Rename backup job?

[james411]

Hello all,

I searched, but could not find a definitive answer. I am wondering what are the consequences of renaming a backup job if I have existing restore points of the job? Will the next run of the job have to create a new full backup or will it be an incremental? Further, I understand the existing folder and vbk file names will not change. Is there a way to update the existing folder and vbk file names in the repository? Can I do this manually or will that break the existing backups?

Thanks for any input!

[Cokovic]

Hi james,

did this a lot of times so here is what i did:

1. Remove the backups from inventory ("Remove from backups" NOT delete!).
2. Rename the folder of the removed backups (but not the files within this folder).
3. Rescan your repository. This should bring back the backup (under Imported in Backups). Name of this backup will still be the old one.
4. Edit your job and map this backup.

Thats it. Veeam will continue with an incremental backup. If you renamed your job then the next incremental file will have its name updated. The Fullbackup file will only be updated if you create a new active full.

[Vitaliy S.]

Hello James,

Harris is spot on. If you rename the backup job, existing backup files will not be affected, so you should be following what was proposed above.

Thank you!

[james411]

Thank you!

[cffit]

Be aware that if you do this and you are doing backup to tape, the backup to tape will see all your backups as new and want to back them all up again. At least that's what happened to me. That might not be a big deal to some, but if you have full and incrementals broken out by pool, your backup will ask for both a full tape and incremental tape.

[veremin]

You mean that job renaming resulted in the tape job processing the whole chain anew? Thanks.

[foggy]

If this is how it works now, we could probably address this in future. I'm passing this to QC for confirmation, thanks for the heads up.

[suredata]

hi,
is it possible to rename the backup jobs including the filestructure in the backup repositorys?!

regards

[Shestakov]

Hi Dennis,
Yes it is possible. Check posts of the topic to get more info. You can also move backups where needed, rescan the repository and map the files to the job.
Thanks!

[KevinW]

Hi,

I have a large archive of backup copies which I'd like to move to a new repository which is fairly straightforward, however I would also like to change the job name so that it is more relevant.

It seems possible to do this, however the target folder and backup contents seem to retain the original name (which can make things confusing for an import).

Is there any way to rename these?

Apologies if this is going over old ground, I cant seem to find a definitive answer.

Cheers

Kev

[veremin]

The new naming convention will be applied to the subsequent increments, in the meantime, old files will preserve their previous names. Thanks.

[KevinW]

Ah great - I'll give it a try thanks!

[veremin]

You're welcome. Feel free to contact us, should other questions arise.

[0zzY]

Hi!
Is it possibile to rename a backup job without having a full backup next?

[Shestakov]

Hi 0zzy,
Yes it is. If you rename a job, next run will not be Full by default.
Thanks!

[readie]

I am in the process of moving a backup job (target) to another Windows repository. (I think) I know what I am doing and have disabled the job and moved the folder. I am about to rescan the repository and then adjust the job target.
I know I can rename the job, but I should also like to rename the folder in the Windows repository so that it matches the jobname. (I include the target in the jobname, so would like to make it all match, so in a few months when I look at the Windows machine, the folder name will match the new jobname not the old jobname.)
I'm guessing that if I rename the folder before I rescan the repository, it might do what I want. Then when I point the renamed job at the newly scanned repository, will it see the VM contents of the folder and know that it is the correct target for that job?
Can anyone confirm (or otherwise)?
Thanks, Bob

[foggy]

Bob, right, you can rename the job this way. Here you can find a bit more details.

[readie]

Thanks for this, and the link. I hadn't found the other discussion which adds more detail. (you could merge this??)

[winnipegnick]

Hi James,
I followed your steps from above, but from step 4 I'm not sure how to Map this backup?
Also: When I imported the newly renamed folder, it tacked on a _imported to the end.

Just to confirm, Are the steps the same in B&R version 8?
/Nick

[PTide]

Hi Nick,

Are the steps the same in B&R version 8?

Yes, the steps are the same.

it tacked on a _imported to the end

Does it cause any difficulties?

Thank you.

[Meyercord]

I have renamed some of my backup and backup copy jobs. The filenames for new incremental backups (.vib and .vrb files) reflect the new job names, but the filenames for the full backups (.vbk) continue to use the original name, which means they no longer match the name of the job or the incremental files. This causes problems not only with human readability, but when I scan a repository containing these files, Veeam does not properly match up the incremental backups with their full backup.

Other than performing a new active full backup for each renamed job (which would be an incredible waste of our limited disk space), is there any way to get the .vbk filenames to match the name of the job/incremental files? If I manually rename the full backup file, can I somehow repoint the backup job to the new file?

[veremin]

I have renamed some of my backup and backup copy jobs. The filenames for new incremental backups (.vib and .vrb files) reflect the new job names, but the filenames for the full backups (.vbk) continue to use the original name, which means they no longer match the name of the job or the incremental files.

That's expected behaviour.

This causes problems not only with human readability, but when I scan a repository containing these files, Veeam does not properly match up the incremental backups with their full backup.

Could you elaborate on matching portion, please?

Thanks.

[Meyercord]

Could you elaborate on matching portion, please?

Sure, I've found two issues after renaming a backup job:
1) When the incremental filenames don't match the full backup filename, then the metadata file (.vbm) is the only way that Veeam can match the incrementals with the fulls. If the metadata file is missing (which happens by design whenever backup files are duplicated to tape), or if it is otherwise corrupted or lost, there is no way to re-associate the incrementals with the full and they are effectively unusable.

2) If I remove the backups from the Veeam catalog after renaming the job and then rescan the repository, the imported backups are imported with the job name generated from the filename of the full backup, in other words the original job name, not the new one.

[Meyercord]

Can I manually rename the full backup files and have Veeam rebuild the metadata file?

[veremin]

Nope, it is unlikely to work.

[pshute]

I created a backup job called "Backup Job 1 - test", and played with it for a few days, then decided I'd rename it to "Backup job 1 - main". It's still listed in the disk backups as "Backup Job 1 - test". Will it eventually change its name there? If it won't change automatically, can I change it to match the job name again?

If I hadn't decided to retain the default name ("Backup Job 1") in the name, I wouldn't have any way of knowing which job created it.

[Shestakov]

Hello Peter,
You can change job`s name in VBR console, but don`t rename the existing files manually, because their names are also listed in the metadata file. It`s recommended either to wait while older named files go by retention or contact support to rename the files with their help. Thanks

[Vitaliy S.]

Run active full backup to start using new naming convention for your backup files. Thanks!

[cffit]

If I rename a job is there anything I need to do with backup copies or will they just adjust without intervention?

[foggy]

Backup copy jobs should proceed fine.