A slight confusion on applications, and sequencing..

[seapro220]

Hello all.
I've been using 6.x, now 6.5 for about a year. As most others did, I upgraded my licensing to the "+" enterprise editions and am starting to 'build out' my new environment - given the capabilities of what I can/should be able to do now. Some of the features, like using SharePoint/Exchange Explorers, UAIR, multiple Proxy servers, and the promise of WAN acceleration is really what tweaked me into making the move.
Given that, I'm trying to determine actually what should be done when, and how it's all going to be tied together. Here's my current environment - the connection at the main site has a 10M/10M link, and 20M/1M connection at the remote site.

main site - 6.5 and 7.0 veeam servers running. My normal 6.5 jobs (4 or 5) are running to my NAS and the 7.x jobs are running to a local data store. The 7.x server was created on a 'new' server and has been configured to mirror the 6.5 jobx - with the exception of the amount of days stored - due to limited local storage. Incremental jobs are copied via RoboCopy and vbk files are sneaker-net copied weekly - due to their sizes.
remote site - currently being built up with a vm environment and should have the 2nd server available to configure veeam 7 on it today.

needs or hopes in this configuration is as follows -
1. maintain local copies for quick restores if need be.
2. utilize, somehow the ability to backup to my remote site so i don't have to 'clog the pipe' with incremental backups daily and remove the sneaker-net process from my weekly chores.
3. configure the remote site so that whenever a backup is done, either in Exchange, Sharepoint, or SQL that I can verify the backups via the UAIR process.
4. Not maintain similar or duplicate jobs at both locations as this seems to be redundant.
5. be able to test/validate a DR solution at the remote site on a quarterly basis to provide a 'safety' net - if that's possible.

Based off of this, I know the following -

1. local copies of my V7 need to be 'pre-seeded' at the remote site. that's not an issue.
2. i need to install V7 at the remote site - again, not a problem.

my questions are - what's next?
1. does the main site have a proxy server - configured to point to the ip address at the remote site?
2. i've already configured a 'remote' repository and done a test job so i know the link process works - but just haven't pre-seeded the data-store with the current data yet.
3. how or what is configured next - the application group, or virtual lab?
4. what about the network addresses? obliviously their are different as i have different vmware virtual switches, but how to i make the servers - once i'm testing my DR environment - actually use the address i have them set to use (ie, my local network address schema)

any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated as the documentation i've seen so far just talks about all the features, but not that you need to do step1, then 2, etc to complete the configurations.

thanks in advance ...

mark

[veremin]

i need to install V7 at the remote site - again, not a problem.

Actually, you don’t have to have two VB&R instances (Production, DR), since everything can be successfully done by one server. The recommendation you’re talking here about (two VB&R servers, two proxy servers) is related to replication jobs, not to backup copy ones.

In general, new backup copy job with WAN accelerators specified at both ends should answer all requirements. Once the common backup jobs are done, it will copy backup data to remote location, reducing significantly the amount of data sent through the bandwidth (WAN Accelerators).

local copies of my V7 need to be 'pre-seeded' at the remote site. that's not an issue.

Of course, in order to avoid initial synchronization step you can seed backup copy job.

Though, be aware that files produced by backup copy jobs can’t be used as a source for SureBackup job. So, you will have to either verify required files before copying them offsite or create a “dummy job”, point it to resulting backup copy job files, and use this job later as a linking job in SureBackup.

Thanks.

[seapro220]

Ok - so I'm probably more confused now.
I thought that you'd need to have multiple proxy servers (1 at each site) in order to keep both enviroments in 'sync'. By 'in-sync' I'm referring to the backup jobs being 'mirrored' at both sides so that you had the same data at both locations - whether you needed that data for DR, or to 'spin-up' a job to verify the backup of a pictular backup job. I'd thought that the remote-proxy was configured, in conjunction with the primary so that you could replicate/copy the data between sites (also needed for the wan accelerator) whether you wanted to run once-daily jobs, or run the backup job several times during the day and replicate/copy that data to the remote site.

For sure backup - are you suggesting that I'll need to create another job (if so at the main site, or remote site) , with the servers that I want to spin-up for backup verification and point it's job data to where?

mark

[veremin]

I thought that you'd need to have multiple proxy servers (1 at each site) in order to keep both enviroments in 'sync'.

No, you don’t. Though, in case of accelerated backup copy job, you should specify one WAN Accelerator at each site (Production, DR).

Moreover, please be aware, Veeam Backup Copy Job won’t copy backup files as the whole, instead, it will synthetically create required new restore points in remote location from VM data in source backup repositories. So, in other words, it’s not about Backup Copy job direct copying backup files from source to target.

For sure backup - are you suggesting that I'll need to create another job (if so at the main site, or remote site) , with the servers that I want to spin-up for backup verification and point it's job data to where?

From my perspective, you will have to create a remote “dummy” job, map it to the files produced by backup copy job, and, then, create a remote SureBackup verification task, using the “dummy” job as a linking one.

Otherwise, you can deploy additional instance of VB&R for the solid verification purpose. The files produced by backup copy jobs can be imported to the console of this new server and, after that , you will be able to utilize SureBackup jobs, adding imported VMs to the application group.

