This is an archive version of the document. To get the most up-to-date information, see the current version.

Switching to Seal Mode

Veeam Backup & Replication allows you to put an object storage repository into Seal mode.

Sealing up object storage gives you the ability to gradually remove data located in such storage by applying a retention policy. You can use this feature to gracefully stop using some of your object storage as backup repositories and exclude them from the scale-out backup repository configuration altogether.

When sealing up an object storage, Veeam Backup & Replication restricts any further data transfer to the storage and allows only operations listed in Seal Mode Limitations.

All restore points that exceed the specified retention period will be continuously removed from the sealed object storage, as described in Retention Policy.

Consider the following:

An object storage repository can be put into seal mode only if it is a member of the scale-out backup repository.

If an object storage repository was not added as part of any of your scale-out backup repositories, the Seal Extent option will not be available.

An object storage repository can be put into both maintenance and seal modes at the same time.

When both modes are applied, limitations of maintenance mode override limitations of seal mode.

To put an object storage repository into seal mode, do the following:

Open the Backup Infrastructure view.
In the inventory pane, select the Backup Repositories node.
In the working area, select an object storage repository and click Seal Extent on the ribbon or right-click an object storage repository and select Seal extent.

To remove the object storage repository from seal mode, select the extent and click Sealed on the ribbon or right-click the extent and select Sealed.

Seal Mode Limitations

The following table lists limitations that are imposed right after the object storage repository is put into seal mode.

Activity	Restriction Level
Moving backups to object storage	Restricted
Copying backups to object storage	Restricted
Moving backups to capacity tier (manual operation)	Restricted
Downloading data from object storage	Allowed
Copying backups to performance tier (manual operation)	Allowed
Restoring data from backup files residing on object storage	Allowed
Exporting as .VBK file from backup files residing on object storage	Allowed
Removing backups from configuration	Allowed
Retention policies	Allowed
Removing backups or VMs created with the per-machine method	Allowed
Removing a VM from a single storage	Allowed
Scale-out backup repository rescan	Allowed
Evacuating backups	Allowed