Is it advisabe to make a Replica of a Replica

[ddelly]

MY QUERY IS, What is the recommended method to create replicas onto a Remote server if you have a local backup device??
Can I create a replica from a backup thats on a backup appliance? Or do i have to create a replica of the local replica. Initially I linked the QNAP to the the production host via iSCSI initiators and created local replicas on the QNAP through Veeam. I then created replica jobs to copy the replicas to the remote server. I read some things recently that makes me think this isn't advisable.

ESXi 5.0
Production and Remote Backup Host: HP PROLIANT DL380 G7
Local Backup Appliance: QNAP x79
VEEAM Backup & Replication 8.0

Our initial implementation of Veeam replicated our VMs from our production host to Backup host at our remote site. We sought to have an additional copy (The Golden 3-2-1 rule) and also take some load off production servers during operation hours so we sought to back up locally first then backup the local copy to the remote site. I acquired a QNAP appliance for the local site.

Thanks for your help VEEAM COMM!

[foggy]

I'd recommend using backups (either local or already stored remotely) as source for replication jobs.

[ddelly]

Thanks for the response. SO you can make a replica from a backup?? Thanks

[Gostev]

Yes, this is the new feature of v8.

[ddelly]

Thanks Gostev! I will be testing the speed of replica creation and incremental jobs from a backup.

[ddelly]

having an issue creating the replica from backup. I select the Source repository as the backup location However when I go Add the VMs, it references the Production server location on the Host. Is that what it is supposed to do? Thanks

[veremin]

Correct.

[ddelly]

Thanks V.EREMIN however, when I ran the Replica job, It fail stating "No Restore Points" found. Does the initial job need to be ran from the Production storage??

[dellock6]

Did you schedule the backup job so it can create restore points into the repository? If the repository has no backups obviously replica can't find a restore point to be used as source for the replica itself.

[ddelly]

Thanks DELLOCK6! I dont quite follow though. The initail backup jobs have run and there has been an incremental as well. Do you mean the backup job needs to be a daily scheduled job in order for the replica job to run successfully?

[foggy]

Source backup jobs should run at least not less frequently than the replica ones, otherwise there will be nothing to replicate from old backups.

[ddelly]

Thanks for the advise everyone... One of the issues I believe was found in the path I selected when I chose the VMs for my replicas. the initial veeam configuration I added my host directly into the infrastructure then at some later point I added my vcenter server. Then in creating my jobs would randomly chose the vcenter path or the direct host path in adding the vms. Sounds confusing but ones I set all my jobs backups and replicas to use the path through the vcenter entry the jobs tended to run successfully.

[ddelly]

Another question I thought of is, Is there a preferred backup method mode when creating a replica from a backup. My Secondary host is in a remote site so I'd want to know what method if nay would make as efficient as possible.
Setup Production (host) --> Backup (local Qnap device) --> Replica (host off-site)

[Shestakov]

Hello Dwayne,

the backup method I would suggest in this case is a forever forward incremental, the method all backup copy jobs use.
This means Setup Production --> Backup job (Local Qnap storage) --> Backup copy job (over WAN to off-site storage) --> Replication job (offsite host)

Or, if you don`t want/need to store backups offsite, you can just use forever forward incremental method for backup jobs. Thanks!

[ddelly]

Thanks for the suggestion Shestakov, I don't currently have free storage at my off-site facility other than the offsite host itself. Would you recommend the same still? I may be able to look at getting additional storage at the remote site hopefully by the end of the year.

[Shestakov]

You are welcome, Dwayne.
Dedicated repository is more preferable, but if the host has enough space to keep backups, it also makes sense.

[foggy]

You can take any decommissioned server, stuff it with a bunch of hard drives and get the perfect storage for Veeam B&R backups. However even without that in picture, you can go with replication from local backups over WAN.