Different rollbackup transformation behavior

[will906617]

Hi guys,


Hope someone can help me out here. After reading through veeam userguide about synthetic full backup and reversed incremental, following still doesnt
make sense. Did I miss anything?

Backup configuration
Incremental with synthetic full and transform rollbackup enabled on Sat. Active full is set on first Sun of every month. Backup starts 11pm every night.
Note. the time on the files are out by an hour.



-rw-rw-r--. 1 veeam veeam 11G Aug 4 23:07 VMs++2012-07-31T230053.vrb
-rw-rw-r--. 1 veeam veeam 3.0G Aug 4 23:22 VMs++2012-08-01T230050.vrb
-rw-rw-r--. 1 veeam veeam 1.4G Aug 4 23:24 VMs++2012-08-02T230037.vrb
-rw-rw-r--. 1 veeam veeam 889M Aug 4 23:25 VMs++2012-08-03T230052.vrb
-rw-rw-r--. 1 veeam veeam 150G Aug 11 22:28 VMs++2012-08-04T230046.vbk......................Saturday - scheduled weekly synthetic full
-rw-rw-r--. 1 veeam veeam 3.3G Aug 11 22:38 VMs++2012-08-05T230037.vrb......................Sunday - scheduled monthly active full backup
-rw-rw-r--. 1 veeam veeam 3.3G Aug 11 23:01 VMs++2012-08-06T230049.vrb
-rw-rw-r--. 1 veeam veeam 38G Aug 11 23:05 VMs++2012-08-07T230044.vrb
-rw-rw-r--. 1 veeam veeam 1.9G Aug 11 23:08 VMs++2012-08-08T230057.vrb
-rw-rw-r--. 1 veeam veeam 1.5G Aug 11 23:11 VMs++2012-08-09T230050.vrb
-rw-rw-r--. 1 veeam veeam 1.3G Aug 11 23:11 VMs++2012-08-10T230039.vrb
-rw-rw-r--. 1 veeam veeam 154G Aug 11 23:11 VMs++2012-08-11T230058.vbk......................Saturday - scheduled weekly synthetic full
-rw-rw-r--. 1 veeam veeam 994M Aug 12 22:40 VMs++2012-08-12T230059.vib
-rw-rw-r--. 1 veeam veeam 1.5G Aug 13 22:27 VMs++2012-08-13T230049.vib
-rw-rw-rw-. 1 veeam veeam 209K Aug 13 22:28 VMs.vbm



1. Previous synthetic full doenst seem to get transformed in to .vrb as according to veeam. Showing above, the synthetic full generated on 4-Aug stays as
vbk after another synthetic full generated on 11-Aug but all .vib after 4-Aug got transformed to vrb.

2. Somehow a active full generated on 5-Aug became .vrb which should stays as vbk according to veeam. The job history confirmed that full backup ran on
that day (about 160G transferred)


Thanks,
Will

[foggy]

1. Previous synthetic full doenst seem to get transformed in to .vrb as according to veeam. Showing above, the synthetic full generated on 4-Aug stays as vbk after another synthetic full generated on 11-Aug but all .vib after 4-Aug got transformed to vrb.

Active full backup resets the current chain of increments. So even if you have transform option enabled and perform an active full, a previously used full backup file will remain on disk until it is automatically deleted according to retention settings.

2. Somehow a active full generated on 5-Aug became .vrb which should stays as vbk according to veeam. The job history confirmed that full backup ran on that day (about 160G transferred)

The new active full starts a new chain of increments and is transformed into rollbacks along with all subsequent increments after the new synthetic full is created on its schedule.

[will906617]

Thanks for the reply Foggy. Now it starts to make sense,

Active full backup restart current chain of increments explains why 4-Aug stays as vbk.

But,

The new active full starts a new chain of increments and is transformed into rollbacks along with all subsequent increments after the new synthetic full is created on its schedule.

Suppose what is mentioned in veeam backup 6 userguide vmware page 101 "Keep in mind that .vbk files that were created manually via the shortcut menu or using the Perform active full backups periodically option will not be transformed or deleted." is incorrect as active full did get transformed.

In this case, (I might have gone off the topic a bit) active full will just act as a normal full backup (except that it is actually getting data from VMs instead of combining last full and all increments as synthetic full). So it should not be use in purpose of complying company's periodic full policy UNLESS you transfer/copy it elsewhere before next synthetic full is generated.

Thanks,
Will

[foggy]

Suppose what is mentioned in veeam backup 6 userguide vmware page 101 "Keep in mind that .vbk files that were created manually via the shortcut menu or using the Perform active full backups periodically option will not be transformed or deleted." is incorrect as active full did get transformed.

Seems like a bug in documentation. I've forwarded this to our techwriters.