Backup copy job

Job layout and object selection

Immediate Mode (Default)

• Operation: Copies restore points to the target repository as soon as they are created by the source job.
• Restore Points: Only the incremental data of the newly created restore point is copied, not a 1:1 copy of the source chain.
• Scheduling: Triggered immediately after the source job completes, ensuring the target repository is updated in near real-time.
• Use Case: Suitable for scenarios where minimal delay between the creation of source restore points and their copy to the target repository is critical.

Periodic Mode

• Operation: Copies restore points from the source to the target repository based on a defined schedule.
• Restore Points: Maintains a chain of restore points, using a “forever incremental” approach.
• Scheduling: Configured to run at specific intervals (e.g., daily, weekly), ensuring that the target repository is regularly updated with new restore points.
• Use Case: Ideal for environments where regular, scheduled updates to the backup repository are required.

Key Differences

• Timing: Periodic mode operates on a defined schedule, while immediate mode triggers the backup copy process as soon as a new restore point is created by the source job.
• Data Handling: Both modes use a “forever incremental” approach, but immediate mode focuses on copying only the latest incremental data.
• Flexibility: Immediate mode provides the advantage of starting the data transfer process sooner, ensuring that the target repository is updated with minimal delay. Periodic mode offers more control over when the data transfer occurs, allowing for scheduling during off-peak hours or other convenient times.

For more detailed information, refer to the User Guide.

Source object container

• Select from Jobs

  • Description: This option allows you to select specific backup jobs as the source for the backup copy job.
  • Use Case: Ideal when you want to create a backup copy based on the entire job configuration, ensuring that all VMs included in the job are copied.
  • Advantages: Simplifies management by linking directly to the backup job, automatically including any new VMs added to the job.

• Select from Repositories

  • Description: This option allows you to select specific repositories as the source for the backup copy job.
  • Use Case: Useful when you want to copy all backups stored in a particular repository, regardless of the job that created them.
  • Advantages: Provides flexibility to copy all backups within a repository, which can be beneficial for large-scale environments with multiple jobs targeting the same repository.

• Select from Backups

  • Description: This option allows you to select individual workload backups on external repositories as the source for the backup copy job.
  • Use Case: Ideal for scenarios where specific backups need to be copied from external storage locations (e.g. backups created by Veeam Backup for Azure / AWS / Google Cloud).

Summary

• From Jobs: Links directly to backup jobs, ensuring all VMs in the job are copied.
• From Repositories: Copies all backups within a selected repository, providing broad coverage.
• From Backups: Copies backups from an external repository.

Initial synchronization

When creating the initial copy to the secondary repository, backup seeding is possible (see Creating Seed for Backup Copy Job) if the available bandwidth is too small.

While backup copy jobs were designed for WAN resiliency, the initial copy is more error prone, as it is typically transferring data outside the datacenter using less reliable links (high latency or packet loss). Another issue that can be solved by seeding is when the full backup is larger than the amount of data that can be transferred in an interval. Even if the interval can be extended to accommodate the initial transfer, this may lead to upload times of even multiple days. Seeding can speed up the initial sync by removing the need for the sync.

Note: The seed for the backup copy job must be in the same mode as the mode that will be used for the job, so either Immediate or Periodic. It is not possible to synchronize between backup copy job types.

Additional options

Restore point lookup

With periodic copy, by default, after a change of the job interval (the “Copy every” setting), a backup copy job analyzes the VM list it has to protect and searches backwards in time for newer restore point states. If the state of the restore point in the target repository is older than the state in the source repository, the new state is transferred.

Using the BackupCopyLookForward registry key as described below, the behavior can be changed to look for new restore points created after the configured point in time instead.

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References

• Backup Copy Job
• Creating Seed for Backup Copy Job
• Backup Copy Modes
• Mapping backup files to a backup copy job

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