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Synthetic Backup using BE2015

ACampbell-SCL
Level 3

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

4 ACCEPTED SOLUTIONS

Accepted Solutions

VJware
Level 6
Employee Accredited Certified

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.

View solution in original post

VJware
Level 6
Employee Accredited Certified

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.

View solution in original post

VJware
Level 6
Employee Accredited Certified

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

Yes, you can.

View solution in original post

pkh
Moderator
Moderator
   VIP    Certified
There is no disk reduction between normal and synthetic backups

View solution in original post

11 REPLIES 11

VJware
Level 6
Employee Accredited Certified

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
Level 3

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
Level 6
Employee Accredited Certified

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
Level 3

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
Level 6
Employee Accredited Certified

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
Level 3

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
Level 6
Employee Accredited Certified

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

Yes, you can.

ACampbell-SCL
Level 3

Many Thanks :)

 

 

pkh
Moderator
Moderator
   VIP    Certified
There is no disk reduction between normal and synthetic backups

ACampbell-SCL
Level 3

If that's true then, I'll stick with normal backups.

thanks for the input...

Colin_Weaver
Moderator
Moderator
Employee Accredited Certified

If you want disk storage reduction you should look at Deduplication