HyperV Cluster, File Server - How to Backup with Veeam?

[rosenstand]

Hi

I'm hoping someone can help me out with an problem, I just ran into.

A new customer wants to have made backup of some virtual servers.
They are running two HyperV hosts, set up in an cluster, and on those are in total of 9 virtual machines.

I need to make backup of those 9 VM and copy them to my backup repository off site.
My Veeam server is also off site, connected to the customer by MPLS.

Question 1
- What would be the best setup?
To have the backup job running "On-host" or "Off-host" ???

Beside of the 9 VM running on the Cluster, the customer also have setup an file server.

The file server is setup as an file cluster, running directly on the two HyperV hosts.

Question 2
- Is there a way for me to make backup with Veeam of that?
Or do I need to make any changes for this to work?

Hoping someone can help me out with my questions here, so that the customer can have an function backup made by Veeam.

Thanks

Allan.

[Shestakov]

Hi Allan and welcome to the forums!
1) Both options work fine. Onsite would work faster if the host is highly-productive and not overloaded, otherwise, you can set a dedicated proxy and make off-host backups. You can use the basic backup job to make the actual backup and store it onsite and run a backup copy job to copy the backup files offsite.
2) Your infrastructure looks good. All data can be protected by Veeam B&R.
Thanks!

[rosenstand]

Hi Shestakov

Thanks for your reply.

I'm gonna go with an On-Host backup job then. It's not possible for me to set up an physical server more, so I have to run the backup jobs directly on the Hyper-V host.

I'm not sure how to setup Veeam to make backup of the File Cluster, there are running directly on the Hyper-V host.
Can you give me an idea of this?

Thanks

Allan

[Shestakov]

As far as I understood the file cluster is stored in one of the Hyper-V Hosts. Is that correct? Colud you specify what do you need to backup, roles or files?
Files on the hosts can be backed it up with File copy job. Thanks!

[Vitaliy S.]

I'm not sure how to setup Veeam to make backup of the File Cluster, there are running directly on the Hyper-V host.
Can you give me an idea of this?

You can give Veeam Endpoint Backup a try, if you want to preserve the configuration of your Hyper-V hosts or backup files that are located on these servers > VEB vs VB&R for a single server Hyper-V setup

[rosenstand]

Hi again

Maybe I'm not clear, or maybe I don't understand this correct.

The two physical servers are running failover cluster manager. In here there are several virtual machines, and one file server.


I know how to backup the virtual machines with B&R, but the file server are running directly on the two physical hosts, and by that, Veeam can't back it up as an virtual machine.

The file server has its one cluster storage

And the drive is mapped directly onto the host:


So how do I make backup of this drive, with Veeam B&R ??

I'm hoping this makes a bit more sense now.

Thanks

//Allan

[Vitaliy S.]

Roles cannot be backed up, here is an existing topic about that > File server cluster role

[rosenstand]

Roles cannot be backed up, here is an existing topic about that > File server cluster role

Thanks for your reply.

It then gives a bit more sense for me.
I will make sure to tell the customer, that the File Server role is not beeing backup with Veeam B&R, because its directly on the HyperV hosts.

When will people learn not to make File clusters??

//Allan

[Vitaliy S.]

Sure, glad to help! However, if you could try the suggestion above (using VEB Free) and then coming back with the results, that would be highly appreciated as well.

[rosenstand]

I'm trying to find out if the customer, want to try this out.
Otherwise I may need to change the File Server around to an Virtuel Server, and then being able to take a proper backup.

//Allan

[PTide]

Hi,

Otherwise I may need to change the File Server around to an Virtuel Server, and then being able to take a proper backup.

Please note in order to backup the content of your File Server storage you'll need to place your file storage on a virtual drive. Please refer to this guide:

Pass-through virtual disks and disks connected via in-guest iSCSI initiator are not supported, and are skipped from processing automatically. Network shares and mount points targeted to some 3rd party storage devices are also skipped as these volumes/disks are not visible in the VM configuration file

Thank you.

[rosenstand]

Hi,
Please note in order to backup the content of your File Server storage you'll need to place your file storage on a virtual drive. Please refer to this guide: Thank you.

Thanks for your feedback.

My plan is simple to create an new VM, and place this on the cluster storage like the other server.
And then migrate the data from the "File Server" onto the VM, as an simple folder copy, to keep the ACL in Windows.

Then backup won't be an problem, and to be honost. I can't see a reason for the customer to have this role directly on the HyperV host, instead of an VM. Except an licens for Windows.

//Allan