v7 Backup Copy Job removable media (rotated drives)

[azuziel]

I have backup copy jobs working to USB disks for quite a while (backup copy jobs). However, I use a different drive letter for each USB disk and a Different backup copy job to match each letter. A separate repo is setup on each USB disk, to the root of the drive, and I have health checks off. I trigger whatever backup copy job's letter is attached manually each week, let it run continuously for 7 days, then swap in the next. I haven't had a single failure in months, but I am quite curious to try this code and see if I can get it working with a single job, to a single rotated target.

[toon.v10]

Hi,

I've tested this functionality now at 3 (small) organizations and its great!

The setup(s):
1 or 2 Hyper-V host with 2 to 8 VM's
3 USB disks which are rotated on Friday.
ForceCreateMissingVBK value = 1
ForceDeleteBackupFiles value = 3

I’ve created a separate (forward Incremental) backup job to the usb disks.
Every weekday i let it backup to the disk. On friday evening the disks are changed. When the job runs after the disks are changed, Veeam can’t find the previous backup files so it cleans the disk (if there are old backup files on it) and starts with a new full backup.

For us this is the perfect solution for a lot of our customers!

It would even be greater if it could detect an old full backup file and creates the new incrementals based on that vbk.

[Gostev]

Thank you very much for trying, and for the feedback. We will think on re-using the old VBK (great idea btw), but this is certainly not going to be a "quick fix" to be able to repurpose one for the new chain... although we do already have the technology for this (same concept is used for backup seeding), so this is definitely doable.

[McClane]

I also tested it with
ForceCreateMissingVBK value = 1
ForceDeleteBackupFiles value = 3
and a daily rotation of the USB drive and different Backup Copy Jobs.
Works like a charm.

[Homes32]

No issues using RDX and
ForceCreateMissingVBK value = 1
ForceDeleteBackupFiles value = 3

nice work!

[frankive]

I have just installed Veeam for a new customer which wants to use removal usb to rotate weekly. I have setup everything and the backup will run to the first usb drive tonight.
From what I have reading here, it will delete all the backup files from the usb when you reinsert it as long as another drive has got a backup in the meantime?
If we rotate 2 usb drives, one each weekend, willl this automatically make my backup retention to 7 days since the drive is gonna be wiped when we insert it again? How does this correspond if I set 28 days retention in the job settings?

[Gostev]

From what I have reading here, it will delete all the backup files from the usb when you reinsert it as long as another drive has got a backup in the meantime?

Correct.

If we rotate 2 usb drives, one each weekend, willl this automatically make my backup retention to 7 days since the drive is gonna be wiped when we insert it again? How does this correspond if I set 28 days retention in the job settings?

Correct. It does not correspond with 28 days retention anyhow. The 28 days retention will only apply if you leave the same drive plugged in for longer than 28 days.

[frankive]

Thanks!

[pieterjan.heyse]

I also tested it with
ForceCreateMissingVBK value = 1
ForceDeleteBackupFiles value = 3
But it does not wipe my external storage when swapping. Is there any way to debug this?

[foggy]

Pieterjan, as the first step, please make sure both keys are specified properly. Last time when it was reported that of one of the keys was not working, it turned out to be due to an extra space in the key name.

[pieterjan.heyse]

Ha, foggy, it's like you are reading my mind... Just checked and there was an extra space

Thanks for the simple solution, should have checked that better

[GregZTL]

Thought I'd let you know that I've been running the patch for a couple of weeks to try out rotated offsite backups. It works exactly as I'd hoped, thanks Veeam .

[Rick.Vanover]

Is that FTP link not working now? Or is is just me.

[foggy]

Works for me right now, Rick. Could you check again, please?

[ITWWT]

I Guys,
I have just been reading this thread. I have been testing the Backup Copy job with rotating external drives too and have been seeing the same issues.
I am running v 7.0.0.771. I have made the two registry changes as you suggest. I have downloaded the DLL's. I have searched on my Veeam server for the DLL's and notice the Veeam.Backup.Common.dll is in 24 different locations on the server. Should I replace all instances of this dll file?
Regards John

[Vitaliy S.]

Hi John,

You should replace it only in the "Backup" subfolder of the product installation folder.

Thanks!

