Backup VM with vSAN (Virtual FC, Virtual SAN)

[Nail.Mukhametshin]

Hi everyone!

While migration from Windows Server 2012 R2 to Windows Server 2016 we have find a bug where VM with Virtual SAN on Windows Server 2012 R2 backup correctly, but after migration to Windows Server 2016 and upgrading config to 8.0 backup has been stopped with error.

We have a support request 02269654 where we tied:
1. Change snapshot type to production and try to take snapshot.
That do not worked before on Windows Server 2012 R2 because of Virtual SAN adapters, and that do not worked in Windows Server 2016 too.
2. Try to backup VM with Windows Backup.
Backup with Windows Backup worked in Windows Server 2012 R2 and worked in Windows Server 2016 too.
3.Try to turn off Guest Processing and enable Hyper-V Quiescence.
We do not use Guest Processing at all, and we can not use Hyper-V Quiescence because of our feature request not completed: microsoft-hyper-v-f25/feature-request-i ... 38197.html

After all of this support tied to say that our scenario is not supported because of:

[For Microsoft Hyper-V 2016 Server VMs] Processing of VMs with pass-through virtual disks and disks connected via in-guest iSCSI initiator is not supported. Veeam Backup & Replication cannot create checkpoints for such VMs.

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... tml?ver=95

But we do not use pass-through or in-guest iSCSI initiator. We use this: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/lib ... s.11).aspx.

Please help to understand you have stopped support of backing up VMs with vSAN or support make a wrong decision? If you stopped this support where you have write about this?

[foggy]

Hi Nail, to back up VMs running on Hyper-V Server 2016, Veeam B&R uses production checkpoints. If you are not able to create the checkpoint of a VM manually (because of virtual FC disks), backup will not be possible as well.

[Nail.Mukhametshin]

Foggy, on Windows Server 2012 R2 I'm too can't create checkpoint via Hyper-V GUI, but VM was backed up when works on Windows Server 2012 R2. When I'm taking VSS copy with vssadmin of VM with vSAN Hyper-V creates his own checkpoint and Windows Server Backup works fine.

Let's try dig deeper =)

I don't believe that you can't do that can do Windows Server Backup.

[foggy]

Foggy, on Windows Server 2012 R2 I'm too can't create checkpoint via Hyper-V GUI, but VM was backed up when works on Windows Server 2012 R2.

To backup VMs running on earlier hypervisor versions, Veeam B&R doesn't use production checkpoints, so the backup is possible.

I don't believe that you can't do that can do Windows Server Backup.

This is possible since two products act differently, using different technologies.

[Nail.Mukhametshin]

Seems that this will be fixed in next update for 9.5. Waiting for public release =)