Hi jcalvetm,
> Virtual Fulls
You are correct, as per the Virtual Full User Guide page, Virtual Fulls are utilized when the source backup chain is Forever Forward Incremental. With your current set-up, the synthetic fulls made by the primary backup will be copied to tape instead of a Virtual Full being created. The purpose of a virtual full is to give a full backup for increments on tape to be linked to -- due to the nature of merging in Forever Forward Incremental chains, without periodic fulls being made on tape to link VIBs to, the backup chain on tape can potentially be "broken" due to the merging of the original backup files, resulting in increments on tape without a full backup to link to.
Virtual fulls solve this problem for Forever Forward Incremental by creating an adhoc full directly on tape -- with period fulls enable in the source job, Virtual Fulls are not required.
> As new backups appear timing issues
I see to recall this was a known issue on earlier versions (want to say v11 and possibly early v12 releases), however, the way tape jobs work means that on the next run, backups in the repository without a copy on tape will be queued for backup during the next session. If you're not seeing this on the current version (12.3.1.1139), please open a Support Case and allow Support a chance to review the job logs and confirm the behavior. Please share your case number once created, thanks!
> Virtual Fulls
You are correct, as per the Virtual Full User Guide page, Virtual Fulls are utilized when the source backup chain is Forever Forward Incremental. With your current set-up, the synthetic fulls made by the primary backup will be copied to tape instead of a Virtual Full being created. The purpose of a virtual full is to give a full backup for increments on tape to be linked to -- due to the nature of merging in Forever Forward Incremental chains, without periodic fulls being made on tape to link VIBs to, the backup chain on tape can potentially be "broken" due to the merging of the original backup files, resulting in increments on tape without a full backup to link to.
Virtual fulls solve this problem for Forever Forward Incremental by creating an adhoc full directly on tape -- with period fulls enable in the source job, Virtual Fulls are not required.
> As new backups appear timing issues
I see to recall this was a known issue on earlier versions (want to say v11 and possibly early v12 releases), however, the way tape jobs work means that on the next run, backups in the repository without a copy on tape will be queued for backup during the next session. If you're not seeing this on the current version (12.3.1.1139), please open a Support Case and allow Support a chance to review the job logs and confirm the behavior. Please share your case number once created, thanks!
Statistics: Posted by david.domask — May 12, 2025 2:28 pm