Backup Templates

[JDP]

Hi

I am running a POC with Veeam B&R and have a couple of questions regarding backup jobs.

-Is there a way to link backup jobs to a template so if we need to increase retention for backup jobs, that can be done in a single point instead of all 50+ backup jobs?

- Also, I have found that sometimes in a job, out of 40VMs, one fails during the initial backup. After that, retrying fails saying it cannot find previous restore points for that VM. Is there any way not avoid running an active full backup for the whole VM set of that backup job?

Thanks

[Shestakov]

Hi JDP,

Is there a way to link backup jobs to a template so if we need to increase retention for backup jobs, that can be done in a single point instead of all 50+ backup jobs?

There is no option of make a template of several jobs in B&R so far. To achieve the goal you can use powershell script.

I have found that sometimes in a job, out of 40VMs, one fails during the initial backup. After that, retrying fails saying it cannot find previous restore points for that VM. Is there any way not avoid running an active full backup for the whole VM set of that backup job?

Since it`s an initial backup you don`t have any restore point until the job is done. To retry backup of the failed VM you can manually right-click the VM->retry . To elaborate the reason of the backup job failure, please contact Veeam support team.

Thank you.

[JDP]

Hi

Thanks for your answer. Would it be possible to suggest such a template feature? While powercli can be handy for scripted tasks, a template would make things easier for users not used to windows scripting.

Regarding the second comment. I will give your suggestion a try next time a VM backup fails. If I right click on an individual VM for a backup job nothing pops out, however i haven't got a failed one to try this with.

Thanks
JDP

[veremin]

The retry option is displayed on job level. It's active only for jobs with the failed status. And if you click on a job and select this option, only failed VMs will be processed. Thanks.

[Vitaliy S.]

Would it be possible to suggest such a template feature? While powercli can be handy for scripted tasks, a template would make things easier for users not used to windows scripting.

If I got it right, you would like to have an option to save job configuration once and then re-use it for new jobs? Or you're referring to a golden job image, which will allow you to change some job settings for all existing jobs in one click?

[JDP]

Hi Vitaly

It would be some kind of "golden job template" where all common elements could be changed without the need to manually edit all the jobs once they have been created.

For instance, I create a Production job template named PROD01 with the following settings:
- Use backup proxy Veeamprx01 and Veeamprx02
- Keep 10 restore points
- Secondary destination Tape loader A
- All options in guest processing disabled
- Compression level optimal, optimize for WAN target
- Retry 3 times
- Terminate job if it exceeds the backup window 2200-0700 weekdays

Then we would create JOB1, JOB2 ... JOB50 , with the option to inherit values from PROD1 job template. That could be a "Use PROD1 as a template" checkbox in Storage, Guest Processing, Schedule steps of the job settings wizard and would grey out the options that exist in the template. (for instance i think schedule would not need to be inherited, so this specific job values should be configured per job)

After some time we are going to adjust our backup policies, find ourselves needing more veeam proxy processing power or have some maintenance with tape loader and decide to change all job settings to:

- Use backup proxy Veeamprx01, Veeamprx02, Veeamprx03 and Veeamprx04
- Keep 20 restore points
- Secondary destination Tape loader B
- Compression level High
- Some options in guest processing disabled
- Retry 5 times
- Terminate job if it exceeds the backup window 2300-0500 all week long

What we would do is go to the PROD01 job template and edit that settings. All backup jobs using PROD01 as a source would automatically get updated, and we would save quite some time of editing all JOB1..JOB50 settings.

I hope this explanation is clear and makes sense to all forum users & admin.

Best regards

[veremin]

It makes sense, indeed. For now the only workaround is to use PS in order to update the said settings in multiple job simultaneously. Should a help with scripting be needed, feel free to create a topic at the corresponding subforum.

Thanks.

[Vitaliy S.]

JDP, preserving default job settings does seem like an easy thing to do in the upcoming versions, though the backup job "policy" is a different story, thanks for the detailed feedback!

[ericcsinger]

We're going to be dealing with 100's of jobs, and a lot of them we want to have the same number of restore points, compression/deduplication settings, etc. The problem is, it's very tedious to maintain consistent settings across all our specific jobs. We're using (or starting to use) scripts, but it seems like such a brute force way to manage things. I'd love to see something like a "group policy" for Veeam jobs. Basically allow us to nest jobs into folders, and then at the folder level set specific policies that trickle down to sub-jobs. Things like what i mentioned above. In fact, if its a modifiable setting, i think it should be controllable by a policy. Would make administration a lot easier.