Host-based backup of VMware vSphere VMs.
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BackupDude
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Backup of entire production site over WAN

Post by BackupDude »

Greetings,

My company has been using Veeam for over a year backing up our internal VMWARE 5.1/5.5 (100+VMs) production environment. We use an EMC Data Domain (DD640) as our main repository. The Veeam physical server along with the DD is all local to our ESXi hosts operating over a 10GB backbone at our datacenter.

We are setting up a multiple site (4 locations) VMware 5.5 environment for a client. Each location will be connected via a MPLS circuit we are providing. The connection speed for each location will be 100MB. The vlan the Veeam server and data domain is on will be allowed to communicate over this private MPLS to each location. Our plan is to install Veeam proxies at each location along with WAN Accelerators to backup the entire environment to our data domain. No local repository will exist on-premise at each location. We are currently preparing for a proof of concept to verify this solution will work as advertised and to identify possible glitches such as backup window, restore time, etc.

Does anyone use or know of a similar setup to help us in designing this solution? Its perfectly acceptable to say this design wont work. I am looking for feedback.
larry
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Re: Backup of entire production site over WAN

Post by larry » 1 person likes this post

see my setup here. http://forums.veeam.com/veeam-backup-re ... 17944.html

my WAN is MPLS

You will need to have a backup at the remote site to use the WAN Accelerators. I use a couple of WAN Accelerators to run many backup copy jobs at once. You will find that single jobs finish quicker without the WAN Accelerator. With the WAN Accelerators you use much less bandwidth so I can run those jobs without flooding the WAN.

Without knowing your daily data change rate there is no way to know how long it will take.

I have groups of VMs ( 800 GB ) I backup with the WAN Accelerators that I only transfer 2GB, the rate is only 2 MB/s the job runs for two hours but with the slow rate I can one other jobs at the same time.

My exchange server does not get the same numbers and I backup that without the WAN Accelerator. My point is some you won't know until you try. You could test by putting a 100mb nic in a veeam server and testing local. If WAN will be slower because delays but should get your testing to what you will see. Note that my locations I can ping at 1 or two MS.
BackupDude
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Re: Backup of entire production site over WAN

Post by BackupDude »

Based on your comment, If I do decide to use the WAN accelerator, I must use a local repository? From my understanding the WAN Accelerator is software installed on a VM (similar to a proxy) and utilizes a predefined cache size (100gb) to help dedup data over the pipe. I am cool with that as long as I dont need to create a local repository to save all my job data and then replicated over the WAN. I am trying to get around having any type of local backup repository at each location and stream the data over the WAN to our data domain repository.

Thanks for the comment Larry.
Gostev
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Re: Backup of entire production site over WAN

Post by Gostev »

You do need a local backup, since this is what gets copied with the Backup Copy job. There is no way to avoid having local repository. Besides, you will need one for fast local restores anyway - otherwise, your restores will take forever. This design will also allow you to meet the requirement of having at least one copy of your backups in a separate location.
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Re: Backup of entire production site over WAN

Post by larry » 1 person likes this post

Veeam is licensed by ESX server so you can add a local copy at no cost ( just disks). I set my local copy for just a few days of retention but the remote copy is kept for years based on the data.
BackupDude
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Re: Backup of entire production site over WAN

Post by BackupDude » 1 person likes this post

Thanks Everyone for your input. I was under the impression that Veeam could transport the data over the WAN without the need for a local repository. The more in depth research I did the more I realized its technically possible but as Gostev mentioned would be impractical from a recovery point of view and more importantly not best practice.

I am moving forward with my design now that includes a local repository at the primary location and having the other three locations point to it for its local repository. The final piece will have the local repository replicate over the WAN back to our datacenter for offsite retention.
omg
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[MERGED] : Veeam WAN-acceleration worth the price ?

Post by omg »

We are currently using Veeam Backup Essentials ( standard edition). Planning to upgrade to Veeam Backup Essentials Enterprise Plus edition.

The only feature in Enterprise plus which was drawing our attention was the built in WAN-Acceleration.

The price is more for enterprise plus licenses.

Just wanted to get the feedback from current Enterprise Plus users who are using wan-acceleration feature
to see if its worth it.
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Re: Backup of entire production site over WAN

Post by Shestakov »

Hello,
Some feedback about WAN acceleration can be found here.
You can also try WAN accelerator for free using trial version of Veeam B&R.
Thanks.
BackupDude
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Re: Backup of entire production site over WAN

Post by BackupDude »

My two cents.

Since my original post back in January of 2014, we encountered a large number of difficulties making the solution work long term. Beyond the obvious of long restore times, the backup window for full backups began to exceed three days for just one location and since we are using a data domain, synthetic fulls wasn't an option. The design was flawed from day one but due to decisions made above me we chugged on until it became impossible to continue.

While in practice it does technically work, we had to ultimately install a local repository at one of the client's largest sites. The local repository allowed us to utilize the WAN Accelerators for the backup copy job between this location and us. My experience with the WAN Accelerators has not been ideal but it due to the fact we cant allocate a large enough fast cache to the VM to take advantage of the deduping process for any noticeable gains.

The project has been a wreck but a very valuable learning reference.
omg
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Re: Backup of entire production site over WAN

Post by omg »

Do we need to install Veeam software at remote WAN site if we plan on using built in WAN accelerators on both onsite and offsite location ?
Vitaliy S.
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Re: Backup of entire production site over WAN

Post by Vitaliy S. »

You need to have WAN accelerators at both ends, though only one Veeam backup console is required.
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Re: Backup of entire production site over WAN

Post by Shestakov » 1 person likes this post

To create a WAN accelerator, you just need to assign the WAN accelerator role to a specific machine(virtual or physical). It`s not an intricate installation. WAN accelerator role can be even assigned to the existing backup proxies and backup repositories.
More info can be found here. Thanks.
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Re: Backup of entire production site over WAN

Post by dellock6 »

However, just be sure to properly size the machine running the WAN accelerator, it has some specific requirements in terms of disk and ram. We usually suggest to have it running over SSD disk (or in any case a fast storage layer) and at least 8GB of ram. These numbers are even more important when the WAN accelerator is not running in a dedicated machine.
Luca Dell'Oca
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