Just IT Things

When working with Veeam Recovery Orchestrator (VRO), you might occasionally run into situations where the system makes decisions that aren’t immediately intuitive. Recently, a partner approached us with a scenario that raised exactly that kind of question: How does VRO choose which backup copy to use when multiple copies exist? Let’s walk through the use case, the unexpected behavior, and what we learned from digging into it. The Scenario In this environment, VRO is running at the disaster recovery site and orchestrating a vSphere-to-vSphere restore plan . The plan uses the following steps: A backup-to-disk job writes backups to a local backup repository. Immediately afterward, two backup copy jobs  run in parallel to copy the backup data to two additional repositories — let’s call them Repository A  and Repository B . The restore plan is configured to use backup copies , as described in the VRO documentation. The goal is to use the restore points created by the backup copy jobs as the source for the recovery process. But something strange happens: VRO correctly uses a backup copy restore point, but it always selects the restore point stored on Repository A  — even though the customer wants VRO to use the copies on Repository B. So the question is: How does VRO decide which backup copy to use when multiple equally valid copies exist? Testing the Behavior To better understand the selection logic, I replicated the scenario in a lab: Two backup copy jobs were created. One copy job ran first, followed by the second job so that the second job would create the “most recent” backup chain. Initially, this worked as expected: the repository with the newer chain (Repository A in this test) was used. After reversing the job order, I expected VRO to pick Repository B instead — but surprisingly, VRO still selected Repository A . This suggests that VRO does not  make its decision solely based on job execution order or chain timestamps. So How Does VRO Choose? According to Alec King from Veeam: VRO does not consider the timestamp of the backup copy job. It selects based on the timestamp of the restore point itself. This is the key detail. All backup copies created from the same source backup job share the same restore point timestamp , even if they were copied at different times. Because of that, when multiple identical restore points exist across several repositories, VRO sees them as equally valid , and its selection may not reflect the user’s preference. In other words, the system has no inherent logic today to prioritize Repository A over Repository B or vice versa. This explains the “strange behavior” — VRO isn’t doing anything wrong; it simply has no mechanism yet to choose between duplicate restore points  from different locations. The Good News: Repository Selection Is Coming Alec also shared that repository selection logic already exists for Azure recovery locations , but not yet for VMware-to-VMware scenarios. https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/vro/userguide/cloud_location_backup_servers.html?ver=13 The Veeam team is actively working on adding repository selection for VMware environments  in an upcoming VRO release. While not fully confirmed, it’s on their roadmap and will directly address this use case. Is There a Workaround? Unfortunately, no reliable workaround exists today. Copying the backup again (e.g., a backup copy of a backup copy) won’t help because: VRO still checks the restore point timestamp — and that remains identical across all copies. The only long-term fix will be the upcoming repository selection feature. Conclusion If you’re running multiple backup copy jobs in VRO and relying on the “Use backup copies” option, be aware that: VRO selects restore points based on restore point timestamp , not on backup copy job details. Multiple identical restore points across repositories are considered equal. You currently cannot force VRO to prefer a specific repository. Veeam is actively working to add repository selection for VMware restore plans in a future release. Once available, this enhancement will give users precise control and eliminate the ambiguity seen in scenarios like this.

Hello World! Welcome to my very first blog post — and my very own website! I’ve actually been toying with the idea of writing blog posts for quite a while but never really followed through… until now. I always felt there were already thousands of blogs out there and that adding another one wouldn’t make much of a difference. I also had huge respect for my IT colleagues, many of whom are far deeper in the technical weeds than I am. But the fact that you’re reading this right now means something changed. One thing has remained true though: information — whether researched manually or powered by AI — is always based on sources. Blog posts are perfect platforms for sharing insights, documenting use cases or how-to's, and exploring troubleshooting steps. So if you don’t want to miss my journey as a “blogger,” feel free to check back regularly! But First: Who Am I? My name is Marvin Michalski . I’m from the beautiful city of Koblenz, and I’m a trained IT specialist in system integration. I’ve always had a passion for IT — probably because I spent way too many hours in front of a console as a kid. I started my apprenticeship in 2017 at a small local IT service provider in the area, and I was lucky enough to finish just before the pandemic hit in January 2020. As a consultant, I gradually specialized in virtualization, storage, and backup — back then mostly with VMware vSphere, DataCore SANsymphony, and Veeam Backup & Replication. In early 2023, I got the rare opportunity to work for the company whose software I had simply fallen in love with: Veeam Software. So as a complete newcomer, I began my journey as a Systems Engineer — full of doubts and uncertainty about whether I could live up to the challenge. And here I am now… What Topics Will I Cover on This Blog? Primarily technical content around virtualization, storage, and backup. Naturally, many posts will involve Veeam — simply because it’s both my passion and my job. But I’ll always try to remain objective and share my honest thoughts. Here’s the important disclaimer: All views and opinions expressed here are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer. Besides Veeam-related topics, I’ll write about anything else that comes to mind in the virtualization and storage world. I also try to create shorts and videos for YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram — so if you’re active there, feel free to check out my channels. You’ll find the links in the footer of this website. Outside of work, I enjoy staying active, spending time with friends, and getting absorbed in a good series or movie. Whenever I find the time, I squeeze in some gaming — and in summer, you’ll usually find me on my motorcycle. Thank you very much for reading, and I hope you’ll enjoy my posts. Things are about to get much more technical from here on out 😉