Best Practice regarding backup of VMs on HyperV

[JimSHF]

Hello

Support case #07051044; support said their policy prevents answering questions like this (how bizarre) hence me posting here.

I have Veeam installed on Server A.
I wish to backup Server B.

Server B is running Windows Server 2019DC, it has many shared folders and local documents, and it is also running the HyperV role. HyperV is hosting 10 VMs.

My question, on Server A should I create a single Windows Agent Backup backup job that backs up Server B, AND a Hyper-V backup. Or just one of the two backup types? I currently have both, but I notice that when the Windows Agent Backup runs, HyperV console shows the VMs being backed up anyway, so perhaps I'm doubling my backups unnecessarily?

Many thanks.



Jim
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[Mildur]

Hello Jim

Our support team is "fixing things". They don't provide implementation services or consulting.
You can always come to this forum for "Feature Requests", "How To" or "best practice" questions.

Please let me first say, Microsoft does not recommend to run any other role on a Hyper-V server.
In your use case, it makes protection of the domain controller and file share more complex. You should move both services into a VM.
And the HyperV host should be outside of your production domain to lower the risk of successful attacks.

HyperV is hosting 10 VMs.

Use a VM backup job with application aware processing.

Server B is running Windows Server 2019DC

Protect your DC database with Veeam Agent. Todo that, set up the agent job to only cover drive C, so you don't backup VM disks twice.

it has many shared folders and local documents

Make sure that the Shared Folders are not on the same volume as your VM disk files. Then you can add this volume to the Agent job.
If the Shared Folders are on the same volume as the VM disk files, you need to work with exclusions. It doesn't make sense to backup the VM disk files with the agent job.
Another option would be using file share backup jobs for the local documents and shared files.

Best,
Fabian

[JimSHF]

Thanks Fabian, very helpful, thank you. I will look at moving the shares and DC to separate VMs, I agree, it does make sense. It's a small business so they only have a single production server, that's why everything is crammed onto it.

My only concern with moving the fileshares into a VM is performance, especially as we are using Folder Redirection for My Documents (internet bandwidth is too low to be able to migrate users to OneDrive).

Thanks again for your guidance.


Jim