VBR v7 Backup Physical Servers?

[RMullis]

Hi All,

I realize this question has been asked over and over again, but I don't see any reference to version 7.

My big issue is backing up 2 physical Oracle RAC servers with shared storage. I currently use Symantec BE 2012 to backup my Veeam Jobs and Physical servers to tape and like many others, I am not happy with Symantec. I am looking forward to backing up to tape from Veeam, but I do see a serious issue. We use a physical backup server connected via fiber channel to our IBM TS3100 robotic library. So if I have Veeam backup the VM servers to tape I am convinced Symantec and Veeam will have an issue sharing the tape device (we all know Symantec does play nice with others). However if Veeam could back up both virtual and physical this would not be an issue. I really don't want to have to slow down my backup to tape process by configuring 1 drive for a Symantec server and 1 drive to a separate physical Veeam server, this would defeat the advantage of having a dual head tape library.

Has anyone come up with any ideas for this type of setup? Will version 7 backup physical servers? I beg you, PLEASE, provide physical server backups in version 7.

Thanks for your time,
Rick

[chrisdearden]

What do you need to take to tape from the RAC boxes? it is just dumped db's from a file share or are you using an agent on them to take more than just files ? v7 will support files direct to tape.

[RMullis]

The backup is for DR as much as it is for backup. The idea is if the blades go down we just reload the base os and restore everything else. Fastest point to complete recovery.

With files direct to tape does it support backing only changes files?

[foggy]

Rick, v7 will not provide physical servers backup. Veeam B&R is built specifically for virtualization and this is not going to change in the foreseeable future.

However, what you could do is to switch Symantec and Veeam roles in your environment and use Veeam for all your tape backups as v7 will provide the ability to copy any file to tape. So you could just put backup files of physical servers created by Symantec BE on some repository and use it as a source for Veeam "Files to Tape" jobs.

[RMullis]

Way to think outside the box, but will this support changed files only for daily incremental?

[foggy]

Yes, this type of job can perform incremental pass.

[marcel.mertens]

I just got a call from a veeam sales guy regarding a project registration. He mentioned that Veeam V7 is able to backup physical servers directly to tape. This only works with windows based servers and will use the OS build "ntbackup".
Did i miss this completly?

Greetings,

Marcel

[veremin]

Among others there will be a special job called “files to tape backup job” with which it would be possible to backup any file that can be found under “Files” node, regardless of OS it belongs to. Moreover, it has nothing to do with ntbackup.

Thanks.

[RMullis]

That's better yet!!

Thanks

[foggy]

Yes, probably some kind of misunderstanding took place here. Basically, you can copy files to tape from any Windows or Linux server (either virtual or physical) registered in Veeam B&R under Backup Infrastructure. And the fact where probably the confusion comes from, is that Veeam Backup Free Edition could be considered as a successor of the former NTBackup software, as a free tool supporting files-to-tape operations.

[chadtandy]

What about multiple Veeam B&R v7 servers connected to one tape library? Currently I have a PCI and a non-PCI Veeam server. Similarly I have two Commvault servers, one PCI and one non, they are both able to share a tape library. Does Veeam v7 have this functionality?

Thanks,
-Chad

[Gostev]

No, this is not currently supported, unless your tape library has built-in partitioning support. Tape drives must not be shared between partitions.

[chadtandy]

I'll have to do some looking online, we have a 4 drive hp tape library, wondering if I could split them up and connect 2 to each backup server...

-Chad

[RMullis]

During my testing I connected via fiber channel to our existing IBM TS3200 quad head unit which we also use for our production environment. I had partitioned the library in 1/2, so 1/2 of the slots were for 2 drives and the other half for the last 2 drives. I had to make sure I connected the live drives in one setup to the disabled drives in the other and visa versa. I then created 2 media groups in my testing server so each group would take it's own drive and it worked great. I wanted to use 2 physical servers and all four heads but the i-Series team wants to use 2 drives for their stuff...bummer. I have noticed Veeam 7 is not nearly as fast at backing up as Symantec BE2012 (which i was hoping i wouldn't ever have to say that name again).

[kte]

veeam files are dedupped and compressed and maybe the backup vault has slower disks then the disk you're servers run on

k

[veremin]

This post might shed a little more light on the logic behind current implementation of files to tape jobs and also on why under certain circumstances files to tape jobs might become slow. So, please, take a look.

Also, please be aware, that, according to the plan, performance of files to tape jobs should be improved in one of the future releases.

Thanks.