[V12] Unable to upgrade backup chain to per-vm

[RGijsen]

Hi, before raising a ticket as this might be some obvious overlooked thing, I'll ask here. We've recently upgraded to V12, went smooth, all working fine. We use Standard licenses. In the past, per-vm backup files were an Enterprise only feature. In V12 it's the default. We've set our repositories to 'per vm' backups, and newly created backup jobs indeed work as per-vm. Perfect!
The existing jobs though I can't 'upgrade' as per https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=120. That documentation is scarse and seems incomplete to me. I read elsewhere I had to detach the storage from the job. We did that (as well as the copy jobs) and that obviously makes the storage appear as 'orphaned'. So it's not bound to any job anymore. Still, there is no 'Upgrade Backup Chain Format' button to be found. What am I missing?

Note that we are using NTFS on our main repositories, for good reasons of our own. But on our ReFS offsite copy-repository the upgrade button wouldn't show up either.

[Mildur]

Hi RGijsen

Such Jobs cannot be upgraded.
The new format is using backup chains per machine (True per-machine). Your old backups were in a single backup chain (single storage).
New active full backups must be written because direct upgrading is not possible (splitting a big backup file in smaller single backup files).

From the user guide:
Step 1) You detach the old chain. This backups will stay in orphaned.
Step 2) You reconfigure your existing backup job to target a repository with Use per-machine backup files enabled. Or you enable this option on the existing repository, then you don't have to change job settings.
Step 3) You start a new backup job session. Active Full will be started.
New backups will show in "Disk", old backup chains in "Disk (Orphaned)"

Best,
Fabian

[RGijsen]

Ah.... I already though I overlooked something. I was probably confused as the copy-jobs DID upgrade to the new format, actually splitting a big backup file in single backup files (and for once, ReFS does wonders there using block cloning). So for me and others; what would be the reason that doesn't work with primary jobs?

[Mildur]

Hi RGijsen

I will check internally why we have this difference for backup and backup copy jobs.

Best,
Fabian

[Egor Yakovlev]

If I remember right, Backup Copy jobs resultant chain has always been using per-machine backup files format, even when source jobs were in a single-storage format. That is why Backup Copy Jobs upgraded to a new per-machine format "easier" than source jobs.
/Thanks!

[RGijsen]

HI, well, in our V11 setup, the copy jobs were single large files as far as I'm concerned.

[Mildur]

Hello RGijsen

My contact is currently out of office. As soon as I have the answer I will provide an update.

Best,
Fabian