Thanks.

[seapro220]

ok - i think the muddy water is clearing up now .. Let me see if I can reguritate this a bit ..

1. main site had VBR installed and working.
2. main site had WAN accelerator installed "on itself" and 1 installed at the remote site.
3. Job A runs at the main site. Do i need to modify the job, to include the 'copy' process or how does the job know 'how/what' to synthetically copy from the main site - to the remote site? If so, i presume that it will not need anything already seeded, but will create/copy the synthetic copies over to the remote site?

mark

[veremin]

1. main site had VBR installed and working.

1. Yes.

2. main site had WAN accelerator installed "on itself" and 1 installed at the remote site.

2. Yes, the role of WAN accelerator can be either assigned to default VB&R server or to any other Windows-based machine in your environment.

3. Job A runs at the main site. Do i need to modify the job, to include the 'copy' process or how does the job know 'how/what' to synthetically copy from the main site - to the remote site? If so, i presume that it will not need anything already seeded, but will create/copy the synthetic copies over to the remote site?

3. You should create a backup copy job and select individual VMs that you’ve already backed up (or the whole backup jobs) as a source for it. Thanks.

[y1008946]

Hi, we have Veeam installed on a physical server which is located onsite. We run nightly backups and save them to a repository on that server.

We also have a DR server which is located offsite. We have backup copy jobs setup to send the backups offsite to this server.

How can we run surebackup jobs on the server offsite?

Do we need to install Veeam on the offsite server and somehow import them?

Thanks

[Vitaliy S.]

Hi Daniel,

Generally we recommend verifying backup files before sending them to the offsite location and actually it is the recommended way of using SureBackup and backup copy jobs. If you cannot run this operation on site, then you may want to try following the workaround mentioned by Vladimir in one of the posts above.

Let me know if that helps!

[y1008946]

Thanks for your reply.

Is there anything which can be done through powershell?

I found this post but I am new to Veeam and unsure what to do. It sounds like they are trying to do exactly what we are trying to achieve. - http://forums.veeam.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=10238

What we are basically trying to achieve is a way to test offsite backups on the offsite server, to make sure there is nothing which is corrupted when transferring the backups offsite.

I found this post - http://forums.veeam.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=5875 (11th one down) which Gostev suggests "you always want to test and verify recoverability of your backups at location where you want them to be recoverable, not before you ship them there."

Thanks very much for any help

[Vitaliy S.]

Yes, you may want to try using PowerShell, but this would be a bit complicated. What I suggest as a workaround for this is creating any backup job on the backup server, then pointing/mapping it to the backup copy job files. But please do NOT run this backup job, just leave it there without a schedule.

Once you do this, backup copy job files should become visible in the SureBackup job wizard.

Hope this helps!

[y1008946]

Thanks.

Could we create the dummy backup job in the install of veeam on the offsite server?

We have had a go at a powershell script we are trying to use.

Code: Select all

$ibfOibs = (Get-VBRBackup -Name "Imported Backup Files").GetLastOibs()
Add-VSBApplicationGroup -Name "Test App Group" -RestorePoint $ibfOibs

But the it doesnt seem to like .GetLastOibs() in Veeam V7 R2

Thanks

[Vitaliy S.]

I do not have expertise in PowerShell but you should be able to do that via GUI using the offsite backup server. In this case you should also create a repository and run a rescan job to populate your offsite backup server with the backup copy job files.

[y1008946]

Ok thanks

On the offsite server we have installed veeam, in that veeam install we created a repository pointing to the location where the backup jobs are.

In history it has 'backup database resynchronise' and found the 10 backup files. Under backups and imported it lists the 10 backups.

Is there anything else we should do with this offsite install of veeam or is that correct?

Thank you

[Vitaliy S.]

Right now you need to create a dummy backup job and point them to these files (do not run the job). After that just configure your SureBackup jobs by adding your dummy backup job to their config. Hope this helps!

[Murigar]

Right now you need to create a dummy backup job and point them to these files (do not run the job). After that just configure your SureBackup jobs by adding your dummy backup job to their config. Hope this helps!

My apologies for resurrecting this old thread, but it is one that others point to.

I am following this methodology in VBR 8 and am getting:
"The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process."

The Backup copy jobs are running on the source side but not transferring. If I <Disable> the jobs it works fine.
Any thoughts?

[veremin]

Can you clarify your situation a little bit? You have both backup and backup copy jobs. Both are running on source side and you're willing to run SureBackup jobs against backup copy jobs, right?

[Murigar]

Yes, that is all correct.
My primary site generates the Backup and Backup Copy data. Backup Copy data is stored at repositories at my DR site.
I created the 'Dummy' jobs at the DR site so that the recovery points may be mapped. The SureBackup job at the DR site recognizes the recovery point, but returns that the file is locked.
If I stop the Backup Copy at the primary site, the job runs fine.

[veremin]

Then, what about adding simple script that connects to production backup server, checks whether backup copy jobs are sitting in the idle state and not actually running, disables them temporarily, runs surebackup jobs at DR site, and re-enables backup copy jobs afterwards?