In the previous article, we saw how to operate on backup jobs to obtain Fulls that can be used to create a GFS retention policy when the destination of the jobs is a tape.
In this second article, we find out how a similar result can be achieved by copying tapes.
Note1: A second tape library must be present in the DataCenter to pursue this protection process.
Note2: The most common use case for Copy-Tape is to migrate data contained on tapes from an old technology (LT06) to a new one (LTO9), since the new technology would not be able to natively read the data contained on the old tapes.
There are two steps that will enable us to achieve our goal:
Step 1: Creation of a tape pool afferent to the second library.
Step 2: Tape copy job.
Stage 1
The creation of the Media Pool (image 1), will need to be customized by setting:
The use of a new tape for each copy session (image 2).
Setting a retention that for that tape group coincides with that required by the GFS policy (image 3).
Picture 1
picture 2
Picture 3
Note3: A 4-week retention was set in Image 3, which addresses the need to keep the full weekly for 1 month.
Note4: Image 4 highlights the possibility of implementing a Vault policy for tape storage.
Picture 4
PHASE 2
From the VBR GUI by selecting the tape to be copied with the right mouse button (image 5), the copy command can be initiated.
Picture 5
The simple next steps shown by images 6,7,8 and 9 show how to complete the copying operation.
Picture 6
Picture 7
Image 8
Image 9
Latest notes:
Documentation to refer to in order to know how many resources it is essential to allocate to the various components is available at the following link.
Many customers and partners ask whether it is possible to implement a GFS (Grandfather – Father – Son) type of protection policy when the data to be protected pertains to a NAS (Network network-attached storage) and the destination is a tape library.
Such automation with the current version of Veeam Backup & Replication(VBR) 12.1 is not yet available, something that is already possible when the data source is a backup of VMs and Physical Servers.
In this first article, I will help you achieve that goal by taking advantage of VBR ‘s great flexibility in creating backup jobs.
Note1: In the next one I will illustrate how to make GFS copies by exploiting a little-known feature of VBR , the Tape Copy.
Flexibility of Backup Jobs:
a.VBR manages tapes using an architecture that is based on:
Media Pool(MP) are the logical containers of the tapes and can pertain to one or more Backup jobs (in our scenario we will create one MP per Job).
Media Set(MS) identifies the restore points present on the tape (in our scenario we will create one MS per Backup job per single tape).
b. The proposed solution is to create weekly, monthly, and annual backup jobs in full mode. These backups should be created on a specific date and the backups should reside on tape pools created for the purpose.
Let’s see step by step how to proceed:
c.Creation ofweekly and monthlyMedia Pools(MP).
Picture 1
From image 2 it is important to note that a new tape will be used for each backup session.
picture 2
Image 3 shows how to set the retention, which in this scenario is 4 weeks.
Picture 3
For the Monthly MP, the same procedure is used, changing the retention to 12 months (see images 4,5,6).
Picture 4
Picture 5
Image 6 shows that the retention for Full Months is 12 months.
Picture 6
d. Creating Backup Jobs
Picture 7
image 8
Image 9 highlights the scheduling of the Backup job.
The assumption is to make n full backup jobs for each GFS policy.
Our example scenario shows the first week’s job (blue arrow) with weekly retention (green arrow). For the second, third, and subsequent week, we will proceed in a completely similar way, replacing the value first with second, third, etc. under “Run the full backup automatically.”
Image 9
Image 10 highlights (orange arrow) that no incremental backups will be initiated.
image 10
The same steps must be implemented to create monthly type GFS backups, in the example I set the backup job start on the 4th Saturday of the month (image 12 – blue arrow).
Image 11
Image 12
Image 13
Note 2:
Licensing counts licenses per individual Backup job (verision 12.1).
Conduct tests to make sure the scenario matches your needs. Get help from Veeam support.
In the next article, we will see how to use the Tape Copy feature.
The scope is recapping the different technology available for NAS backup pointing in which scenario they can be adopted.
