Veeam v12: move or copy backups with VeeaMover

VeeaMover is a cool new feature available in the next Veeam Backup & Replication v12 that allows to move or copy backups to different locations.

If you need to change the target repository for a Backup Job containing existing backups, a warning message is displayed and the procedure cannot be finalized until the backups have moved to the new repository.

With current versions of Veeam this is a manual, time-consuming operation. Here is where VeeaMover come into play.

 

VeeaMover

The new VeeaMover feature allows to easily copy or move backups between different Repositories or Backup Jobs with one click.

 

Use cases

Common VeeaMover use cases are the following:

• Move backups to different repository
• Copy backups to different repository
• Migrate ReFS to XFS for Hardened Repository
• Migrate NTFS to ReFS
• Re-balance Scale-Out Repository
• Scale-Out Repository extent evacuation

 

Move backups to a different location

To move a backup to a different repository, go to Disk section under Backups and right click the backup to process. Select Move backup option. Note the current repository in the corresponding column (DS918BCK01 in the example).

Select the Destination repository from the drop-down menu and click OK.

The backup is being moved to the selected repository.

After few minutes the move completes successfully. Click Close to exit the window.

Checking the moved backup, the new repository is the one previously selected (DS918BCK02 in the example).

 

Change the target repository in the Backup Job

The target Repository can be changed also in an existing Backup Job.

Edit the desired Backup Job and select the new Backup repository in the Storage section. Click Next.

During the validation, the system detects that the Backup Job has existing backups. Click Moving Existing to change location.

The target repository of the Backup Job being edited is automatically selected. Click OK to proceed with the move and complete the procedure.

 

Move a VM to different Backup Job

While backups can be moved between different repositories, VMs can be moved to different Backup Jobs. Right click the VM to process and select Move backup.

Select the Destination backup job and click OK.

Selected VM is being moved to the selected Backup Job.

After few seconds the process completes successfully. Click Close to exit the window.

The VM has been moved to the selected Backup Job.

 

Copy backups to a different location

The copy operation with VeeaMover is pretty the same as seen previously.

To copy a backup to a different repository, go to Disk section under Backups and right click the backup to process. Select Copy backup option. Note the current repository in the corresponding column (DS918BCK01 in the example).

As you can notice, in addition to the Backup repository option the backup can be also copied to a Local or shared folder. Select the desired Backup repository from the drop-down menu and click OK.

The backup is being copied to the selected repository.

After few minutes the copy operation completes successfully. Click Close to exit the window.

Checking the copied backup, it is now located in the new Disk (Exported) section and stored in the previously selected repository (NTFS Repository in the example).

 

Copy a VM to different location

VMs can be copied to different Backup repository or Local or shared folder. Right click the VM to process and select Copy backup.

Select the Destination, for example Local or shared folder. Click Browse and select the folder in which to copy the VM then click OK.

Once the desired folder has been selected, click OK to proceed with the copy.

The selected VM is being copied to a local folder.

After few seconds the process completes successfully. Click Close to exit the window.

The copied VM can be found in the Disk (Exported) section.

Browsing the folder used to store the VM, you can find the copied backup.

 

Migrate backups from NTFS to ReFS

Another cool capability of VeeaMover is the option to migrate backups from NTFS to ReFS file system and vice versa. A reason you should move from NTFS to ReFS is to take advantage of the Fast Clone technology. Fast Clone increases the speed of synthetic backup creation and transformation, reduces disk space requirements and decreases the load on storage devices.

To migrate a backup from a NTFS to a ReFS repository, go to Disk (or Disk (Exported)) section under Backups and right click the backup to process. Select Move backup option. Note the current repository in the corresponding column (NTFS Repository in the example).

Select the ReFS Destination repository from the drop-down menu and click OK.

The backup is being moved to the selected ReFS repository.

After few minutes the move completes successfully. Click Close to exit the window.

Checking the moved backup, it is now stored in the ReFS repository (ReFS Repository in the example).

The migrated backup in the ReFS repository.

 

Migrate ReFS to XFS for Hardened Repository

VeeaMover is also useful to migrate backups from ReFS to XFS for Hardened Repository.

Go to Disk (or Disk (Exported)) section under Backups and right click the backup to process. Select Move backup option. Note the current repository (ReFS Repository in the example).

Select the Hardened Repository as Destination repository from the drop-down menu and click OK.

The backup is being moved to the selected Hardened Repository.

After few minutes the move completes successfully. Click Close to exit the window.

Checking the moved backup, it is now stored in the Hardened Repository (Hardened 01 in the example).

The migrated backup in the Hardened Repository.

Bear in mind that moved backups will be immutable for the retention configured in the Hardened Repository.

To verify if the backup is immutable, right click a VM contained in the just migrated backup and select Delete from disk.

The operation fails due to the Immutability set in the backup files.

VeeaMover is a great feature that simplified the backup management and allows the administrators to save a lot of time.