I have some XCP-NG / Orchestra-related backup questions, and apparently my google skills are terrible, as I can only find answers that are years out of date…
What is everyone doing to back up their backups off-site if cloud is not an option? I plan on having on-site replication to a cold spare in a different part of the building, but I still need to store a copy of the replicated VM files off-site. I’m considering backing up to either external or removable disks and having a vaulting company swap them out weekly, but I’m also being told “disk is old technology” and I should be using tape (LTO6 or LTO7 are “new enough”).
Also, is Veeam compatible with XCP-NG? The only result I get is that it isn’t, and they’re working on it, but that’s a few years old. I asked their support but haven’t heard anything.
@2Old4This Started to research this but got distracted but try using Veeam’s Linux backup for bare metal since XCP-NG is Linux. It should backup your host and VMs. I will contact my Veeam rep and follow up on the fourm.
Landing backups on FreeNAS/TrueNAS via a NFS share using the Xen Orchestra Delta Backups and the having FreeNAS/TrueNAS replicate off site using ZFS Replication to another FreeNAS/TrueNAS. But you could also use what ever bare metal backup utility you wanted in each VM as well.
Off-site replication to a cold/warm/hot spare server is a more distant “phase 2” plan. For now I need to investigate off-site vaulting of the data–either disks or tapes that would be stored with a company like Iron Mountain and swapped out each week.
Basically the argument with my bosses boils down to D2D2T vs D2D2D. I think D2D2D is better than tape, but the IT director scoffs at storing disks off-site.
So if I MUST use tape, I need a solution to get my (Orchestra) backups from my XCP host to the tape device. If Orchestra cannot recognize a tape device as a viable backup target, I’d have to go with another product like Veeam, correct? But then the question becomes “does Veeam recognize XCP-NG as a viable source?”
Funny that someone is telling you disk is old technology… I had cassette tape storage long before I ever got a floppy drive which was long before a spinning hard drive was common. And LTO goes way back. But LTO has been proven to be reliable, just kind of expensive, especially if you have a lot of data to backup. You get into tape changer machines, they jam somewhat often, and those drives with the changers run typical enterprise prices
Also, is LTO7 something you want use? Getting a little old now so the only reason I would consider it would be price or compatibility, a lot of video production is stuck at LTO7, but LTO9 would be better due to speed and density. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_Tape-Open
Just an oddity, I had a used LTO1 back many years ago that I was using for personal backups at home, it was a neat format back then.
It was a struggle to get LTO7 approved. At first I was told to get an LTO5 machine off ebay.
I have an ancient disk autoloader with LTO 3 tapes (400/800G capacity) in a cabinet that I didn’t tell them about, for fear they would try to make me use it.