The following table has the scope of helping and discovering which VBR technology can better fit with the NAS protection service.
Technology
v.11 and later NAS Backup
File to Tape
NDMP
Backup to Disk
Yes
No
No
Backup to Tape
No
Yes
Yes
Restore Files
Yes
Yes
No
Restore Entire NAS
Yes
Yes
Yes
Speed Backup
High
Low
Medium
Speed Restore
High
Low
Medium
Second copy
Yes to Disk
v.11 (Tape cloning)
v.11 (Tape cloning)
Archiving copy
Yes
No
No
Immutability
v.11 (Hardened Repository)
Yes
Yes
Object Storage
Yes
No
No
Scheduling
Yes
Yes
Yes
Licensing
VUL
Any
Enterprise Plus
Table 1
An example:
Your managers are asking for a NAS backup architecture able to answer very astringent requests of backup and restore.
Watching table 1 and looking for the word speed it is possible to assess which VBR technology can answer the request of your managers better (in this case v.10 and later NAS backup).
Note-1: For sure the table can be improved by adding more details.
Note-2: The second tape copy and harden repository will be available with VBR v.11. Further details are available on the following web pages:
knowing local account’s credential (remote computer)
Important Note: File copy is a copy. It means that if you launch the same job twice, the second time it will delete the files previously saved. It’s like launching two times a copy command without changing any option. To be clearer, it’s not a backup so it can not manage retentionpolicy, nor deduplication/compression.
Note-4: I don’t know if this scenario is supported by Veeam, open a ticket before proceeding.
The following video will explain the steps to set up the environment, perform backup and restore (ps-tools are located to c:\Users\VBR\Desktop\PStools)
This article’s topic is how to set up and work VBR when it is combined with the NDMP protocol.
This type of configuration is part of the category “file to tape” I treated in my last article “A flexible file backup Strategy – Part 2”.
One more note before starting: VBR requires NDMP version 4 and later.
How does it work?
Picture 1
The architecture is quite easy.
Files are gathered from the File Server through the data mover present on the Gateway server. Then they are sent to the Tape Server that performs the write on Tape.
The Datamover installed on Tape Server has the ownership of managing the data traffic to Tape Device.
VBR has the task of enumerating the Volumes and launch the command to Tape Devices.
Point-1: VBR works with a 3 layer backup architecture. It means there is nodirect connection betweenFile Servers and Tape Devices. All Data have to pass through the tape Sever.
In this article, I’m not covering the procedure to set up the NAS correctly. Please ask your storage vendor specialist to get all details needed.
How to add the NDMP server to VBR and set up a backup job?
The next video will answer the question.
Video 1
After the backup is completed how to perform a restore?
NDMP backup files are available to perform restores from the FILE menu at the voice Tape and then NDMP as shown in picture 2
Picture 2
Please have a look at the next short video (video 2) to see the easy step to perform a restore.
Video 2
Point-2: The backup chain stored on tapes will consist of 10 restore points maximum. On the 11th run, VBR will force an active full.
Common scenarios
One of the main characteristics of NDMP backup is that it allows to perform backup and restore of entire volumes.
The most common scenario is the Disaster Recovery of the entire Filer. Imagine the case in which the customer NAS filer is completely out of order and the only way to restart the file sharing service is formatting all the disks and then restoring the volumes (or the worst case is getting a new NAS).
In this case, NDMP volume restores from tape is an excellent low-cost solution.
Main Pro:
NDMP servers backup to tape is available in the Enterprise Plus Edition of VBR.
It means that there is no limit on the amount of data that can be saved. Could be 1 TB or 100 PB it doesn’t matter.
Veeam Universal License (VUL) has the Enterprise Plus Edition available. Is it time to move your old sockets license to the subscription model (VUL)?
Cons:
The granular restore (files and folders) it’s not an available option with VBR and NDMP backup.
Please note that NAS backup is now completely supported by VBR (please refer to article 1 of this series) and it’s the fastest way to perform the granular restores.
