Home Server: Backup Infrastructure configuration

[cesthree]

Hello,

I have installed Veeam B&R v8 in my home server which is an all-in-one server:
-Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter w/ Hyper-V Role
-SuperMicro X10SLH-F
-Xeon E3-1230v3
-32GB Kingston ECC Unbuffered RAM
-LSI SAS 9211-8i
-Misc. SSD & HDD
-2 VMs "Production" w/ 2-4 more "Light" VMs being added, maybe.

Using the B&R v8 online documentation suggestion for a "Simple Deployment" I have installed B&R directly on the Hyper-V host; however, I have considered installing B&R in a VM on the same host.

Can someone help me to determine which set-up is ideal for my home server by choosing from the below options? I am more than willing to test; however, I would love to draw from experience, if you have any.
1. B&R installation location: On-host or VM?
2. Backup Proxie: On-host or VM?
3. Backup Repository: On-host or VM?

What I prefer to do:
1. Install B&R in VM keeping Backup Proxie role and MS SQL in VM
2. Add Hyper-V host (remember, on same machine)
3. Add Backup Repository on Hyper-V host (instead of attaching VHDX to VM)

Hopefully, with your suggestions/input, I will be able to find an ideal set-up for my home server that falls somewhere between best-practice, experience and what I want to do.

Thanks!

[PTide]

Hi,

1. B&R installation location: On-host or VM?

I'd install it onto host.

2. Backup Proxie: On-host or VM?

Not much options here - Backup Proxy requires hyper-v role installed. You cannot install nested hyper-v on a vm inside hyper-v, so you are bound to have an on-host proxy.

3. Backup Repository: On-host or VM?

Why to keep it inside a VM? Keep it on host and take a copy of your backups offsite occasionally. Of course, your repo should use some different storage than you production VMs are running on.

Thanks.

[cesthree]

PTide, your input is much appreciated. I am going to keep everything installed on-host.

I guess what I was thinking was that if I have B&R installed in a VM (along w/ SQL) that:
-updates/upgrades/patches and such could be easily rolled-back in a VM when compared to a physical machine
-best practice for Hyper-V is to only install the Hyper-V role on the host

I cannot afford any more hardware than I already have so my setup will have to be all-in-one with limited capacity. I suppose that until I can get 2+ hosts and a dedicated NAS/SAN that my setup is not going to be able to meet "best practices". I am fine with that--Veeam is working splendidly as-is.

Again, thanks for the help PTide!

[PTide]

-updates/upgrades/patches and such could be easily rolled-back in a VM when compared to a physical machine
-best practice for Hyper-V is to only install the Hyper-V role on the host

Sounds reasonable, probably you should stick to a VM installation of VBR, indeed. Also you might want to install veeam endpoint on your hyper-v host in order to be able to perform a bare-metal restore.

Thank you.

[vClintWyckoff]

In my lab I have 3 Hyper-V Hosts, 2 are part of a Failover Cluster and another is Standalone. I have Veeam installed on the Standalone host and run backups using on-host proxy mode without issue. If you were looking to create a 'separate' repository you could break apart a few of the HDD from the parent OS (c:\) and have a separate partition / raid group created with those HDD as your Veeam Repo. This would eliminate any performance hits against your production VMs during the backup window.

But then again, it is a home lab

Cheers!

[adrianIDC]

In my labs always install veeam B&R on VM Its more comfortable and better manageable .
I have only Veeam B & R installed in this virtual machine without another software will alter its operation.

[PTide]

Hi Adrian,

Well, if you are not planning to assign a repo role to VBR then VM installation is a good choice, no doubts. However, in case you plan to keep VBR+repo on the same machine then you probably should be more careful as it might create an extra load on host.

[adrianIDC]

Ok PTide but the repository do not have it in the same VM.

[cesthree]

Thanks to all for providing experiences and feedback! I've not migrated to a standalone VM for B&R, yet.

I have a new question about my configuration. If needed, I can create a new thread. Here goes:

One of my VMs is a "File Server" running Windows Server 2012 R2. I provide various file shares to users on my network. I am curious about the following scenario:

-First Veeam B&R nightly 'Incremental' backup (which includes only the one above VM)
---user connects to file share
---user creates file
---user deletes file
-Next Veeam B&R nightly 'Incremental' backup

Will Veeam allow me to recover the deleted file? Is there any chance the "deleted" file will be overwritten?

If not, can I use 'Shadow Copies' within the Windows Server 2012 R2 guest? How about a 3rd party "undelete" utility for network file shares?

Appreciate the help!

[vClintWyckoff]

If I'm understanding your scenario:

1.) Backup Runs and creates VBK or VIB depending on day of week / month.
2.) User creates file
3.) User deletes file
4.) Backup runs and creates VBK or VIB...

