Configuring new VEEAM Backup Server for direct SAN access

[dogzilla]

Do you not think it's slightly dodgy to give your backup server full RW acess to all SAN volumes?

This sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.

Can someone please advise on a solution where I am running Veam on it's own dedicated backup server. I am connected into the ISCSI network. Do I need to use microsoft initator and mount all of the datastores as rw?

[Gostev]

This is no more or less risky than accidentally formatting VMFS datastores from vSphere Client. It is a matter of security, and not giving random people access to high privilege accounts.

Yes, that is correct. You may want to read up the corresponding section of sticky FAQ for more info on this. Thanks!

[albertwt]

So we'd better besafe by zoning the LUN as Read only then ?

[donkarnash]

Hi,
I have a question on configuring CLARIION with backup and recovery v5.01
so I have a physical server > connected to the SAN. This is the bkp server
I have ESXi servers > data stored on the SAN too
I have added a LUN to the bkp server and can see that as a drive,

I want to backup the data from the virtual guests running on the ESXi servers.

I want to know should I go to navisphere and add the LUN's that the ESXi servers see to the storage node of the backup server ?????

will that not corrupt the data ??

[1-0-1]

I have a Clarriion AX4-5i and as far as I can tell there is no provisioning of the LUNs in read only mode for a host. My question still remains weather the LUN must be viewable within Windows (which it cannot anyway read/write to as Windows cannot do anything with VMFS as far as I know) or if simple giving the windows veeam server access to the LUN is enough.

This all is a wee bit risky to test in a live enviroment ....

[Vitaliy S.]

So we'd better besafe by zoning the LUN as Read only then ?

That's correct. To be able to use vStorage API SAN mode it is sufficient to have read-only access to your LUNs.

[Vitaliy S.]

My question still remains weather the LUN must be viewable within Windows (which it cannot anyway read/write to as Windows cannot do anything with VMFS as far as I know) or if simple giving the windows veeam server access to the LUN is enough.

SAN LUNs must be viewable within Windows Disk Management snap-in, but you should NOT initialize those LUNs (assign any drive letters) etc.

[Vitaliy S.]

I want to know should I go to navisphere and add the LUN's that the ESXi servers see to the storage node of the backup server ?????

You should make LUNs that host your VMs visible to a backup server in Disk Management snap-in. If you follow the instructions from the first page of this topic, you will not corrupt VMFS data. Thanks!

[yuval14]

I wrote some short guide on iSCSI Performance:

How to improve iSCSI Performance
http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/yuva ... mance.aspx

[Vitaliy S.]

Thank you for sharing, much appreciated.

[banar]

Hi
for vmware5 and vstorage API, is it a same procedure ?
- veeem5 on physical server as backup server
- direct access to VMFS disk from backup server, rather as read only
- automount disable
Regards Pavel

[Vitaliy S.]

Hi Pavel, the procedure to run Veeam B&R server in direct SAN mode hasn't changed with vSphere 5. Thanks!

[avrham_g]

[merged]

Hi,

I've 2 esxi 5.0 and dell storage.
i've physical server connect to the iscsi storage and veeam backup install on it.
i exposed the LUN that the esxi work on to the physical server which is windows 2003 sp2 32BIT when i go to the computer management
i see 2 disks that are initialize (online) and 2 disk that aren't initialize (all 4 disks are the esxi LUN ) when i backup a VM machine that resides on the initialize disk that backup go through the iscsi but when i backup VM that aren't on the initialize disk the backup go through the LAN.
my question is do i need to initialize the disk or not?

[avrham_g]

in the attached picture there are disk 1,2,3,4.
all the disk are the esxi LUN's exposed to the veeam backup server.
you can see that in disk 1 and disk 3 the partition status is health and it have blue color,while on the other 2 disks
the partition status is unallocated.
when i try to backup VM's that seats on disk 1 and 3the backup going through the ISCSI.
when i backup VM's that seats on disk 2 and 4 the backup go through the lan with an error that he can't connect to the direct san.
what do i need to do to fix this issue?

Picture
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/59 ... al20ts.png

[foggy]

Make sure all your LUNs are presented the same way to the Veeam backup server. Maybe it's worth to contact your storage manufacturer to consult.