Vault Archive | Mandatory SOBR, reporting delay, and the actual restore workflow

[tmagda]

Hi all,
I've been "testing" Veeam Data Cloud Vault Archive in a VBR 13.1.0.411 homelab. First, I prepared a SOBR based on:

• Performance Tier – local disk;

• Capacity Tier – VDC Vault Foundation (France Central);

• Archive Tier – VDC Vault Archive (Norway East).

1. Vault Archive seems to require a Capacity Tier, but Copy mode explicitly forbids it. With a Capacity Tier extent already attached and the Archive Tier configured with "Copy GFS full backups to object storage" checked, the wizard throws an error on Apply:
"The Archive Tier copy mode is supported only when the Scale-Out Backup Repository has no Capacity Tier attached."
Fine, except VDC Vault Archive doesn't even show up as a selectable Archive Tier target when the Capacity Tier is absent (only generic S3/Azure object storage repos appear in that case). So it looks like using Vault Archive specifically locks you into "Move" mode with its aging-days threshold on the Capacity Tier (default 90 days), and there's no way to get a GFS full into Vault Archive faster via Copy mode, because Copy mode and Vault Archive appear to be mutually exclusive in the UI as currently implemented.

Questions: Is that intentional? Is there genuinely no supported way to validate Vault Archive without waiting out that Capacity Tier aging window?

2. After configuring the storage vault for VDC Vault Foundation (Audit Log shows "Storage Vault Added" and "Product Assigned to Storage"), both the Vault dashboard (Storage Consumed, Storage Usage chart) and Activity > Backup Sessions still show 0.00 TB / no sessions at all, 30+ hours later. I've also run an SOBR sync twice.

Questions: Is there a minimum size/time threshold before Storage Consumed reflects anything? Is there a known reporting lag in the Veeam Data Cloud console for Storage Consumed / Backup Sessions, or a minimum data threshold below which nothing populates? Or should any actual transferred data appear here immediately regardless of size?

3. I guess there is a specific procedure for restoring from Vault Archive, but I haven't found any manual for that. I guess I can't initiate a restore from the Archive Tier directly from VBR, even if I lose both the Performance and Capacity Tier extents? Do you know the recovery process for a backup copy from Vault Archive?

Thanks in advance for any insight!

[Mildur]

Hi Tomasz,

These are different questions about two different topics — VDC Service and VDP Product. I’ll try to answer them.

1.) The copy and Capacity Tier limitation is documented in two locations: (Help Center 1 / Help Center 2). The limitation with VDC Vault is that you can only offload Backups to VDC Vault Archive from VDC Vault Standard — either directly from the Performance Tier or through the Capacity Tier. Because your Performance Tier is “local disk,” you cannot select VDC Vault Archive directly. You need to go through Vault in the Capacity Tier, which will limit you to Move only.

Did you try the copy policy with Vault as a Performance Tier extent? Keep in mind that your current Capacity Tier extent cannot be “converted” to a Performance Tier extent. The backup data blocks are not compatible with each other, even if they contain the same backups.

2.) I need to check with my colleagues from the VDC Vault team, but I believe I heard something about 24 hours. Let’s wait for my colleague @benthomas from the VDC team to confirm.

3.) The process is the same as for any Archive Tier. If you lose your backup server/SOBR and need to restore, connect the Vault Archive again to your backup server and import your backups.

Best,
Fabian