Moving backup files and importing

[Shogan]

Hi all,

Long time no post!

I had a quick question about moving Backup job files. Essentially we'll have some VMs being backed up in one infrastructure, on a daily backup schedule (One active full, then the rest forward incremental). On one day, during the week, we'll take a copy of the .VBK and any .VIBs (full and incrementals), and copy these over to a restore environment. We'll import them into Veeam on this side, and restore VMs from them as a test.

• Question - do we need to make sure we include the .VBM (metadata) file as well?

Then, at a later stage, we would go back to the original site, and copy any subsequent incrementals since we took those other files, and bring them back. We'll then add these to the other site's backup repository and import those.

• Will this form a full backup chain and allow us to restore the latest version of VMs from the job?

Cheers!

[Vitaliy S.]

Hi Sean,

1. No, *.VBM file is not required if you just want to import backup files to the Veeam console.

2. Standalone increments (VIBs, VRBs) cannot be imported to the backup console. To workaround it, you should create a backup repository on your DR site, and move the entire backup chain with *.VBM file included to this repository and hit the rescan button. This will populate your backup console with the backup files from the production site.

If you need to add subsequent incrementals to the backup chain on the DR site, please copy the updated *.VBM file together with new VIB files, and then initiate the "rescan" procedure once again.

To automate this procedure, please use Windows Task Manager and the PowerShell script below:

Code: Select all

Get-VBRBackupRepository -name "<repo_name>" | Sync-VBRBackupRepository

This will allow you to update the repository as often as you like.

Hope this helps!