StarWind VTL Immutable?

StarWind VTL, VTL Free, VTL Appliance

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LeoJS
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Sep 16, 2021 3:29 pm

Thu Sep 16, 2021 3:43 pm

Hello all,

We have a customer using Veeam v10 backing up to StarWind VTL. They then send a copy to Azure. They want both the onsite and Azure copy to be immutable. Does StarWind VTL support immutability?

Veeam supports the immutability feature in v11 when using an Linux XFS repository, however the offsite copy to Azure we are told is NOT immutable since Microsoft Azure doesn't currently support immutability at the file level. AWS S3 has an object lock API that is per file which is what's required for Veeam to work properly, and any other object storage provider that had implemented that S3 object lock API should work (ex. Wasabi, or Cloudian).

When asking Veeam if StarWind could be used for immutable backup to Azure, the feedback was from their perspective it’s just a tape device. With Tape, they said immutability isn’t really a thing. There are WORM tapes for physical devices.

"VTL’s immutability on the back end would be a question for that vendor and their partners." <== So I ask, is there an immutability feature in StarWind VTL? And if so, if pushed to Azure would it still be immutable?

Hardening / air gapping like network segmentation, etc. is not good enough, they want immutability meaning the data is locked and unable to be deleted for a period of time.

Any feedback appreciated!

Thank you
yaroslav (staff)
Staff
Posts: 2279
Joined: Mon Nov 18, 2019 11:11 am

Fri Sep 17, 2021 10:45 am

Hi,

Tapes are not immutable themselves, but you can make them immutable by offloading them to Amazon
LeoJS
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Sep 16, 2021 3:29 pm

Fri Sep 17, 2021 1:03 pm

OK, to make sure I understand, StarWind VTL does not provide immutability, but rather the cloud target you land it on.

So if you use Amazon or a provider that supports locking it is immutable, but if you use it with a cloud provider that doesn't support the full S3 feature set and doesn't have file/object locking like Azure it is not immutable.

Sound correct?

Thank you for the reply
yaroslav (staff)
Staff
Posts: 2279
Joined: Mon Nov 18, 2019 11:11 am

Fri Sep 17, 2021 1:19 pm

Correct.
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