Migration With Some Special Requirements

[Khue]

Currently, I am using Veeam 7 to backup a large file server on a standalone ESXi server. The file server is about 2 terabytes and it is a VM in the ESXi host. The Veeam B&R server sits on the same ESXi host and has a large disk attached to it for backup purposes. The disk is about 4 terabytes which allows us to keep about 14 days with of backups (1 full and 13 incrementals). I need to get the fulls to long term storage (LTO5). The LTO5 drive is located in our primary data center across a large WAN pipe. It is attached to dual proc (six cores each) stand alone Windows Server 2008 R2 server. It does not have enough space to store anymore than 1 full backup of the file server. Ideally I would like to keep the full and 13 incrementals backed up on the existing Veeam server because it has the space and only send the full over to the data center server once a week to go to tape. This creates 2 separate issues to tackle and I am rather new to Veeam (although I did get it setup originally without a problem, software is excellent so far).

• Migrate Veeam to Data Center stand alone server
• Modify existing backup of the file server for desired results

The migration seems pretty straight forward. I believe this is the appropriate order of operations:

1. Backup existing Veeam database (MSSQL Standard install)
2. Restore existing Veeam database to data center stand alone server (MSSQL Standard install already present)
3. Install Veeam B&R to data center stand alone server
4. Import existing configuration to the data center Veeam server (new install).

At this point, this is where I am a little lost at where I should go from here. It seems to me, that I have to somehow change the original Veeam server (left on the ESXi stand alone server) to be simply a proxy with a repository (is this the correct terminology?). I still want to keep the full and 13 incrementals local to that server. I don't want to have to restore across the WAN every time I need to recover a file. Is this configuration possible? How would I go about doing this? I think once I understand this part, changing the job and creating a copy job to move the full once a week should be pretty straight forward.

For those of you wondering, the data center Veeam server will be our new backup product (supplanting our existing solution) and centralizing it to the data center gives it better access to our vCenter/vSphere infrastructure once we suss out licensing and purchase. The data center Veeam server also hosts a vCenter install that services 6 ESXi hosts along with 100 or so virtual machines.

[foggy]

[*] Migrate Veeam to Data Center stand alone server

The migration is even easier than you have described: you just need to export your current Veeam B&R configuration and then import it into the newly installed Veeam B&R instance in your primary datacenter (no need to backup database separately).

It seems to me, that I have to somehow change the original Veeam server (left on the ESXi stand alone server) to be simply a proxy with a repository (is this the correct terminology?).

After uninstalling Veeam B&R from this server, just add it as a proxy into the new installation in your primary datacenter and assign a repository role to it.

I think once I understand this part, changing the job and creating a copy job to move the full once a week should be pretty straight forward.

I would only note that currently Veeam B&R does not support backup copy jobs as a source for backup to tape jobs (this is planned for Veeam B&R v8), however you could use file to tape jobs to offload full backup to tapes. Though keep in mind that since backup copy is always incremental, the full backup produced by it is not the latest restore point in the chain.

On a side note regarding your choice to store primary file server backups on a VM disk, this is not considered as best practice.

[Khue]

I see that's a post on Veeam 6 and it's from 2012. A big indicator is that Gostev mentions a 2TB hard limit on a VMFS and this no longer exists with VMFS v5 and vSphere 5 architecture. Is there more current documentation about this? I could easily migrate the data to RDM formatted with NTFS. Would that be a better architecture?

Though keep in mind that since backup copy is always incremental, the full backup produced by it is not the latest restore point in the chain.

I am having a tough time conceptualizing what you're saying here. I put together this rough Visio:

[foggy]

I see that's a post on Veeam 6 and it's from 2012. A big indicator is that Gostev mentions a 2TB hard limit on a VMFS and this no longer exists with VMFS v5 and vSphere 5 architecture. Is there more current documentation about this? I could easily migrate the data to RDM formatted with NTFS. Would that be a better architecture?

But all other points still apply (especially no.5). RDM still implies unneeded virtualization layer.

I am having a tough time conceptualizing what you're saying here.

Please review the backup copy job retention mechanism description and feel free to ask for any further clarification, if required.

[Khue]

I think I understand what you are saying. If I were to retain 14 days of incrementals, when the backup copy fires off, it will be 14 days old because on the 15th day the incremental from that day would be merged into the full and that would be what's copied over. Does this sound vaguely on target?

[foggy]

The backup copy job always copies VM latest state, synthetically creating required restore points in target location from VM data stored in source backup repository. It is always incremental and once it reaches the specified number of restore points to keep, the full backup starts moving forward on a regular basis, being merged with the closest incremental backup.

[Khue]

Okay, I am on board with what you're saying. Last point of clarification

The migration is even easier than you have described: you just need to export your current Veeam B&R configuration and then import it into the newly installed Veeam B&R instance in your primary datacenter (no need to backup database separately).

I wasn't clear about it, but the database for Veeam is also located in Site A and I would like to move it to the data center as well as the installation. I think at this point then I do need to backup and restore the database to the new location, correct?

[foggy]

Veeam B&R configuration backup effectively exports the configuration data from the Veeam B&R SQL database, so all required data is already there.