Change repository for existing jobs?

[pufferdude]

I'm having trouble changing the repository that a job uses, while keeping the exiting backup files. Here's the situation. All backups currently go to a single share on a QNAP appliance, each backup within its own subfolder on the share. When We upgraded to B&R 6.0, it created separate repositories for each job (for example, \\qnap\veeam\job1, \\qnap\veeam\job2, etc). However, since these are all actually (physically) on the same share, I'd like to have just ONE repository (\\qnap\veeam) which then automatically uses the existing \job1, \job2, etc folders within that share.

I THOUGHT I could simply create the new repository (\\qnap\veeam) and then edit the existing job and change its repository from the existing \\qnap\veeam\job1 repository to the new \\qnap\veeam repository and Veeam would see the exising \job1 folder and just use/continue the backup in there... but instead when I tried a test of this it created a NEW \\qnap\veeam\job1_1 folder. It apparently saw the existing \job1 folder and saw a conflict and created a new non-conflicting version.

So is there any way to accomplish what I want? I simply want to trim down the many separate backup repositories that were created when upgrading to v6 and consolidate them all to the same single repository the files are physically sitting on WITHOUT starting over with completely new backups, but what I tried did not work... it created a whole new folder for the backup in the "new" repository and ignored the existing backup chain in the "old" backup repository location (even though, again, it's the same physical location)

[tsightler]

After you created the new repository, when you edited the job to select the new repository did you browse out and map the backup job to the old file in the new location? That should have been all that was required.

[Cokovic]

I think the problem here is that his new repository is the root of his old repositories. So he cant scan his new repository as it will get in conflict with the old repositories. So he can't map his old backups by selecting the new repository as he wouldn't see any backups in it. I think what you got to do is:

1. Change all your jobs to use your new repository (dont map them at this point as you can't see any backups in your new repository).
2. Remove all backups from inventory. Only remove them! Dont select delete from disk!
3. Delete all your old repositories.
4. Rescan now your new repository.
5. Edit your jobs and now map them to the existing backups.

[Vitaliy S.]

Also keep in mind that you need to have at least one successful job run using Veeam B&R 6.x to map your backup jobs to v5 format backup files.

[pufferdude]

Thanks for all the info! Here's what I ended up doing to make it work:

1. Change existing repository in a backup job to the new location/repository
2. Rescan the (new) repository, which then sees "1 new vm"
3. Edit the backup job again and map to the new location/repository
4. Repeat for all other jobs

I did this successfully for all jobs without any of the "_1" folder issues I originally saw, and now I have a single repository for all jobs on the same NAS. Thanks again!

[iav]

[merged]

Due to hw chrash I have to reinstall veeam backup to a new server.
I connect backup storage, import old data, and recreate backup as it was.

But backups start a new folders, with _1 added to name.

How can I continue using of my old repositories?

[tsightler]

If this is 6.x you simply need to scan the repositories and then edit all jobs and choose to "map the backup" to one of the existing backups in the repository.

[iav]

Thank you, it works!

[bteichner]

[merged]

We will be moving the backups of 3 of our VMs to a new physical location and different storage and will need to create a new backup job against it. Is it possible to copy the most recent vbk and the following vib files to a new backup repository and create a new job to map to these backup files?

Example:

Existing backup job: BackupJob1
Backup files of BackupJob1:
vib from July12
vib from July11
vbk from July10
vib from July9
vib from July8
vbk from July7

New backup job: BackupJob1_new
Backup files from BackupJob1 (in new repos):
vib from July12
vib from July11
vbk from Jul10

Is it possible to resume this new backup with an incremantal on July13?

[Vitaliy S.]

Yes, that's possible. For more info on how to map new backup jobs to existing backup files, please take a look at our User Guide (page 100). Thanks!

[bteichner]

Thanks for the response. Can you also move these files between Veeam servers? We have one server running 6.0 and another running 6.1 in the new location. Can I recreate the job in our 6.1 install?

[Vitaliy S.]

Yes, that's possible, just make sure that vCenter Server/ESX(i) host is added in exactly the same way (IP address, hostname, FQDN) to the new backup server.

[sekellow]

What happens if the backup repository does not have enough space to successfully complete the backup job immediately following the upgrade? The job run is acting as a full backup immediately following the upgrade. No matter what I do, I cannot move the existing files around without the first run trying to create the new folder structure and using up any space remaining.

[Vitaliy S.]

Hi Scott,

Could you please tell me what upgrade you're referring to? It is a Veeam B&R server upgrade? If there is no free space on the target repository you may want to manually remove the oldest restore points and let the job complete the upgrade procedure.

BTW - your job should continue running normally, no full runs should be performed:

The job run is acting as a full backup immediately following the upgrade.

Thanks!

[sekellow]

Vitaliy,

The upgrade that we performed was from version 5 to version 6.1 of Veeam B&R. The original location was set up in a similar fashion to the original message post. A single folder location shared on a QNAP NAS. We only had one backup job running though. The first job run following the upgrade created a sub-folder with the jobs's name, "Backup", and began to place the new VBM and VBK files in that location. As there were no existing backups in this new folder location, B&R performed a full backup causing a new, very large VBK file to be created and filling up the allocated storage until there was none left. I have since removed all the old version 5 backup files to clear enough space to allow the backup to run successfully. This was not ideal, but at least I have an external drive copy of those files.

This was not the most ideal situation to be in as we support a number of Veeam customers who may wind up getting into the same situation when the upgrade is performed. I have a case open with support on another issue and the engineer has stated to resolve that issue we will need to upgrade to version 6.1. I let him know of this situation and he has stated he will help me out in the process to ensure this does not occur with other upgrades we will be performing.

Thank you for reviewing this situation.

Scott

[Vitaliy S.]

The first job run following the upgrade created a sub-folder with the jobs's name, "Backup", and began to place the new VBM and VBK files in that location. As there were no existing backups in this new folder location, B&R performed a full backup causing a new, very large VBK file to be created and filling up the allocated storage until there was none left.

There is no logic to create full backups in the new location right after the upgrade. Your jobs should continue running normally. The only reason why you might see this behavior is that your v5 backup jobs were not in successful state at the time when you decided to perform the upgrade to v6.

Anyway, it's good to know that you're up and running now, but I would suggest to show the job log files to your support engineer, so we could figure out why you have observed such behavior.

[mdmiles125]

I am new to Veeam. I want to change one of our Jobs to a newly created repository. I have found the below procedure but it was dated 2012. I just need to know if it is still valid

1)In your OS manually copy/paste previous backups from former repository to the new one.
2)In Veeam B&R User-interface right-click on the new repository and choose “Rescan” option.
3)After having done that, go to the properties of the job you want to move, particularly to the “Storage” settings.
4)Change Backup repository to the new one.
5)Click “Map backup” option, open your new repository by clicking “+”, and choose job you’ve already moved (Note, please, that the name of the job, files of which you’re trying to move to a new location, should be revealed. Otherwise, try to rescan new repository again or redo previous actions).

[foggy]

Hi Marvin, yes, here's another existing thread regarding similar questions. Basically the procedure looks good, just add the remove from backups step to avoid duplicates in Veeam B&R UI. Thanks!