[lobwolf]

Thanks Veeam team for providing this beta code.
I have tested on 2 environments with removable drives. when swapping the drive the file error does not show anymore but only the full backup gets copied but not its chain. Is this the expected behavior? If so, Is not the backup copy supposed copy the -whole- source job -including backup chain- to the target destination? Probably that's why people do 3rd party copies to mirror the whole source repository?
If I lost the original disk, the 2nd copy would not have the other restore points in the backup chain, just the full backup.

[Vitaliy S.]

Hello Lobo,

Actually backup copy job does not copy backup files at all, it synthetically creates required restore points using VM data stored in source backup repositories. You can pick individual VMs from the backup job and sync only these VMs. What you see is expected, the next job run would create an incremental point (assuming the VBK files is still in-place).

Thank you!

[Balbo]

Hi all

Is still active the ftp link? Has anyone tried to download code recently? When i try i get a "login incorrect" error.

Thanks!

[Vitaliy S.]

Yes, the link is still active, just tried. Can you please try to download it again?

[Balbo]

Yes, the link now function. Thank you very much!

[Waddy]

Greetings,

If we use the backup copy feature to process backup copies to an external USB drive and swap USB drives out - to store offsite - what is the restorablity of the backup?

We would not be using/enabling any of the 'archive' restore point functions. This is would sbe a straight backup copy job.

My logic leads me to think that the USB backup copy will be updated with each run based on the .vbk on the drive vs. the data/date of the backup copy.

Thanks in advance.

[foggy]

Waddy, no issues with restorability in this scenario. Please review the thread above for instructions on proper Veeam B&R configuration in this case. Thanks.

[cfvonner]

Greeetings,

I just installed the required DLLs and added the registry keys. I am trying to test out a rotating external drive scheme using Western Digital NAS drives (MyBook Live Duo). I created a repository using CIFS (mainly because I couldn't create it as a Windows repository). I then created a Backup Copy job to copy an existing reverse incremental backup from our central backup repository onto the test device.

It seems to start to work. At least it creates a folder on the drive with the same name as the Backup Copy job, and creates a .vbm, a .vbk, and a .vib file. However it stops there. In reviewing the logs it appears this message appears whenever I try to "Sync Now": "Restore point is located in backup file with different block size".

What, if anything should I be doing differently?

-Carl V.

[cfvonner]

And as soon as I posted this, I found a knowledge base article that addressed the issue directly: http://www.veeam.com/kb1835. Sure enough, I ran an Active Full backup from my primary backup job, and as soon as it completed, the Copy Backup job kicked off without issue.

-Carl V.

[mc1]

Are the dll files required for version 7.0.0.833?

[foggy]

No, this version supports rotated drives scenario, no additional steps are required.

[mc1]

No, this version supports rotated drives scenario, no additional steps are required.

Thank you for the quick response. I have read through the thread and I just want to make sure I fully understand this.

We are using a local backup target and then backup copy jobs to send to USB media

1. With version .833 no DDL changes are required
2. Registry key changes still required for .833?
3. Attach USB drive, assign a drive letter and create a backup repository
4. Make sure all USB drives use the same drive letter
5. Configure Veeam backup copy job

The behaviour we are looking for is to

1. When the backup copy job starts it will remove the previous backup jobs (providing it isn't the most recent)
2. If the media is empty it will copy the recent job

[veremin]

Thank you for the quick response. I have read through the thread and I just want to make sure I fully understand this.

1,2,3,4,5. Yes.

1. When the backup copy job starts it will remove the previous backup jobs (providing it isn't the most recent)
2. If the media is empty it will copy the recent job

1. Yes, as long as, you implement the corresponding registry key. "(ForceDeleteBackupFiles")
2. Yes.

Thanks.

[mc1]

doesn't seem to work, not sure if there is a quick fix here or if we should open a ticket?

I ran the job and then manually removed the contents to simulate a new drive being connected.

2/24/2014 12:24:21 PM :: Processing 'VM' Error: Client error: File does not exist. File: [L:\Backups\Backup Copy Job 1 USB\Backup Copy Job 1 USB2014-02-24T000000.vbk].
Failed to restore file from local backup. VFS link: [summary.xml]. Target file: [MemFs://Tar2Text]. CHMOD mask: [0].