Point-3: Even if the NAS device supporting NDMP protocol is already added to VBR, you need to add the NDMP server as a separate procedure. Otherwise, you will not be able to perform file backup to tape.
The next article will cover a recap of the different techniques and show a hidden gem of VBR.
In this second article, we are going to cover the File to Tape strategy.
Why tape devices are still widely present in the IT department?
It’s a good way (but not the only one) to manage the offline backup data (read it as improving the Security Strategy of your data).
Media can be easily carried or moved (read it as Portability).
Deployment is often very quickly (read it as speeding up the adoption).
It has a potentially infinite capacity (Just adding media).
The LTO is a neverending technology in a continued evolution.
The tape is a well-known device, IT operators have the skills to manage it.
The costs for GB is lower than disk technologies.
The costs are quite predictable, managers can budget it easily.
VBR needs a WindowsPhysical Server named Tape Server to control the Drives and Robotic, LTO3 or later Drives, and MS-Windows drivers (supply by the hardware vendor).
The official user guide available on the Veeam site gives all detailed info.
Just a note before starting:
VBR uses Tape Technology in two different ways.
The most used one is back up to tape (Picture 1).
In this case, the source backup data are the backups already present and created with a backup job or backup copy job.
They are saved to Repository (Repository is a Disk technology).
It means that the scope of backup to tape is to pour out data to tape.
Picture 1
Please have a look at the following video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Il8mH2KB_Uo) to get more details.
The second way is File to Tape and it is the topic of this article (picture 2).
Picture 2
Which type of source files can be saved to tape?
Windows & Linux servers (virtual or physical doesn’t matter)
NAS file share (SMB (CIFS) and NFS ).
NDMP filers (it will be covered in the next article).
How does it work?
Picture 3
Picture 3 shows the data streams when a tape process is performed:
The main components are Data Movers. These Services run on the source and on the Tape Server.
VBR triggers the source Data Mover to perform a copy of the files to the target. At the destination, the target Data Mover check if the files have arrived correctly.
The tape Server manages the write operation to the tape also.
VBR stores all info about files saved (media used, retention, etc.) in a catalog.
In the restore scenario, the step order is four to one.
*Note: To perform a backup of Windows and Linux servers, it is requested to add those servers to the managed server as shown in picture 3. Through this process, the Data mover service is properly installed.
Network Share: Adding SMB/NFS Share as shown in the previous article (A Flexible file backup strategy – Part 1).
Picture 3
Common scenarios
File to Tape backup can be used by any customer. You need just a Tape Server, Tape Devices, Drivers, and VBR.
There are at least two main cases:
Customers who want a copy of their data to tape.
Customers with a small budget who doesn’t need rapid restore
The next video will show how to set it up.
Main Pro
There is not a room limit. It means the license doesn’t count how many GB, TB, PB will be written to Tape.
The VBR architecture is as usual flexible. It’s possible to add more tape servers and more than 1 tape library.
*This behavior is quite common to all backup software that writes data directly to Tape.
For saving a file, VBR needs to trigger a process of discovering the file to the source, gathering and writing it to a media.
If you consider that the common NAS scenario is composed of millions of small files and thousands of folders and that the tape technology has to choose for every file the location in the media (where the file will be copied) it’s clear that this process, common to all backup servers, stresses the hardware architecture and in particular the drive header.
The backup process has a small speed advantage compared to restoring because writings to media are often sequential and not random.
Image to restore 10k files located in 10k different positions in a single tape.
The drive has to perform a great job. It is going to suffer from an effect called shoe-shining (also known as tape back-hitching) which occurs when a tape drive cannot transfer data at an acceptable speed.
