Transformation and backup copy chains

[localhost]

Hi,

just a couple of questions:

Situation 1:

- backup to rotated drives (USB hard disks)
- retention set to keep only 2 (1 full + 1 incremental)
- drive 1 contains 1 full + 1 incremental (drive 1)
- drive 2 contains 1 full + 1 incremental (drive 2)

when i put drive 2 back in, what is Veeam going to do:

- create another vbk along with the existing one, and then delete the old vbk to meet the 2 restore points retention? or it is going to update the original vbk. I am saying this because if it has to create a vbk, finish the full, and delete the old one, i have to account for DOUBLE the space on the USB drive

Situation 2:

- backup to disk repo
- 1 full active, then 6 incremental, then transformation,
- the moment in which it does the transformation, is Veeam updating the same Vbk, or it creates a new vbk, inject the incrementals, and then delete the old vbk? Again this is the same problem, if Veeam does not update the vbk and create a new vbk instead, i have to account for the repo to hold at least 2 fulls. Also, in case it uses only 1 vbk, what happens if Veeam get stuck half way through? i loose the whole chain right?

thanks
127.0.0.1

[foggy]

when i put drive 2 back in, what is Veeam going to do:

- create another vbk along with the existing one, and then delete the old vbk to meet the 2 restore points retention? or it is going to update the original vbk. I am saying this because if it has to create a vbk, finish the full, and delete the old one, i have to account for DOUBLE the space on the USB drive

Provided you're on Veeam Veeam B&R v8 Update 2 and use Windows type repository, backup copy job should continue incremental chain on each of the drives.

- the moment in which it does the transformation, is Veeam updating the same Vbk, or it creates a new vbk, inject the incrementals, and then delete the old vbk? Again this is the same problem, if Veeam does not update the vbk and create a new vbk instead, i have to account for the repo to hold at least 2 fulls. Also, in case it uses only 1 vbk, what happens if Veeam get stuck half way through? i loose the whole chain right?

Prior to transformation, the job performs regular increment backup, then new synthetic full backup is created based of all increments and corresponding previous full. So in this scenario you need storage for two full backups.

[localhost]

thanks foggy.

In situation 1, if the job is configured only to keep the minimum number of restore points (which is 2 for copy jobs), and the media already has 2 restore points on disk, and it starts another copy job (so should be 3), i am assuming Veeam to comply to the retention policy eventually it has to get rid of the first vbk.

Example:

- copy job set up with retention to 2
- disk contains 1 full + 1 incremental
- i connect this disk
- the copy job start

it cannot create an incremental, otherwise it will breach the retention policy, so i am asssuming it will create another vbk. So in this case do i have to account for 2 fulls or it updates the existing vbk?

thanks
127.0.0.1

[veremin]

In case mentioned by Foggy, it should create additional increment and transform the full afterwards. Thanks.