VM Replication Job direct SAN access mode

[GLu74]

Hi all,
One of limit in Veeam 9 about replica in SAN mode is:
Veeam Backup & Replication uses the Direct SAN access transport mode to read and write VM data only during the first session of the replication job.
During subsequent replication job sessions, Veeam Backup & Replication will use the Virtual Appliance or Network transport mode on the target side[/b]. The source side proxy will keep reading VM data from the source datastore in the Direct SAN access transport mode.

Someone knows if this is by design and there is no way to have a workaround to use direct SAN access mode also for subsequent incremental replication job?
What i don't understand is why in the first full session works and following not?
Is this a limit that will be removed with fix or patch?

Thanks to everyone.

[foggy]

This comes down to another limitation mentioned on the same help page, telling that direct SAN is only supported for thick-provisioned disks. Incremental data goes into a snapshot file and snapshots are always thin-provisioned.

[GLu74]

Thanks for reply, understand you are right.
Is there a way to do an "always full" replica? This way i can always have use SAN mode.

[foggy]

No, and this most likely would be slower than incremental run using hotadd mode anyway. Haven't you considered this approach?

[GLu74]

Yes, but my customer ask a SAN mode approach. This is why.

[foggy]

Any reasoning from his side behind this requirement?

[GLu74]

Any operation at veeam backup/replica Jobs, needs to be lan-free.

[foggy]

Hotadd also provides LAN-free data transfer.