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We have several Synology NAS devices that we would like to essentially backup to tape to take offsite via our monthly tapes.

 

I stumbled upon an article about backing up files to tape and hitting the 10GB limit on the SQL Express DB. I’m not sure if this would be an issue for us or not. We’re on 12.1.2.172 Enterprise Plus Edition. Would this be an issue for us and we’d need to migrate our DB to our MSSQL Server (which we have and could possibly do).

 

File to tape limitation - R&D Forums (veeam.com)

 

Apart from that, I’m also interested in the best way to tackle this. Would it be best to backup directly to tape OR backup to a repository and then process said backup to tape? None of the current NAS devices are on our 10Gbps infrastructure. We think we have a way around that by using Synology Replication replicating the shares (as read-only) to one of our NAS which do have 10Gbps interfaces which would help when writing to tape.​​

Hi @jaceg23 -

First off...how many VMs and/or ‘instances’ are you backing up? Since you mention SQL Express, I assume since you’re on VBR 12.1.1 you did a migration and just chose to retain SQL Express? Regardless, unless you have several hundred VMs/instances to backup, you’re probably OK with SQL Express and not reaching the 10GB limit. I used Express all the time in my VBR environment for many yrs and don’t think my DB went beyond 2-3GB in size. 

Here is Veeam’s BP Guide on Config DB:
https://bp.veeam.com/vbr/2_Design_Structures/D_Veeam_Components/D_VBR_DB/database.html

Generally, if you have about 5000 VMs to backup, they recommend against both Express and PSQL and to use a fully licensed SQL server.

 

As far as backing up your NAS to Tape. I just recommend reading through this section of the User Guide for more info (below). You can best decide what’s proper for your organization needs/goals:

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backup/vsphere/btt_nas.html?ver=120
and

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backup/vsphere/file_to_tape_jobs.html?ver=120

Personally, I don’t see any reason to backup your NAS first to a Repo then do File to Tape job.

How big is you current SQL Express database?  I’ve never had an issue with hitting the database limits in VBR (the Service Provider Console is another story), but I’m in the SMB space and Enterprise may be different, but that's going to be dependent on how large your environment is.  But if you have a SQL standard instance you can use, it might not hurt to utilize it if it seems to be worth the migration.  Postgres is another option as well.

Here is Veeam’s BP Guide on Config DB:
https://bp.veeam.com/vbr/2_Design_Structures/D_Veeam_Components/D_VBR_DB/database.html

Generally, if you have about 5000 VMs to backup, they recommend against both Express and PSQL and to use a fully licensed SQL server.


V12.1 has changed that recommended maximum amount of machines. It’s now 10000 machines with up to 1000 concurrent tasks:
veeam_backup_12_1_whats_new_wn.pdf (Page 8)
 

PostgreSQL database scalability — following multiple optimizations based on support cases from early V12 adopters, V12.1 doubles the recommended scalability limit of using PostgreSQL as a configuration database, and based on extensive V12.1 performance testing is now supported for backup servers protecting up to 10,000 machines with up to 1,000 concurrent tasks.

 

And thanks, while researching that I found a typo in the Whats New guide 🙂 Will make sure that it gets updated.

 

Best,

Fabian

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