Also, please refer to this topic: Reversed Incremental or Synthetic Full, which explains how to use less space on disk.

Hope this helps!

[Vitaliy S.]

Sarge, I would use a traditional (forward incremental) mode, as it was specifically designed for offloading backup files to tapes, in this case you would only need to transfer small VIB file each day, and not the entire VBK file.

Though if you do not have much space on your destination target and your backup window allows you to transfer VBK file each day, then I would use Reversed Incremental mode. To get the full picture on all the modes, please check out the links Alexey has posted above.

[mr.sarge]

Hello,

thanks for the answers. We use a tape backup rotation with a retention for 14days with enough space on tape. So if I understood correctly to save space on disk the best method would be reversed incremental with a retention policy of 1 ?
Second question: when I use reversed incremental with a retention policy of 7, do I have to backup the vkb AND vbr files on tape to retain a full backup of all VMs, or ist the vbk-file enough?

best regards,

Sarge

[Gostev]

We use a tape backup rotation with a retention for 14days with enough space on tape. So if I understood correctly to save space on disk the best method would be reversed incremental with a retention policy of 1 ?

Are you planning to backup full backup file to tape every single day? If so, then yes.

Second question: when I use reversed incremental with a retention policy of 7, do I have to backup the vkb AND vbr files on tape to retain a full backup of all VMs, or ist the vbk-file enough?

With reversed incremental, VBK is always the latest full backup file, so you do not need anything else to restore from it. You can even consider archiving extract.exe along with the VBK to each tape (it is very small), then you will not even need to install Veeam to extract the VBK file - and be sure that you will be able to restore data from your tape backups years from now.