Adding Hyper-V to existing VMware Environment

[wa15]

Hello all,

So I need a little help with some deployment scenarios.

Our current Veeam infrastructure: One beefy physical main Veeam server running B&R/Proxy/WAN Accelerator/DAS Repository located at our main office, and a virtual proxy/WAN Accelerator/Repository at each one of our remote sites. This is all VMware and we are managing all of our backups from the main Veeam server at the main office. We have local backups taking place at each remote site and then backup copies to copy those backups to our main site for DR.

We will be taking on another remote office but they are running a hyper-v cluster with 2 hosts and about 4TB of data to back up. This office currently has a VMware host which in due time we will be migrating all their VMs from Hyper-V to VMware but until that happens, we need to back up their VMs. So what is the best way to roll out Veeam for them? Below is what I have so far:

Licensing: We are getting them licensed for Enterprise Plus Hyper V and we can convert their Hyper-V licenses to VMware from what I was reading.
Proxy: Initially I was hoping to set up a VM on their brand new VMware ESXi server (like we do at our other sites) to serve as the proxy for the Hyper V cluster (which all of their VMs are on), but I was reading that it's only recommended and supported to have a PHYSICAL off-host proxy for hyper-v. I prefer to not have have a physical server at this site just for backups. So my question is, is my only other option to proceed with an on-host backup proxy for their Hyper-V cluster? Performance wise this will be no problem. But just want to make sure I am not missing anything. We have a NAS for repository and hoping to back up over an iSCSI connection. Can I have backup copies from the on-host proxy to copy backups to main site? Anything else I should know?

Thanks for your help!

[Gostev]

Hello, Farshid.

You will have no issues using on-host proxy for such a small environment, this is the setup majority of Veeam users with Hyper-V are using anyway. So by all means, you should go ahead with that. Off-host becomes a necessity and large, heavily loaded Hyper-V environments - but according to your comment, if performance is not a problem then there must be plenty of available resources.

Choosing either backup mode does not put any limitations on the product functionality, so this part is not a concern.

Thanks!

[wa15]

Thank you Gostev.

One thing I don't understand is where would the repository (which is an iSCSI NAS) connect to if there are no VM's acting as proxy on the hyper v cluster?

I was looking at the "Simple Deployment" scenario, and it is showing how the Veeam B&R server resides on the hyper v cluster locally. But if there are no VMs running the proxy or B&R on the hyper v cluster, where would I connect the NAS to? Can I create a VM on the hyper-v cluster (or their new ESXi server) acting as the repository and use that as a target for their backups?

[Gostev]

For remote offices, you can mount it on any local VM, or even the Hyper-V host itself, and add that as a repository server.
To do that, you can use iSCSI Software Initiator for a VM, and same or physical iSCSI HBA for a host.

[wa15]

Perfect, thanks Gostev. I will probably proceed with mounting the NAS repository on a VM on the ESXi server as I can transition that VM to be a Veeam proxy easily as we migrate their VMs from Hyper V to ESXi slowly. Thank you for your help.