understanding backup logic vbk and vrb

[joergr]

Hello,

when examining my backup jobs i noticed that the vbk file is always updated, even when doing incremental backups (which generates the vrb files). now my question would be, if i am backing up some stuff to tape every night and want to only catch the very latest version, would it be necessary to get all (the one vbk and the multiple vrb files) or would it be enough to simply backup the vbk file? So my question is heading to this direction, too: how is the backup logic organized? like snapshots, the main image remains untouched and all the changes are in the deltas? or the other way around: the master image is updated and the going-back is stored in the deltas?

best regards,
Joerg

[Bunce]

Bottom of the FAQ (stickied in this forum)

[joergr]

Thank you, I read it, but to be 100% sure and to verify i completely understood let me tell it this way: so am i right i need only to backup the large vbk file for backup to tape at night if i want the very latest version on my tape?

[Arnold]

That is correct, the VBK file is the latest FULL backup of your VM. The VRB files are required should you need to go to a point in time.

But doing full to tape daily can end up in the use of a lot of tapes, plus a much larger backup window required, depending on the number of VMs you are backing up.

[joergr]

hi Arnold, thank you but that ain´t no problem for me because the veeam backups are stored to a huge local storage of the veeam server and is then being backuped to local connected lto tape. thus there is in fact no huge backup window because i could do the backup to tape the whole day if i´d like and would in no way interfere with my network

best regards
Joerg

[Vitaliy S.]

Joerg,

Arnold is correct, you need to backup only VBK file to be able to restore to the latest VM state.