Veeam jobs to NAS drive

[y1008946]

Hi, I am new to Veeam and trying to learn as quickly as I can. I am sorry for the basic questions!

We have a physical server which has Veeam installed and we use as a backup repository on site. We also have a NAS drive which we would like to use as a way to do offsite backups.

The way I have understood it from the documentation is that the backup jobs run out of hours because they slow the target down. And the backup copy jobs can run through the day syncing from the backup repository. Am I right in saying that I should:

- Set a backup job to run overnight on the VMs to the backup repository.

- Set a backup copy job to run during the day, to sync the backup to the NAS drive.

If this is correct how should I configure the backup job to the backup repository? Should I set it like this.

- Set the backup mode to incremental

- Set to optimize for a LAN target

After this I am unsure what will be the best settings, wether to set synthetic or active full. Time to do the backup copy job is going to be an issue and so is storage space. But I would like to try achieve an offsite backup with the NAS drive if we can.

If I set the active full method can I safely set a backup job with only 4 restore points (to save space), but not have to do an active full very often?

The problem I found when I tried creating jobs initially was that with a reverse incremental backup job, the backup copy job would run with good speed the first time. But it would slow down drastically, backup copy jobs to the NAS would be stuck saying transforming and the completed percentage would never increase.

Thanks for any help!

[foggy]

Yes, your general understanding is correct. Regarding the best backup mode (forward or reversed incremental), you need to decide which suits you best (there are a number of existing discussions here and a comparison table given in the FAQ). Basically, forward incremental mode requires more space but puts less load on the backup repository storage. I would set storage optimization to Local target, since your repository is located on the same physical server where Veeam B&R is installed.

If I set the active full method can I safely set a backup job with only 4 restore points (to save space), but not have to do an active full very often?

Here is a good topic with fulls frequency recommendations: How often do I need a full backup?

The problem I found when I tried creating jobs initially was that with a reverse incremental backup job, the backup copy job would run with good speed the first time. But it would slow down drastically, backup copy jobs to the NAS would be stuck saying transforming and the completed percentage would never increase.

Actually, for backup copy job, it doesn't matter what source backup jobs are set to: forward or reversed incremental mode. So if this issue persists, you'd better contact technical support directly for investigation.

[veremin]

As to the backup job/backup copy job schedule, you should specify a corresponding backup window for the backup copy job, so that, it won't start during the night.

With regards to transform operation, probably, this topic can be helpful.

Thanks.

[yizhar]

Hi.

There is a problem with your plan - the offsite NAS device.
The NAS cannot have a Veeam agent running on the device, so many operations running against the NAS are actually executed on the Veeam server over the WAN link, which is very bad.
If you want the NAS offsite, you need also another host to act as repository agent.
Or - just keep the NAS onsite (for long term backup retention for example), and you a PC with local SATA disk(s) for offsite repository - this will perform much better then the NAS, and would be more reliable as well.

Yizhar