Veeam ZIP retention log

[VladV]

One of our VMs backed up by VeeamZIP has been deleted and I want to make sure it was deleted by the retention policy and not by user error.

Is it possible to see this?

Thanks

[VladV]

I managed to find the log and seen that it was indeed removed by retention policy within VeeamZIP. I also managed to find out (or so I think) why this retention was applied even though I haven't specified it. There are a few things that generated this behavior:

- when accessing the virtual machines section from the backup console and right clicking a VM, it does not instantly open the menu. Because it has a 3-5 second lag I usually right click a second time forgeting that it was "by design" and not a misclick. When i did this for this specific VM I also move the pointer one pixel to the right so it started the VeeamZIP without any user settings even though the right click itself was done before the drop down appeared
- Going through Svc.VeeamBackup.1.log I saw the following lines:

Code: Select all

[16.04.2016 00:00:15] <36> Info     [VeeamZIPRetention] VeeamZIP retention is ready to start.
[16.04.2016 00:00:15] <36> Info     [VeeamZIPRetention] Get entries to retain, datetime '16/04/2016 00:00:15'
[16.04.2016 00:00:15] <36> Info     [OIB] Deleting '1' oibs

and the name of the VM that was deleted

Although the documentation states that the default settings do not have a retention setting, running VeeamZIP with defaults (the first option in the drop down list) actually set a retention of 1 month.

We were fortunate to have another copy of the VM but others may not.

What I would ask Veeam is to speed up the right click options for the VMs (or move the menu that appears farther than the cursor) and have the defaults for VeeamZIP set up to indefinite retention according to the manual https://helpcenter.veeam.com/backup/vsp ... amzip.html

"By default, VeeamZIP files are not removed and kept in the specified location for an indefinite period of time."

It may also be helpful to warn about a retention setting during the actual backup.

By the way, is there any method of removing the retention once the VeeamZIP has been completed?

Thanks

[Wesley_Tucker]

Hi Vlad,

was '1' your VeeamZIP job name in this case?
I also think it would be nice to have an 'audit' tool like in other backup products to see who/what deleted restore points, backup jobs, ... instead of having to crawl trough the log files.

[VladV]

Hi,

No, the job name was the Name of the VM followed by the date. It is automatically created.

I agree with having and audit tool. It would have been helpful in this situation and now, with remote consoles installed, it be a useful tool to have.

[foggy]

Vlad, please take a look at the "Tip" provided on the help page you've referred to above:

Veeam Backup & Replication keeps settings of the latest VeeamZIP task. To quickly create a VeeamZIP file with the same settings as the previous one and store it in the same location, right-click the necessary VM and select VeeamZIP to. The VeeamZIP task with the same settings as the previous task will start immediately.

By default, VeeamZIP files are indeed kept for an indefinite period of time. However, in case some custom settings were used during the previous VeeamZIP task, they could also be applied in the case with removed backup.