Synthetic full backups

[dejvv]

I have 2 backup jobs

One Daily backup with 6 restore points

Daily backup which also includes weekly and monthly (using the option keep certain full backups longer for archival purposes)

Should I enable create syntetic full backups periodically on both jobs?

[david.domask]

Hi DG,

I'm afraid that this is a decision you'll need to make for your self, but I can share a few notes on this that might help your decision.

GFS Retention requires a Full backup of either type to flag Restore Points as GFS, so you can use either Active Full or Synthetic Full.

Active Full:

• Reads entire disks of Virtual machine and creates a full backup (.vbk) using only data fresh from production
• VM will be on snapshot during the Active Full job run
• The workload is mostly on the production environment while VM is on snapshot and Veeam transfers the VM data

Synthetic Full:

• Performs an incremental backup (.vib) as usual during the job run
• After the incremental backup is made, a Synthetic Full is created by reading necessary data from the previous backup files and incremental backup that was just made. These are made into a Synthetic Full (.VBK)
• The workload is on the repository, as we are reading from backup files and writing into the Synthetic Full

So it's really a question of where you want the bulk of the workload -- on the VMware environment or on the repository.

If your repository supports Fast Clone, then Synthetic Fulls are the way to go as with Fast Clone they're fast, "space-less", and are the same as any other full backup.

[dejvv]

so with the syntethic it will not take the extra space while creating the full backup (I am asking as I will be adding a cloud backup so see how much extra space I get)

example if my usage is 2TB, how much extra should I get to be safe for health check and the syntetic full

[david.domask]

Hi DG,

Just to be clear as I think my explanation maybe added confusion, Synthetic Fulls without fast clone will be the same as a regular Active Full: same size, data, functionality, the only difference is how it is created.

So if an Active Full for a machine is 2TB, the Synthetic Full will be also.

Fast Clone is a special technology that can enhance the Synthetic Full process though, but not all storage systems support it. Check the link I added before to read a bit more about Fast Clone, that's just an optional element.

As for whether to use Active or Synthetic, it's really up to you depending on what's best for your situation. I would test with both and based on the results, you can make your decision.

[dejvv]

thanks for your reply