Hyper-v Cluster - Direct SAN Backup

[L33T]

Hi,

I have a cluster of three hosts utilising csv volumes via a nimble iscsi san. I also have a single veeam backup host that has local storage for backups and this replicates out to a DR cluster at another location. I`d like to get the veeam host talking directly to the SAN to perform backups from either the volumes themselves or a snapshot of those csv volumes. Can anyone advise on the setup for this? Is it just a case of getting some iscsi connectivity on the veeam host and setting up the backup job to backup from that snapshot?

Sorry to sound vague, i`m not sure how this operates with a Hyper-v Cluster vs a standalone volume.

Cheers,

[Mike Resseler]

Hi L33T,

I am assuming that you are looking after backup from a storage snapshot which is a VMware only feature. Hyper-V (What version are you using?) is a bit different and therefore you need to work with offhost proxies

The storage vendor (Nimble) needs to provide a Hardware VSS Snapshot Provider that supports transportable shadow copies to do off-host backups. See here: https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... tml?ver=95

Hope it helps
Mike

[L33T]

Hi,

I have the provider installed and setup in veeam, all volumes are set to that at the moment. We have a 2012 R2 cluster, what would be required to backup from a snapshot on that?

Cheers,

[Mike Resseler]

You must have an off-host proxy. https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... tml?ver=95

[L33T]

Hi,

As we only have one veeam host which carries all roles for veeam would this not be suitable as the offsite proxy?

[BartP]

Hey L33t,

A simple deployment is perfectly capable to performing as off host backup proxy.
There is not much i can add however, since Mike has given all the answers you need to set one up.
All information is in the links. If you run into problems however, feel free to post em 'ere

[L33T]

Ok that`s great, thanks BartP. I`m pretty sure the spec of my current veeam host will handle off-host proxy role and storage, means i don`t need to get so many 10gb nic`s etc...

I presume i`ll need a enterprise plus license to do snapshots with my SAN?

[BartP]

Hyper-V can't make use of the Storage Snapshot feature unfortunately.

[stevenm]

Hi L33t.

I haven't dealt with the Nimble's for doing this but with HPE MSA's they do leverage the SAN to create snapshot with HyperV and Offhost proxies fine and you dont need any special licence.
In Summary make sure your Veeam server is on the iscsi network and data network.
That it can ping the nimble interfaces and routing is all good.
That the nimble volumes are mapped to the Veeam server as read only and not on LUN0 - check with your vss provider doco if it specifies a different volume.
Automount is disabled for new volumes on Veeam server.
Increase the offhost proxy concurrent tasks.
Check the off host proxy can see the volume under backup proxies.
Make sure jobs are using that offhost proxy
Make sure each host under backup infrastructure for manage volumes has the hardware vss provider selected for the CSV

[jochot]

Depending on your HW VSS, you'll need to specify the Account using it.
I just did the same for a DataCore Storage and know that it isn't that easy if you haven't done it before.
This is the instructions I used, on the veeam side you can use the same for you, just ignore the DataCore stuff (or adapt them to your Storage).
http://www.v-strange.de/index.php/veeam ... ns-learned

[collinp]

The veeam documentation is pretty straight forward on how to do this. I’ve done it with netapp before by installing the storage vendors hardware vss provider on the hyperv hosts and zoning in the proxy server.

I just never understood why you would want to do this. We back up almost 1000 vm’s using software vss. Most hyper-v hosts with modern processors have excess processing to perform the snapshot. I also never wanted to manage the free space required on the San in order to perform the vss hardware snapshots and to worry about deleting snapshots that don’t get cleaned up automatically.

Now we are on to smb and don’t have to worry about this.