Guidance needed for backup plan with S3 storage

[jadonr]

I have the Veeam software installed on my Windows Server which is also the host my raid configuration of backup drives. This means that it will be the local repository for my data. I just added Backblaze B2 as a backup repository and then added both as a Scale Out Repository. I notice that I'm unable to choose the B2 location while it's an extent of the Scale out repository. I suppose this makes sense. Note that I am only backing up 3-4 machines here.

So my question is this. If my raid drives were to fail, I presume the Scale Out repository would be smart enough to continue the backups of the agents to the B2 repository. However, if the entire server which runs the B&R software were to fail, the agents installed on the workstations would be unable to backup entirely. This would mean that I would have to first rebuild my server before I would be able to continue hosting backups. It seems that it would be a good idea to at least have a clone of the server's system drive for quicker recovery. Is this the best way to protect my data? Also what advantage is there to using the Scale Out Repo as apposed to creating a backup copy job that runs on a frequent schedule to copy the backups to the B2 cloud location?

[Mildur]

There will be no direct backup to s3 storage.
If your raid drives (performance tier) are failling, backups will not be going directly to S3 (capacity tier).
Restore will be possible if your Raid is failed.

If B2 is a S3 Storage, Backup Copy Jobs are not possible. S3 storage must be configured in a SOBR (Scale out Backup Repo) and you will need to buy at least Veeam Enterprise License

Some way to protect your backup Server:
- Configuration Backup (not possible to SOBR or S3)
- Veeam Agent Backup of your System Disk to a location which is available after a crash of the backup server

If I have a failure of my veeam server, i will go this way:
1. repair the hardware/disks
2. reinstall the server OS
3. reinstall Veeam
4. Import Configuration Backup
5. being happy that my backup job configuration is back

You can install Veeam and connect to the S3 Storage without any license todo a restore of all your vms.

[jadonr]

Good advice and thanks for the additional information about what is possible. Is there any way to export the Configuration Backup as a local file that I can store somewhere else than on my server?

[Mildur]

You can create a second backup Repo on your local raid volume. To a different path, not the same as your SOBR extend.
This can be configured as a target for configuration backup.
https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=100

[jadonr]

I see the BCO file is also stored locally. I presume I could also simply copy this file to a USB drive and then restore it after re-installing Veeam?

[Mildur]

you can create a backup repo on your usb drive and let Veeam do the rest. Exporting the configbackup daily to your usb stick.

[jadonr]

And to confirm, does Veeam B&R need to to be installed to restore at a workstation agent from my S3 backup?

[Mildur]

Yes, you will need to have a fully installed vbr server for that.
Community Edition is sufficient to connect to the s3 storage to restore the vms which are alresdy in the s3 storage.

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=100

[jadonr]

Ok, thanks. Wasn't sure if a workstation agent can look past the Veeam server and go directly to S3. Sound like it can't.

[Mildur]

It doesnˋt need to be your previous backup hardware. You can use a windows 10 workstation for such a scenario if your backup server is down simply install VBR on a workstation, connect to s3 bucket and restore the vms to the hypervisor

Veeam Agent cannot connect to s3 storage. This is a feature of the vbr server.
And backup data is unreadable in the s3 object storage for us humans.

[jadonr]

Appreciate the extra clarification.