On-site BDR Target with Wasabi Cloud question

[dhayes16]

Hello...I hope everyone is well. We have a few smaller customers that we would like to over an option for backups using Veeam. The plan would be to backup to an onsite target and replicate to Wasabi and utilize S3 Object lock for immutability. Note that this might go against the design philosophy of Veeam with Object storage but the Wasabi storage would be for emergency use in the event of a fire, etc so the retention would be about the Wasabi implied minimum limit of 30 days. It would NOT be used for long term archival storage and would only be used in a case of last resort (like we currently do with our Veeam Cloud Connect partner for larger sites).

So we want the on-prem device to have longer retention. Again since these are smaller customers who do not have huge budgets we were thinking of dropping in a dedicated Linux Hardened Repo and then replicating it to Wasabi. I believe this would work but would it be considered redundant to have immutability both on-prem as well as Wasabi? Does this affect any configuration concerns on the Veeam side (Retension, etc)? Any downsides?

I really want to avoid a NAS at this point since the cost of a NAS is basically the same as a Linux hardened repo. Perhaps re-think that?

Again these are smaller sites with 1 or 2 servers...Some physical and some virtual. So the question also comes up as to where to load the VBR instance. Likely virtual on the servers or a dedicated windows 10 box, etc...These sites do not have the budget for a full DR solution with replication, etc so a dedicated server with a windows server license and the resources to spin up VM's is out.

Since Veeam is so versatile as to how it can be deployed I would like to come up with a "cookie cutter" solution for these small sites but I am having a mental block on the best way to achieve this goal. We have many customers that fall into this category so we can push a lot of these.

Maybe something like a low end PHYSICAL Dell Mini computer with 8GB/256GB SSD running Windows 10 running the VBR paired with a PHYSICAL Linux Hardened Repo (assuming the redundancy question above is not a concern).

OR, perhaps don't bother with a Linux Repo at all in this situation and put in one device that is capable of running a windows OS with ReFS and a ton of storage and push to Wasabi. I know there are refurb servers out there that would fit the bill here. Just trying to avoid the Microsoft tax of a server license. Would a windows 10 instance support ReFs for the repo and is it even recommended? I know...penny pinching here but just want to know the limits.

Thanks for any input!
Dave

[HannesK]

Hello,

Note that this might go against the design philosophy of Veeam with Object storage

3-2-1 is met, all fine

So we want the on-prem device to have longer retention.

this will work with V12 with a backup copy job to object storage (Wasabi). In V11, there is the "copy" option with capacity tier. That means, retention is identical on-prem and in object storage.

So the question also comes up as to where to load the VBR instance

you as service provider could host it in your place. even agents might be an option. Then on-prem Linux repo and backup copy job / capacity tier in Wasabi. No Windows needed at the customer site.

Dell Mini computer with 8GB

please check system requirements... backup server + proxy + repository + operating system... 8GB is not really much.

Would a windows 10 instance support ReFs for the repo and is it even recommended?

normal windows 10 works with REFS, but cannot format it (server needed to format). Windows 10 for workstations has REFS support. I also remember a Windows Server essentials. From Veeam side, it does not really matter for such small scale, as long as there is enough CPU & RAM (8GB probably not enough).

Best regards,
Hannes

[dhayes16]

Thanks Hannes.

We can wait out V12 to accomplish the retention as planned. We will just configure the copy jobs as you mentioned and once V12 ships we can reassess.

Interesting point on the remote VBR setup at our shop. We have just always loaded it locally at the customer location. We will investigate that option.

16GB of RAM is an option on those desktop computers but the CPU cores are limited on the desktop intel processors (Intel I5 has 6C/6T) so the CPU hardware requirements might a limitation if this device will be the backup server as well as the Veeam Backup and replication console. Maybe? I guess back to the drawing board there. Likely surebackup is out with this plan for the virtual envirornments with this configuration unless we load the lab on the on-prem hypervisor.

I would really like to use a Linux Repo to leverage XFS for block cloning and avoid a NAS as the target. Maybe I am being short sighted there since the NAS can be connected via ISCSI and formatted ReFS from the windows server itself. We can then accomplish immutability via Wasabi or AWS, etc. Basically drop in a NAS with enough storage, connect it to the server via ISCSI, load VBR in a VM and back it up to the NAS and push to object in the cloud. But I just like the idea of having the Repo off domain on its own world and an ISCSI connected NAS would not accomplish this. A bad actor taking over the server can easily wipe the ISCSI NAS.

For a couple smaller sites we have deployed a HP Z440 as a linux repo and it really works very well.

We just want to keep it simple especially for these smaller sites.

Again, thanks!
Dave

[HannesK]

Hello,

since the NAS can be connected via ISCSI and formatted ReFS from the windows server itself

unsupported by Microsoft and Veeam, if it's not on the Windows Server Catalog List. So please be aware (looks like it usually works, because many customer do that, but still unsupported)

Best regards,
Hannes