Best Practice - Backup / Replication networking

[cmb71]

Struggling to locate the "correct" answer to this within the official documentation.

I have a customer being moved to Veeam backup and they are also keen to implement replication of key servers from their HyperV cluster (Azure Stack HCI).

I have a new server being installed for backup and generally that server would be segregated onto its own backup VLAN etc to ensure an air gap between the main LAN and backup network.

Customer has a DR site, my questions are:-

- Should I place backup server in DR and have it act as the replication destination as well (currently this is how it was specced)
- Will Veeam replication work over a segregated VLAN or I need an extra NIC for the replication part so it has LAN line of sight (backup network access will be managed through the firewall)

Thanks

[david.domask]

Hi cmb71, welcome to the forums.

Just to confirm since your first question gives me pause, we're talking about VM replication where there is a "live" ready to go replica VM on the DR environment? Just your first question includes "act as the replication destination", which makes me wonder if you're discussing Backup Copy, which keeps a copy of the backup files on another repository. If you could clarify, would be great just to avoid confusion.

I ask because Veeam itself doesn't host the replicas, it just creates a replica from production virtualization environment onto the target virtualization environment, nothing specific is stored within Veeam itself except some metadata information.

As for the questions:

1. Placement of Veeam Server (VBR): With replicating VMs, there's a "push" and "pull" deployment loosely speaking. Push is where the VBR server is on the production side and it "pushes" the replicas to the DR side. Pull is the opposite where VBR is on the DR side. Pull is generally a good idea as in a real DR event, you don't need any extra steps as long as the Veeam server is running, just connect your VBR server and initiate a failover. This can be done in the "Push" configuration also, but it means that since VBR is on the Production side and the scenario is Production side goes down, you'll need to first spin up a VBR server on the DR side, restore the Veeam configuration from the Configuration Backup, and then proceed to start the failover operations.

2. Networking: This is mostly invisible for Veeam and the main point is just that VBR can reach the virtualization environments on both sites. I can't comment on any specifics, there are a few topics though discussing the considerations for such a configuration. Just ensure that the necessary ports are open and reachable and the rest is largely dependent on your comfort and preference as I understand it.