Shoe shining can contribute to data loss over time, as the repeated back-and-forth motion will wear the tape drive’s read/write heads and negatively affect the readable portion of the tape
Loss of Tape Cartridge Capacity
Increased Risk of Read/Write Issues
Excessively Worn Tape Drive Heads
Low Data Transfer Rates
Data Loss
The Veeam DB needs to be sized correctly and the best practice is to switch from SQL Express to SQL Standard
Media management is quite challenging when the amount of tapes is big. Remember to store them in a fireproof and non-magnetic safe.
Do you also prefer the NAS backup feature introduced in v.10? Let me know!
As many of you know, one of the biggest innovations introduced in VBRversion10 is the support of NAS backup.
Does this mean that it was not possible to save the unstructured file data before?
Actually not, more than one options were already present.
The scope of the next articles is to show when and how to use those technologies to answer customer needs.
In all the cases the product used is the powerful VBR.
The fourmain topics are:
NAS Backup
File Backup to Tape
NDMP
File Backup to Disk
For each of the above-mentioned items, the articles will show:
How it works
Common requests and scenarios.
Technology, Pro & Cons.
Let’s start!
1- NAS Backup
How does it work?
Veeam mantra is “innovate“! A clear example is represented in the NAS technology.
The primary idea on which this technology is based is to track the changing of the unstructured files.
Let’s clear it up with a comparison: I’m quite sure all VBR users know the CBT (change block tracking) technology strongly used by VBR to create backups of VMs. It allows saving data blocks that have been changed from the previous backup.
The ingenious idea of Veeam R&D is to use this approach when files and folders must be saved.
I called it FCT (File change Tracking).
How does it work?
When a NAS backup is performed, VBR calculates on-fly the CRC (Cyclic redundancy check) of any single file that has to be saved. Those metadata are stored in the cache repository (points three and four of Picture 1).
Picture 1
Why is this pre-process so important? Because thx to it it’s possible to:
Perform incremental backup forever (only new and changed files are saved). It means a shorter backup window.
Speed up the restore phase; image the scenario where a customer has 5 PB of data and luckily just 1 TB of data has been attacked by a Virus or accidentally deleted by a script.
The IT manager will ask to restore just 1 TB and NOT all PBs.
VBR using the “FCT” can understand which files have been changed /deleted with respect to a specific Restore point and restore just those needed.
This great option is called “rollback to a point in time“.
Just as a reminder, there are two more ways to restore data, Entire file share and single file and folders.
Common scenarios
NAS backup can be used by any customer. You need just a repository and a valid license (VUL).
The scenario I like to talk about is where the customer has big fillers in his environment.
Why?
Because it is possible to leverage the storage snapshot to gather files as shown in picture 2.
Version 11 will have improvements in this area too. Stay tuned by signing up to Veeam site (https://go.veeam.com/v11).
Picture 2
Leveraging the storage snapshot a customer can
1. Speed up the backup process.
2. Save files though they are in use (Open files can’t be saved by a backup process while they are processed by users).
This integration allows performing backups to any hour of the working day without any attention to the status of the file.
Main Pro
a -The architecture is very scalable because it leverages the concept of proxy very common to VBR.
Proxies are the data mover that collect data from the source and send them to the Repository. The File Proxy has also the responsibility to calculate the FCT. You can add more proxies when you need to address the backup of big amounts of data.
b- The files saved to the Repository are written in a customize format. They are managed as an object in a vBLOB Storage and contain the metadata of every single file saved (they contain info about which folder the file belongs to and which are the file rights also).
Pictures 2 and 4 show the new format of the backup file for NAS.
Picture 3
Picture 4
The main advantage is that all file restore tasks are very very fast!
c- It’s possible to copy backup data to the secondary repository setting different retentions. It allows answering the common request to have a copy of backup data in another location (3-2-1 rule).
d- It’s possible to create an archiving backup file policy through the object storage VBR integration. Picture 5 (taken from the VBR user guide) shows the main repositories option available with NAS Backup.
Picture 5
Cons
It doesn’t support the transfer to Tape Devices. Please read the article about NDMP and File to Tape to get an interesting solution.
That’s all for now.
See you in a couple of days for File to Tape Backup