Replication seeding from a backup on SOBR

Yes it is supported as I had the same link to post. Used it many times too.

I read it initially in point #4 in this post:

• What You Didn’t Know (or forgot) About Veeam Replication

I was testing in my lab and the backups and backup copies on my SOBR’s did not show up as possible sources for the seeding.   After I converted the SOBRs back to individual repositories, the backups on them showed up as possible sources.   Not sure if I am doing something wrong with the SOBRs not showing up as sources.

Hi, provided the job was finished and the repository scan was up to date I can’t see any reason why this would’ve been a problem. To confirm you created a new replication job, added the VMs you wished to replicate and then chose your source to be a backup repository instead of from production? Some screenshots may be helpful

Thanks.  I will have to convert everything back to SOBR’s and then retest.  I will try to grab screen shots at that point.

Hi @dmarkham - I think you misread point #4 from my post. I was indeed talking about a Repository and it not being able to be a SOBR, but it is the source repository a Replication job requires to store metadata. This is not talking about a source repository VMs are stored on you wanna use for Seeding. Besides not being able to use a SOBR to store Replica metada, if you didn’t have VMs at a DR site already to do Seeding or Mapping, you can create a Backup job using Veeam, then copy those Backups to a Repository at the DR site. But, that Repository CANNOT be a SOBR, as noted by ‘Creating Replica Seeds’, item #2 here. If you run a Backup Copy job to a DR site and use a SOBR for that Copy Job, you can indeed use Replica From Backup and use those Copy Job backups on the SOBR to Seed your Replica job VMs. It can be a bit confusing, but hope that helps clarify. Let us know if not.

Cheers!

dmarkham wrote:

I read it initially in point #4 in this post:

 

• What You Didn’t Know (or forgot) About Veeam Replication

I was testing in my lab and the backups and backup copies on my SOBR’s did not show up as possible sources for the seeding.   After I converted the SOBRs back to individual repositories, the backups on them showed up as possible sources.   Not sure if I am doing something wrong with the SOBRs not showing up as sources.

I have the same issues. I just setup a SOBR that has two NAS’s setup as capacity extents with data locality but can’t use that SOBR for seeding replication jobs.  v11a.  Haven’t figured that one out yet.

dloseke wrote:

dmarkham wrote:

I read it initially in point #4 in this post:

 

• What You Didn’t Know (or forgot) About Veeam Replication

I was testing in my lab and the backups and backup copies on my SOBR’s did not show up as possible sources for the seeding.   After I converted the SOBRs back to individual repositories, the backups on them showed up as possible sources.   Not sure if I am doing something wrong with the SOBRs not showing up as sources.

 

I have the same issues. I just setup a SOBR that has two NAS’s setup as capacity extents with data locality but can’t use that SOBR for seeding replication jobs.  v11a.  Haven’t figured that one out yet.

After rereading things here, “you must have backups of replicated VMs in a backup repository in the disaster recovery (DR) site”.  I don’t have a backup/copy repo at the DR site and was trying to seed from the SOBR at the primary site.  Not sure why this wouldn’t work though. This alludes that you can’t use a SOBR at the DR site (“You cannot copy backups to a scale-out backup repository in the DR site.”) but doesn’t say anything about using a SOBR at the primary site.

I can specify a standard repo at either the primary site or the recovery site.  The SOBR seems to be where the issue lies.  I was trying to avoid pulling replication data from the production machines and was hoping to pull it from the backup repo to avoid LONG snapshots. 

dloseke wrote:

dloseke wrote:

dmarkham wrote:

I read it initially in point #4 in this post:

 

• What You Didn’t Know (or forgot) About Veeam Replication

I was testing in my lab and the backups and backup copies on my SOBR’s did not show up as possible sources for the seeding.   After I converted the SOBRs back to individual repositories, the backups on them showed up as possible sources.   Not sure if I am doing something wrong with the SOBRs not showing up as sources.

 

I have the same issues. I just setup a SOBR that has two NAS’s setup as capacity extents with data locality but can’t use that SOBR for seeding replication jobs.  v11a.  Haven’t figured that one out yet.

 

After rereading things here, “you must have backups of replicated VMs in a backup repository in the disaster recovery (DR) site”.  I don’t have a backup/copy repo at the DR site and was trying to seed from the SOBR at the primary site.  Not sure why this wouldn’t work though. This alludes that you can’t use a SOBR at the DR site (“You cannot copy backups to a scale-out backup repository in the DR site.”) but doesn’t say anything about using a SOBR at the primary site.

I can specify a standard repo at either the primary site or the recovery site.  The SOBR seems to be where the issue lies.  I was trying to avoid pulling replication data from the production machines and was hoping to pull it from the backup repo to avoid LONG snapshots. 

Morning, Veeam doesn’t care about where the SOBR is (it doesn’t actually know, it’s a logical entity, nothing physical), it is strange that you’re also seeing this issue. Can you post some screenshots? Might help us double check if a wrong turn is being taken somewhere…

I’ve had a chat with the ever helpful @Mildur and he’s pointed out that actually, yep replica seeding isn’t supported with a SOBR yet, he sent over this helpful link: https://forums.veeam.com/veeam-backup-replication-f2/use-sobr-as-source-for-initial-seed-t70559.html

But you should still be able to change the backup source to a SOBR if I’m remembering correctly, then swap the source to production later, handy if you want a different RPO for your replicas vs your backups.

Great clarification here. Will be nice to see this added as an option.

Perfect….thanks.  I’ve added myself to the forum entry requesting this feature.  Fingers crossed for v12?

Lots of crosstalk here but it seems my original comment about NOT being able to use a backup or backup copy in a SOBR as a source for replication seed is confirmed.    I have tested both and confirmed.   I can provide screen shots if needed but seems like it is a known issue.  

@coolsport00

I am a bit confused by this statement in your post.

“you can indeed use Replica From Backup and use those Copy Job backups on the SOBR to Seed your Replica job VMs”

What do you mean by “Replica From Backup” ?    How is this different from a regular replication job and where do you configure it that allows you to use the backup or backup copy on a SOBR?

Never mind.  See it now under “Source” under the Virtual Machines tab when configuring the replication job.  You are correct, a bit confusing.  You can set up the replication job to use the backup on a SOBR as a source for the replication of VMs but cannot choose it as an option for initial seeding.