Removable Disk Backup Repository

[itknight]

I'm running B&R v8. I have Veeam setup as a VM running on ESXi 5.5. I have the main backup repository setup as an RDM attached to the VM, hosted on a local RAID controller to the ESXi host. I have a removable drive bay plugged in to the host that i'd like to use for offsite backups, with a couple different 4TB drives. How should i get the removable drive present in the VM?

I initially set it up as a passthrough controller to the VM, but that breaks backups on the actual Veeam VM itself. Although that does seem like the best way to get the backup repository setup, since i need to be able to check the option for "this repository is backed by rotatable drives". Letting windows have the controller and handle the hotswapping of drives seems like the way to go. If i was to disable passthrough and setup the removable disk as an RDM then as soon as i remove it and plug in another one the device identifier is going to change and the RDM would have to be recreated and reattached (or have several RDMs attached with all but one not working at the same time..or something).

What is the best way to get this setup in this scenario?

Another physical machine just to serve as a place for a removable drive bay is not an option currently, and there has to be a better way to get this connected and running. Maybe an alternative way of backing up the Veeam VM so that i can use passthrough on it?

Thanks

[PTide]

Hi,

I initially set it up as a passthrough controller to the VM, but that breaks backups on the actual Veeam VM itself

Do you mean it breaks all backup jobs or it just breaks the job that has veeam server as a source?

Thank you.

[Vitaliy S.]

I initially set it up as a passthrough controller to the VM, but that breaks backups on the actual Veeam VM itself
....
Another physical machine just to serve as a place for a removable drive bay is not an option currently, and there has to be a better way to get this connected and running. Maybe an alternative way of backing up the Veeam VM so that i can use passthrough on it?

Pass-through virtual disks should be automatically skipped from processing as per our release notes and you should have a valid backup of this VM.

[itknight]

Hi,Do you mean it breaks all backup jobs or it just breaks the job that has veeam server as a source?

Only the job with the Veeam VM itself. All other jobs run like normal.

[itknight]

Pass-through virtual disks should be automatically skipped from processing as per our release notes and you should have a valid backup of this VM.

I've seen that quoted somewhere else as well. But adding a passthrough controller to the VM apparently makes snapshots not possible, and the job fails stating just that.

[Vitaliy S.]

Hmm... can you please confirm that you're talking about pass-through disks and not about DirectPath I/O device?

[itknight]

I'm configuring the entire controller for passthrough to the VM, so yes i believe that is considered DirectPath I/O.

I was under the impression ESXi couldn't pass through a single disk to a VM, that you had to do the entire controller. Or are you talking about creating RDMs for the disks?

Basically what is the best scenario where the Veeam VM can see any disks plugged into this SATA Controller, but can also get backed up like the other VMs?

Thanks

[PTide]

Unfortunately, snapshots are not supported with DirectPath I/O. The only option would be to power-off your VM if it was something other than Veeam VM. Your VM cannot be backed up without a snapshot. The other approach is to use Veeam Endpoint Backup in order to backup your Veeam VM form the inside.

Thank you.

[itknight]

Surely people have run into the scenario where they are using Veeam B&R as a VM, but want to be able to create a repository backed by rotating disks, and therefore need the Veeam OS to see the controller directly. Will a replication job also fail because of snapshots? I assume it would...

I've never heard of Veeam Endpoint Backup, but i am downloading it now. Can it be installed on the same OS as B&R? Can it then perform a backup of the OS it is installed on?

Thanks

[PTide]

Will a replication job also fail because of snapshots?

Since replication job uses snapshots yes it will fail.

Can it be installed on the same OS as B&R?

Please take a look at user guide for system requirements.

Can it then perform a backup of the OS it is installed on?

It was born to backup

Thank you.

[itknight]

So I've got Endpoint Backup setup now to backup the Veeam VM to an external hard drive. Easy enough.

However, what's the disaster recovery plan with this scenario? Here's what I mean, consider this scenario:

All hardware is lost for whatever reason. We are left with only a physical offsite copy on an external hard drive. The external drive is configured as a B&R repository with all production VMs, and an Endpoint Backup of the Veeam VM itself. Once i get new ESXi hosts to restore to, i'll need a Veeam VM up and running to scan the external drive's repository and start restoring the production VMs. How do i get the Veeam Endpoint Backup restored to the ESXi host?

From the recovery media i created using Endpoint, it seems to only want to restore to the bare metal hardware that you booted on, rather than letting you specify an ESXi host to restore to (what i expected). I think in this scenario using Endpoint to backup the Veeam VM, i'd have to restore it to a bare metal PC using Endpoint's recovery environment, attach the external drive, and then restore the production VMs over the network to an ESXi host using B&R. But attaching the external drive directly to the ESXi host would give much better restore performance. Another alternative would be to just spin up a brand new Veeam VM OS on the new ESXi host, attach disk, scan repository, start restoring. But that's a good chunk of time that would be spent configuring a new B&R instance when theoretically it should be able to be restored from backup as a VM and simply powered on.

I probably should've started out by stating the fact that this need to somehow work for DR, but again, i gotta think this is a topic that has come up a time or two before.

Thanks

[PTide]

Hi,

How do i get the Veeam Endpoint Backup restored to the ESXi host?

Several options here:

1. Spin-up an empty VM, attach your external drive the same way as you did before, use Endpoint recovery media, restore your Veeam VM from attached drive that holds your Veeam VM backup.

2. Spin-up an empty Windows VM, install VBR anew, import configuration backup, insert external drive, rescan.

3. After a backup is done utilize disk export feature to have a .vmdk that is ready to go.

Thank you.

[itknight]

I did not think about option 1 there, that will work perfectly. I'll just make sure to copy the Endpoint recovery media to each external drive so we'll have it ready.

Thanks for all the help.