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Daylight Saving Time (DST) triggers Full Files to Tape backup of complete repository?

Hi there in Virtual World :)

Running Veeam 11 - We experienced a complete full “Files to Tape” backup when the daily Tape job ran for the first time after entering Daylight Saving Time (DST) last weekend.

ALL files in our backup Disk repository (xx TB) - that means UNCHANGED Veeam backup files from the last 4 months - was all sent to Tape once again - taking several job-runtime days to finish - and filling up a lot of new Tapes, which we needed to supply into the Tape library.

Have anybody else experienced similar issues?

As far as I have read  - Veeam operates in the UCT format - which should not be sensitive due Server time changes or DST - except changes in the local job time schedule:

Daylight savings time - Veeam R&D Forums

Daylight saving switch changes job start time - Veeam R&D Forums

 

We didn`t have any other issues running the usual VM Machine jobs to disk.


This issue has been raised to the Veeam Support - and it has been escalated to their RnD engineers.
So hopefully they will soon find the root cause and the fix for it - so that we never run into the phenomenon again.
 

17 comments

Chris.Childerhose
Userlevel 7
Badge +21

Never seen this issue before myself but interested in what is found with this case.

Chris Childerhose - VMCA2024 | VMCE2023 | Veeam Vanguard 7* | Veeam Legend 4* | vExpert 5* | VCAP-DCV/VCP-DCV | Object First Ace | Cisco Champion | Twitter: @cchilderhose | Blog Site – https://just-virtualization.tech
JMeixner
Userlevel 7
Badge +17

I have never seen this behaviour in my environments, too.

Please keep us updated on this topic.

Jochen (Joe) Meixner | Veeam Vanguard 2024 | Veeam Legend 2021 - 2023 | Veeam Certified Architect (VMCA) | Twitter: @JoMeix | BlueSky: @jmeixner.bsky.social
dips
Userlevel 7
Badge +7

Same here, not experienced the issue. 

Dipen N. K. | IT Security Specialist | Veeam Legend 2022 - 2024 | www.dipen.co.uk
BertrandFR
Userlevel 7
Badge +8

I have never seen this behaviour in my environments, too.

Please keep us updated on this topic.

Same as Joe :)

coolsport00
Userlevel 7
Badge +19

Never seen nor heard of. As with others...interested to see the resolution. @Leo A. ..have you opened a support case with Veeam? Wonder what they have to say.

Cheers!

Shane Williford - Veeam VMCA/VMCE | Veeam Legend | VUG Leader | VCP-DCV | Twitter: @coolsport00
L
Userlevel 2

Hi Guys - thanks for your patience

- Veeam support also keeps me updated every week - with thanks for my patience :)

It seems that Veeam RnD still struggles to solve the issue in the current version 11 - but from support I have just received this statement:

“This behavior will be fixed in one of our future versions of product (most likely UTC time will be used in database).”
“Before implementation of the new logic we have to run the SQL script after Daylight Savings time switch to avoid full backup run.”

I have asked the support a few question about this  - and whether they will announce the bug - and how to handle with a “date-reset” script.
The send me a script - to use BEFORE the full backup runs after Daylight Saving Time change.….
I don`t know whether I can and are allowed to publice the script here?

I wonder why this issue only concern Files backup - and not VM Machine backups.
As I understand from other forums UTC is actually used in config. DB - to avoid international time issues - but maybe not for Files backup?? 

Cheers
Leo

Chris.Childerhose
Userlevel 7
Badge +21

Wonder if the new PostgresSQL for v12 will have the same issue.  Be interesting to test and see.

Chris Childerhose - VMCA2024 | VMCE2023 | Veeam Vanguard 7* | Veeam Legend 4* | vExpert 5* | VCAP-DCV/VCP-DCV | Object First Ace | Cisco Champion | Twitter: @cchilderhose | Blog Site – https://just-virtualization.tech
S
Userlevel 1

Hi, I have the same problem. Is it possible to get this script? I am using the community version.

D
Userlevel 5
Badge +3

Hi @SwissAndreas, please contact Veeam Support for the script.

Please note that this will not retroactively fix anything, it will just prevent the next run (if it’s affected) from doing the undesired behavior. You would need to rollback the database using a Configuration Backup prior to the affected job run in order to apply the script in a meaningful way.

File to tape is getting a major overhaul in v12, and I’m hopeful the new engine should avoid it but I’m not sure on the status of the fix. It’s not about MSSQL vs other instances, it’s just about the peculiarities with DST.

 

(lifehack: just “move” your computer to a locale without DST ;) Joking of course, but it would likely work)

0x0D 0x0A
D
Userlevel 5
Badge +3

@Leo A. 

To answer your question, it’s just a quirk of how Windows handles DST and the LastModifiedDate attribute. You can see here it’s not unique to Veeam it’s just a peculiarity from Windows: https://qa.social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/vstudio/en-US/333e4402-291b-4dd1-aa9d-2df13cdb50e6/problem-with-file-dates-created-during-daylight-savings-time?forum=netfxbcl

(tldr: dates and time are hard :) Microsoft agrees)

Long story short, it’s solvable, and there are plans to address it, but probably not until at least v12 (Disclaimer: this is not saying it _will_ be fixed in v12, just with the major overhaul to the file to tape engine, I don’t think there would be a change until then)

0x0D 0x0A
S
Userlevel 1

Thank you very much for the answers. I contacted the support two days ago for the script and I am still waiting for the answer.

D
Userlevel 5
Badge +3

@SwissAndreas can you PM me the case? Shouldn’t take that long unless you’re on Basic Support (in that case, only support during Mon-Fri business hours)

0x0D 0x0A
S
Userlevel 1

Yes I am on basic support. What is PM?

Chris.Childerhose
Userlevel 7
Badge +21

Yes I am on basic support. What is PM?

Private Message 😉

Chris Childerhose - VMCA2024 | VMCE2023 | Veeam Vanguard 7* | Veeam Legend 4* | vExpert 5* | VCAP-DCV/VCP-DCV | Object First Ace | Cisco Champion | Twitter: @cchilderhose | Blog Site – https://just-virtualization.tech
K

Just wondering if someone can share that script with me? I am on the community edition. Thanks 

D
Userlevel 5
Badge +3

Hi Kakachen001,

The issue was resolved in Veeam v12 release -- if you’re on that already, should not be an issue, else consider upgrading to v12.

0x0D 0x0A
K

Hi Kakachen001,

The issue was resolved in Veeam v12 release -- if you’re on that already, should not be an issue, else consider upgrading to v12.

I am using Veeam in a home lab environment but I have around 50tb to copy to tape so v12’s licensing doesn’t make sense to me. 

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