Azure BLOB in Veeam Backup & Replication

[Blacktronix]

Hello fellow Veeam administrators,

I was asked by a customer if it is possible to use VEEAM B&R directly with Microsoft Azure Storage... not StorSimple nor Veeam Cloud Connect... just simply the Azure Storage Blob...

Has anyone tried this yet or is it even possible?

Best Regards

[PTide]

Hi,

If somehow you manage to present Azure Storage as a drive/folder to any of your machines then you can use it as a repo. As far as I know that's not possible. The only realistic option in my opinion would be to attach a VHD being kept in storage to an existing azure VM and use that machine as a repo.

[dellock6]

There are different solutions to mount Azure Blob (and many other cloud storage solutions...) as a local drive in a system, but I would be REALLY careful on this. The way those disk drivers are designed is to be optimized for a multitude of small files like a regular file system. Veeam backups are basically, from a file system point of view, a small amount of very large files.
This creates issues to those disk drivers because their local cache running in memory is really limited, and because of this they always have to flush the content and read again so many times during a backup. The problem then is that this flush/reload needs to happen over the internet connection...

By the way, this is one of the reasons for Veeam dismissing the Cloud Edition, it was using such a technology and was able to scale to really few VMs. Cloud Connect was exactly designed, among other reasons, to overcome these limits.

[quantum-it]

Is anyone familiar with using MS Azure as a backup target? We have a small environment (6-10 VMs) totaling about 150GB in backup space, so using 1TB of just raw cloud storage would seem to be a solid fit, but I wanted to make sure that there aren't any gotchas if I use just a raw block/blob of Azure storage for as my Veeam target, if there are any gotchas I should be looking for?

We have plenty of bandwidth at my location, so that's not going to be a bottleneck.

[veremin]

We don't support Azure blob storage natively. So, instead of blob you can use either Azure VM virtual disks or check our SPs database and find the one suiting your needs best. Thanks.

[btmaus]

Hi all,

Just looking into this at the moment. What options do I have to store my Veeam GFS backup data in Azure? Is Blob supported somehow, or can I use Veeam Cloud Connect, any documentation around for that?

Cheers

[nielsengelen]

Currently we don't support Blob storage however this has been announced to come in v10 with the archive tier. Currently you can create a machine within Azure and send data there but not to Blob storage. For more info in regards to v10 have a look at https://go.veeam.com/v10

[RRouch]

Everyone,

Does anyone know if creating a backup repository in Azure Blob Storage or utilizing another method to back up to blobs in Azure was included in the Backup & Replication v9.5 U3 update? Or is this still planned for v10?

Thanks!
Randy R. Rouch
Information Technology Consultant

[Mike Resseler]

Hi Randy,

This is still planned for the future. I cannot give you a timeline. As we like to say at Veeam, it is ready when it is ready

PS: Welcome to the forums!

Cheers
Mike

[DANCHUFT]

Hi,

Back in May 2017 there was a news item around Veeam and Microsoft extending the storage alliance to deliver "Unprecedented Availability for the Always On Cloud".

https://www.veeam.com/news/veeam-and-mi ... cloud.html

Part of the announcement, referring to the upcoming V10 release (which I know will be reached via increments to v9.5, u4, u5 etc) mentioned a new feature which was:

Native Support for Cloud Object Storage (Azure Blob) in NEW Veeam Availability Suite v10

Veeam announced a new Scale Out Backup Repository (SOBR) support for cloud object storage as an Archive Tier extent. This new functionality, arriving with Veeam Availability Suite v10, enables customers to archive Veeam backups to Azure Blob storage. This native support helps customers to leverage Azure to reduce long-term data archival, retention and compliance costs.

Are there any further updates on when the native support for Azure Blob will be made available?

Thanks

Dan.

[veremin]

The plans to bring support for Azure Blob storage are still there, but we cannot provide you with any time-frame at the moment.

[DANCHUFT]

Ok thanks v.Eremin, so at present it is either Veeam CloudConnect or an Azure VM with the Backup Repository role on it?

[dellock6]

Hi Dan,
you are correct, these are the available options today to consume Azure storage (supposing you are running Cloud Connect in Azure VMs).

Luca

[m.novelli]

Hi guys, the new Archive Tier available in v10 will require a Veeam Standard license or an Enterprise license?

Ciao,

Marco

[veremin]

Unfortunately, we cannot comment on licensing requirements for yet-to-be-delivered features. Thanks.

[dimaslan]

So,

To understand, let's say we need to send archival backups to an Azure VM with Veeam.
We have monthly backups we will be using FastSCP to copy over and we want to create new Backup Copy Jobs for monthlies and yearlies that also go to Blob storage in Azure.
What would be the way to go?
I know the Azure VM will need to be assigned with "normal" storage for the OS, but could we then attach a ~10 TB drive of Blob storage to use as a repository? Does it also need to have non-blob storage as well?

Thank you.

[ShanGan]

Hi Dan,
you are correct, these are the available options today to consume Azure storage (supposing you are running Cloud Connect in Azure VMs).

Luca

Hi Luca,

Just want to know if what I think is a good workaround to use Azure Blob without much messing around with Azure VM or Cloud connect.

If we create a Backup Copy job with GFS enabled and target it to the scale-out-repository which has the Azure Blob at the Capacity Tier. Then I also make the Capacity Tier to move backup files older than 0 days.

Which I presume with this method the initial source jobs copy will be pushed to Azure blob immediately (well once it does the 4 hour scan)

Is my thinking is correct ?

Shan

[veremin]

Correct, GFS files will be moved to Capacity Tier.

However, .vbk and dependent .vibs that are part of simple rotation scheme will not be offloaded to Capacity Tier, as those files get actively transformed (see this section of our User Guide).

Thanks!

[sc211166]

In a configuration with the backup server on Azure that needs to backup azure VMs what is the recommended storage configuration ?
We're planning to use azure's blob storage as scale out repository but wonder if a blob storage can also be used as primary repository or if managed storage must be used

[veremin]

if a blob storage can also be used as primary repository

No, it cannot.

Or if managed storage must be used

Correct.

Thanks!