Hyper V Tape passthrough possible?
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Veeam says:
https://www.veeam.com/blog/tape-backup-best-practice-from-support-team.htmlYou will need a tape server that will perform most data transfer tasks during archiving to tape. Check the following prerequisites:
- This should be a physical machine or a VM connected through iSCSI, since direct pass-through is not supported.
To run it as a VM you have to be able to use iSCSI to your tape. Since that doesn't work in this case there is only the physical option left.
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@Donahue You're right. I saw this here: https://forums.starwindsoftware.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=4098 Free VSAN with a 30-day trial Starwind management console might be sufficient but this will cost your Hyper-V host an extra Server Standard OSE licence unless you're using Datacenter with it.
Edit
A cheap second-hand physical Windows server with the directly attached tape drive is another alternative as others here already suggested. I have one running for offsite Veeam tape backups of vSphere VMs.Saw your other reply. I'd simply run Veeam Console bare-metal on that server with the attached tape drive since you're not using it for anything else. It's the best practice too. Better have a Veeam backup target on another host or NAS box too.
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I've just installed on bare metal, but now I've run into an issue where backup tape jobs are not supported in my version of Veeam. I can backup files, but not VM's unless I upgrade to "enterprise" veeam
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@Donahue said in Hyper V Tape passthrough possible?:
I've just installed on bare metal, but now I've run into an issue where backup tape jobs are not supported in my version of Veeam. I can backup files, but not VM's unless I upgrade to "enterprise" veeam
Why wouldn't you simply select the existing Veeam backup folders/files and archive them to tape? Here is an excerpt from the official Veeam guide: "When a backup to tape job runs, it does not create new backups: it locates already existing backups and copies them from backup repository to tape. You need to set the source of the tape job: jobs and/or backup repositories."
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@taurex said in Hyper V Tape passthrough possible?:
@Donahue said in Hyper V Tape passthrough possible?:
I've just installed on bare metal, but now I've run into an issue where backup tape jobs are not supported in my version of Veeam. I can backup files, but not VM's unless I upgrade to "enterprise" veeam
Why wouldn't you simply select the existing Veeam backup folders/files and archive them to tape? Here is an excerpt from the official Veeam guide: "When a backup to tape job runs, it does not create new backups: it locates already existing backups and copies them from backup repository to tape. You need to set the source of the tape job: jobs and/or backup repositories."
What that is describing is the "backup to tape" feature, which requires the next license up from the one I currently have. For now I have settled on just backing up the actual files located in the storage repository. I think it's mostly a matter of how veeam sees the files. The method available to me copies them as standard files and I would probably have to do more work manually when I go to restore, because veeam might not know which files belong to which backup jobs. The other option, which requires the better license, implies that veeam will continue to be aware of what the files are, and when I needed to restore, veeam would know what to do and how to do it, and it would require less effort on my part.
I have not tested a restore from tape yet though, so I might still have a few details incorrect.
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You install something from Veeam on the host with the tape drive plugged in called "Veeam Remote Tape Access Service" and this allows Veeam on the VM to access the tape drive remotely. We have this running using the same setup you describe. Works fine and Veeam can see the tape drive from within the VM. No SAS pass-through.
