Hello to all,
I have backup chains stored on XFS volumes with reflink that were created with FastCLONE.
How can I move these strings to another volume while preserving this?
Thanks
Answer
Move backup when using FastCLONE, REFS and reflink
Best answer by JMeixner
Ok, a repo on a VMDK can be copied on volume level. Then all ReFS links are preserved.
My repos are all on physical disks. I will try this with a test VBR server in the next time...
+12You need a block cloning utility.
If you move the files to the new volumes, the storage savings will be lost. All files are dehydrated.
Senior Analyst, Product Management @ Veeam Software
+16Hi a
as far as I know you cannot preserve this when moving the backups.
Jochen (Joe) Meixner | Veeam Vanguard 2024 | Veeam Legend 2021 - 2024 | Veeam Certified Architect (VMCA) | X: @JoMeix | BlueSky: @jmeixner.bsky.social
+14If you clone the volume on a block-level using for example “dd” in Linux in my previous tests this worked fine. Obviously this could take some time and no backups or restores should be happening during the process.
Check out my blog on https://rasmushaslund.com - Rasmus is a Veeam Certified Trainer and passionate about all community work.
+1If source and destination is identical in size you could try xfs_copy
+12If source and destination is identical in size you could try xfs_copy
I would be interested if this works!
Wolfgang | vnote42.net | @vNote42
+21If source and destination is identical in size you could try xfs_copy
I would be interested if this works!
Me too
Chris Childerhose - VMCA2024 | VMCE2023 | VMCE-SP2024 | Veeam Vanguard 8* | Veeam Legend 5* | VUG Canada Leader | vExpert 6* | Toronto VMUG Leader | VCAP-DCV/VCP-DCV | Object First Ace | Cisco Champion | Twitter: @cchilderhose | Blog Site – https://just-virtualization.tech
+16Ok, this are all methods for XFS.
Is there a possible procedure for ReFS? I am not aware of any...
Jochen (Joe) Meixner | Veeam Vanguard 2024 | Veeam Legend 2021 - 2024 | Veeam Certified Architect (VMCA) | X: @JoMeix | BlueSky: @jmeixner.bsky.social
+12
The same is valid. Use a block cloning utility.
Or the simple way.
Create a backup with Veeam of the volume and restore it to another disk 
Senior Analyst, Product Management @ Veeam Software
+16Yes, but which block cloning utility would you use for this?
And…. after a backup and restore with Veeam all files are inflated again, aren't they?
Jochen (Joe) Meixner | Veeam Vanguard 2024 | Veeam Legend 2021 - 2024 | Veeam Certified Architect (VMCA) | X: @JoMeix | BlueSky: @jmeixner.bsky.social
+12You need todo a volume level restore. Not file.
You have to map backup jobs of course, after the cloning and do a compact operation.
Then, Fastclone will be used after that. Other option would be an active full. But this would need again all of the space of a entire full :)
There are multiple cloning utilitys out there.
I have already used acronis to clone disks 5-10 years ago. Not for this specific use case, but for my home computers.
Senior Analyst, Product Management @ Veeam Software
+4The pointer based synthetic full will be reconstituted as a full backup unless you can clone the file system block for block.
Has anyone tried the BackupCopyMirrorAll registry key? This supposedly will work to copy old backup chains from one repo to another.
Randy Weis, VMCE, VMCA
+16You need todo a volume level restore. Not file.
You have to map backup jobs of course, after the cloning and do a compact operation.
Then, Fastclone will be used after that. Other option would be an active full. But this would need again all of the space of a entire full :)
There are multiple cloning utilitys out there.
I have already used acronis to clone disks 5-10 years ago. Not for this specific use case, but for my home computers.
Thank you
Jochen (Joe) Meixner | Veeam Vanguard 2024 | Veeam Legend 2021 - 2024 | Veeam Certified Architect (VMCA) | X: @JoMeix | BlueSky: @jmeixner.bsky.social
+12You need todo a volume level restore. Not file.
You have to map backup jobs of course, after the cloning and do a compact operation.
Then, Fastclone will be used after that. Other option would be an active full. But this would need again all of the space of a entire full :)
There are multiple cloning utilitys out there.
I have already used acronis to clone disks 5-10 years ago. Not for this specific use case, but for my home computers.
Thank you
I think, i will test this procedure with my test server this week.
Make a copy of the backup repo vmdk and try to reuse the old backup chain. I think it should work :)
Senior Analyst, Product Management @ Veeam Software
+16Ok, a repo on a VMDK can be copied on volume level. Then all ReFS links are preserved.
My repos are all on physical disks. I will try this with a test VBR server in the next time...
Jochen (Joe) Meixner | Veeam Vanguard 2024 | Veeam Legend 2021 - 2024 | Veeam Certified Architect (VMCA) | X: @JoMeix | BlueSky: @jmeixner.bsky.social
+12The pointer based synthetic full will be reconstituted as a full backup unless you can clone the file system block for block.
Has anyone tried the BackupCopyMirrorAll registry key? This supposedly will work to copy old backup chains from one repo to another.
But I do not see how this could help here?
Wolfgang | vnote42.net | @vNote42
not useful for XFS but if you use a windows server with local disks or sas/san disks (whatever) and ReFS as a repository and have a datacenter licence you can use storage replica with asynchronous replication.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/storage-replica/storage-replica-overview
I hope I will find the time to test it over wan and also “locally” from one volume to another.. we ordered a HPE 4510 and why not testing it with a brand new empty server and “some” space..
Solved in v12, as You probably know already ;-)
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