v4.1 Support for rotated media

[jgremillion]

I was reading in the v4.1 release notes that there is now support for rotated media.

<snip>
Support for rotated media. Veeam Backup can now be instructed to automatically re‐create full backup file if it is missing from the backup storage to better support scenarios with rotated media as backup target. This behavior can be enabled with a registry mod.
</snip>

Were can I find documentation on this? Can you tell me what needs to be modified?

This new version looks like a great step forward! I especially like the CTK for vRDM disks.

-Joe

[Gostev]

See here for the reg hack:
Veeam Backup 4 & Removable Media

I encourage you to read this post first to understand the implications of using this feature.

I like this release too should be rock solid!

[Aaron@EN-IT]

I was looking for some clarification on support for rotated media. I will use a basic example to ask my questions.

Example 1:

Veeam is backing up to 2 external USB HD. Each is exactly the same manufacture, size, file format and directory structure. It is set to run every night on week days only. I rotate the USB drives once a week on Fridays. Veeam is set to keep 30 rollbacks.

Will I be able to rollback after 4 weeks to day 2 of the cycle?

Or will I only be able to roll back for the period that each drive is being used that week (5 days roll back. Monday through Friday)?


Aaron

[Gostev]

Or will I only be able to roll back for the period that each drive is being used that week (5 days roll back. Monday through Friday)?

Yes, unless you also keep backup chains from previous weeks on hard drives.

[Aaron@EN-IT]

I don’t quite understand what you mean by backup chains.

Using the same example as my other post.

These are the files on the 1st USB drive after 4 weeks:

Complete.vbk
Rollback1.vrb
Rollback2.vrb
Rollback3.vrb
Rollback4.vrb
On 2nd USB drive (Rollback5.vrb)
On 2nd USB drive (Rollback6.vrb)
On 2nd USB drive (Rollback7.vrb)
On 2nd USB drive (Rollback8.vrb)
On 2nd USB drive (Rollback9.vrb)
Rollback10.vrb
Rollback11.vrb
Rollback12.vrb
Rollback13.vrb
Rollback14.vrb
On 2nd USB drive (Rollback15.vrb)
On 2nd USB drive (Rollback16.vrb)
On 2nd USB drive (Rollback17.vrb)
On 2nd USB drive (Rollback18.vrb)
On 2nd USB drive (Rollback19.vrb)

These are the files on the 2nd USB drive after 4 weeks:

Complete.vbk
On 1st USB drive (Rollback1.vrb)
On 1st USB drive (Rollback2.vrb)
On 1st USB drive (Rollback3.vrb)
On 1st USB drive (Rollback4.vrb)
Rollback5.vrb
Rollback6.vrb
Rollback7.vrb
Rollback8.vrb
Rollback9.vrb
On 1st USB drive (Rollback10.vrb)
On 1st USB drive (Rollback11.vrb)
On 1st USB drive (Rollback12.vrb)
On 1st USB drive (Rollback13.vrb)
On 1st USB drive (Rollback14.vrb)
Rollback15.vrb
Rollback16.vrb
Rollback17.vrb
Rollback18.vrb
Rollback19.vrb

Does Veeam know that all 4 weeks of rollback still exist I just need to have the right drive plugged in to rollback to a certain date?

Aaron

[Gostev]

Aaron, you would need to combine all rollbacks in one location. Basically, Veeam needs latest VBK, plus complete rollback chain available during backup import operation in the location you are importing files from.

[davidkillingsworth]

I have a question regarding best way to backup a small environment.

We have the following:
1 VMware server
2 VMware guests (Windows)

No ability to replicate offsite due to low broadband speed (600kbit).

If I wanted to use Veeam and use rotated media. What would I need? Here is my guess.

1 VMware guest (Windows 2008 with Windows license)
1 Veeam B&R license installed on the 3rd Windows VM.
1 Local storage target (such as a small NAS, or cheap Dell server - do you have a recommendation for something robust, yet cheap).
4 x removable media for weekly offsite rotation. I'm guessing this would be USB drives? If USB drives, what type. Are their commercial grade USB drives that would suffice?

Can you please respond. If I could have this setup, I could avoid Tape and Backup Exec altogether.

Thanks in advance.

[foggy]

If you use this approach to backup directly to the removable drives, you do not need to have the local storage at all. Otherwise, if you are thinking about having local backups first, you can use some post-job activity script to offload backup files to removable drives weekly.

Regarding the hardware recommendations, there are several topics on this forum where other customers discuss different storage devices, please use search and check them out.

Thanks.

[davidkillingsworth]

Hi Foggy.

I followed your link, but I noticed that this method does not work anymore.

At the bottom of the thread Gostev states:
"No, this key no longer works due to the switch to the new architecture with backup repositories."

[Vitaliy S.]

Actually, since then Anton stated completely the opposite elsewhere

Just to update, version 6.1 adds support for the above-mentioned registry key to the v6 backup repositories.