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ACampbell-SCL's avatar
ACampbell-SCL
Level 3
9 years ago

Synthetic Backup using BE2015

Hello All

I just want to check a concept about Synthetic Backups on BE 2015. I'm using VMware 6 (ESXi and vCenter) and backup the VMs weekly with GRT not enabled. One of the VMs is a file Server which I backup daily (FULL and DIFF).

The Questions are If use synthetic backups:

  1. In a DR situation could I do a restore of the File server VM and then do Synthenic restore to files up to date with the last backup completed?
  2. If so, can the restore be done on a different Backup exec Server? (providing the the media is imported with the encryption keys?

Many Thanks

2014
Backup and Recovery
Backup Exec
Windows Server (2003-2008)
  • VJware's avatar
    VJware
    9 years ago

    Synthetic backups are supported only for file system data and not VMs.

    And regarding encryption, you can always restore from a different media server. Prior to the restore, just create new encryption keys using the same passphrase.

  • VJware's avatar
    VJware
    9 years ago

    Definitely, not a recommended way to backup. You can enable GRT in the Virtual-based backup and then one single backup gives you either complete VM recovery or a single-file restore options.

    File / Folder GRT restores does temporarily stage the entire VM on the media server if restoring from tape. Not from disk. Secondly, if backing up to tape, you are essentially using up more space than a single VM based backup as you are backing up twice.

    Also, A synthetic backup is used only if one does not run recurring full backups. In other words, only the first backup is a Full backup and all the remaining backups are all incrementals.

    If you really need to run Agent-based backups in addition to the Virtual-based ones, no need for the synthetic feature.

  • VJware's avatar
    VJware
    9 years ago

    So can't I do a full file restore with synthetic full and some incrementals, without the normal full backup available?

    Yes, you can.

  • pkh's avatar
    pkh
    9 years ago
    There is no disk reduction between normal and synthetic backups

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  • VJware's avatar
    VJware
    Level 6
    9 years ago

    Synthetic backups are supported only for file system data and not VMs.

    And regarding encryption, you can always restore from a different media server. Prior to the restore, just create new encryption keys using the same passphrase.

  • ACampbell-SCL's avatar
    ACampbell-SCL
    Level 3
    9 years ago

    Thanks VJware

    Thats all I need is to restore the files only using the Synthetic Backups, not the VM itself

    The file server would be protected via the Weekly backups as the OS itself will not change much.

    Next question,

    I restore the File Server VM from 3 months ago and I have this week synthectic backups (Synthec Full and incrementals). Will the file restore work, even thought the lastest file may not of existed on the 3 month old file server?  

    Thanks

     

     

  • VJware's avatar
    VJware
    Level 6
    9 years ago

    To clear up my confusion, how are you backing up the VM ? Are you backing it up as a VM via the ESX/ vCenter host OR are you backing it up as a physical machine ?

    If the former method (i.e. using the Agent for VMware), then Synthetic backups aren't supported.

    And if you are not using the Agent for VMware, then the question is why ?

  • ACampbell-SCL's avatar
    ACampbell-SCL
    Level 3
    9 years ago

    Both...

    For the File Server VM I do 2 levels of backup

    • Virtual-based backup ( which I call image level)
    • Agent based (File based)

    I first do the Image level restore and the file based on top... If that makes sense.

    I know it seem like I'm backing up twice. The reason for this is that I use to work with Hyper-V (and I just Migrated to VMware). When I did Virtual based restores with GRT during the process BE would restore the VHD (virtual disk) of the VM to restore a single file. The restore process was long and if I did not have the disk space on the media server I would be out of luck. 

     

  • VJware's avatar
    VJware
    Level 6
    9 years ago

    Definitely, not a recommended way to backup. You can enable GRT in the Virtual-based backup and then one single backup gives you either complete VM recovery or a single-file restore options.

    File / Folder GRT restores does temporarily stage the entire VM on the media server if restoring from tape. Not from disk. Secondly, if backing up to tape, you are essentially using up more space than a single VM based backup as you are backing up twice.

    Also, A synthetic backup is used only if one does not run recurring full backups. In other words, only the first backup is a Full backup and all the remaining backups are all incrementals.

    If you really need to run Agent-based backups in addition to the Virtual-based ones, no need for the synthetic feature.

  • ACampbell-SCL's avatar
    ACampbell-SCL
    Level 3
    9 years ago

    Thanks for confirming

    I actually do use tape, for some file based restores (restores greater than 4 weeks).

    The reason why I'm looking at Synthec backup is to reduce the backup time and disk space.

    So can't I do a full file restore with synthetic full and some incrementals, without the normal full backup available?

  • VJware's avatar
    VJware
    Level 6
    9 years ago

    So can't I do a full file restore with synthetic full and some incrementals, without the normal full backup available?

    Yes, you can.

  • pkh's avatar
    pkh
    Moderator
    9 years ago
    There is no disk reduction between normal and synthetic backups