Evaluating Veeam Backup & Replication

[markfellows]

We're currently evaluating Veeam Backup & Replication 4.1 in a test environment which consist of one Esxi server consisting of two local datastores

Just a few questions:

1. When restoring from a backup is it possible to restore back to the original datastores. When I've attempted a restoration it only seems possible to restore both virtual disk files to one datastore (I have been able to manually move these once the restore operation was complete)

2. When attempting a file level restoration I only seem to have the option to restore files from the virtual C: drive.

3. Can the Veeam backup server be run as a virtual machine? If so are there any benefits/issues with doing this?

Thanks,

Mark.

[Vitaliy S.]

Hello Mark,

Please review existing threads for the answers:

1. Restore of Virtual Machines with Multiple Virtual Disks and Datastores and pre-allocation
2. Restore Guest files does not mount D:\ drive
3. Veeam Backup and VM or physical server?

Thank you!

[markfellows]

Thanks for the help.

[markfellows]

Vitalily,

I've read through the links you provided, again thank you.

They mention issues with mounting additional drives that are dynamic disk etc. I've just checked and the Windows disks are set up as Basic.

Also I’ve attempted to use the File Level Restore wizard but it blue screens. I’m running vSphere Client, VM Player 2.5.3 and Veeam Backup on a Windows XP SP3 PC in our test environment.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Mark.

[Vitaliy S.]

Mark,

I haven't seen this issue before, I think It may relate to the physical machine itself (wrong drivers or any other thing). Please try installing Veeam Backup server on another machine, import the VBK file from the backup storage and perform File Level Restore using Wizard, should help.

[markfellows]

Thanks Vitaliy, I'm just in the process of doing this I'll let you know the results.

[markfellows]

Vitaliy,

I installed Veeam Backup on a Windows 2003 SP2 VM and imported the backups that I had completed earlier. Right clicked on the backup and selected Restore Guest Files, both the C: and the D: drives were visible.

Haven’t tried the File Restore wizard yet as there are issues with VMware Player in a VM (going to try the .VMX fix). Although we don’t particularly need this I’d be interested in taking a look at it.

The only other change I’ve made is to create just one datastore on the ESXi 4 server, the previous environment had two.

Any thoughts on why when using the same procedure only the C: drive was visible on the Windows XP machine?

Thanks,

Mark.

[Vitaliy S.]

Mark,

First of all, good that you've made it. As for the issue with one drive visible, it still makes me think that it is related to your XP machine, because it is not an expected bahavior to have a BSOD on the boot of VMware player, I bet you won't see the same issue doing FLR on another XP machine. If you would like to investigate the issue with BSOD on XP machine, we would require the memory dump as well as all the log files from Help|Support Information, from my experience all BSODs were related either to bad software drivers or hardware errors.

Have a nice weekend!

[markfellows]

Vitaliy, no need to investigate further as we won't be running it on XP in the live environment, just being inquisitive!

Thanks for your help.