No, Veeam would not have record of the deleted file, it's not present during the backup job running - it never existed to us. You could use Shadow Copies to provide supplemental restore points for individual files through out the day. I just validated in my lab that this works fine on WS2012R2 even when using Application Aware Processing enabled. It is however, worth noting that Previous Versions / Shadow Copies are enabled for entire volumes, not just individual shares.

You could easily test / replicate this scenario in your environment to validate my findings.

[cesthree]

vClintWyckoff, thanks for the lightning-fast reply! Yes, your understanding of my scenario is accurate. I will test in my environment and report back my results.

The documentation and training videos provided by Veeam are top-notch--some of the best I have encountered. I am still absorbing how B&R works and the reason for my question about Shadow Copies is because of VSS, which seems to be called a lot of things by a lot of people (not Veeam, your descriptions are easy to follow).

So, the reason I asked about the above scenario is that since Veeam leverages VSS in the host and the guest to create VBK and VIB there might be some interference between the guest using VSS for Shadow Copies and Veeam using VSS for creating VBK or VIB--I don't want a backup error to occur because too many processes/services are using the VSS on a node, if that's even likely/possible.

At any rate, thanks for your help!

[Jabi]

Hello,

I am new to veeam backup and i do have a few question for whats best ...

We do have 3 Server ( Physical )
1 Domain Controller 3 Gigs of RAM and not so powerful
2 Hyper-V hosts wich form a 2 node cluster
1 DotHill Assured SAN ( VM Storage )

as mentioned the dc is not really powerful but it has a large extra raid 1 HDD ( 2 Terrabyte ), a Tape Drive and a RDX
i would like to save the backups on the Domain Controllers extra HDD and then perform ah copy from the backup to tape

so how should i install veeam ?
install it on the DC and use ah backup proxy ( vm insinde the cluster )

or should i install it as a vm and create the backup repository on the Domaincontrolers extra HDD ?

the Cluster Hosts a Terminal Server / SQL Server ( Production ) / Exchange / and a Scanserver
backups would be performed at night ...

i would rather not install veeam on the domain controller because of the SQL Database and the not so powerful CPU

any suggestions would be very great and helpful, thanks !

[Shestakov]

Hello Jabi and welcome to the forums!

I wouldn`t suggest installing VBR on the DC server, it`s better to install it on a dedicated machine. Ideally I would grant the proxy role to a physical machine to offload the backup processing from the Hyper-V host.
And yes, backup - to disk - to tape plan looks good.

Please read the topic for more info and ask additional questions if you have any. Thanks!

[Jabi]

Hello,

Thanks.

After reading this thread ...
i do not have any extra Hardware, also no budget
installing on the domain controller is not recommended ...
then my only joice is to install veeam B&R within the cluster as a highly available VM

creating the backup repository on the Domaincontroller would be no Problem ?
the dc make also a bare metal backup every morining to tape, so it would backup the veeam repository too

what do i do if the cluster breaks and i do not have access to the VM veeam b&r ? can i install it on a client and fetch the data from the repository wich is on the domain controller ?

[Shestakov]

I`ve got your concerns.

Both VBR and proxy can be virtual machines, let`s give it a try.
If you use DC hard drives as a backup repository and then backup it, yes, the data would be backed up twice. With which software do you protect the DC server, Veeam Endpoint?

what do i do if the cluster breaks and i do not have access to the VM veeam b&r ? can i install it on a client and fetch the data from the repository wich is on the domain controller?

What do you mean by if the cluster breaks?
I would install another copy of VBR on the DC just for the disaster scenario(if hosts data is lost) so you can rescan the repositories in the secondary VBR server and restore data from backup files.
Thanks!

[adrianIDC]

Best b & r not install on the same machine (either physical or virtual) to DC .

As you recommended, best to create a dedicated VM only for B&R.
The repository may be different : external USB HDD , NAS iSCSI volume , Cloud , Share folder .....

[vClintWyckoff]

@Jabi - Just wanted to clarify a couple of things and perhaps give you a few more options for your situation. As previously noted by my good friend Nikita...

I wouldn`t suggest installing VBR on the DC server, it`s better to install it on a dedicated machine. Ideally I would grant the proxy role to a physical machine to offload the backup processing from the Hyper-V host.

Alternatively, you should stand-up a single 2vCPU x 4GB VM in your HV cluster and install Veeam Backup & Replication. If you do not have hardware VSS available with the DotHill Veeam will leverage On-Host Proxy mode to backup your virtual machines. Then within your Veeam console add the Drive on your DC that is to be your Veeam Repository.

In regards to your Domain Controller setup, you have multiple DC's and are leveraging native Active Directory replication, correct? If so, when issues occur you never need to restore an entire DC and would just DC promo another machine into the domain, but then when you're doing backups you can backup the Virtualized DC and leave the physical alone and not have to muck with it.

When issues occur and you do not have access to your Veeam server, if it ever occurs, you can use the Extract utility to get out
http://helpcenter.veeam.com/backup/80/h ... ility.html

Please let us know if you have any other questions.