So I need to Replicate 24/7/365 but we also want backups...

[jbarrow.viracoribt]

The organization wants to replicate our primary datacenter VM's to a DR datacenter 24/7/365.
The organization also want to have archival backups taken nightly which will go to disk, then to tape.
How can I accomplish this with Veeam?
I can't replicate and backup the same VM at the same time, one of the two jobs will wait around for the other.
I can't backup replica images while replication is running because the replicas get corrupt.

How are you guys doing this or how would you do this if you had the need?

Currently we have:

Production:
4 ESXi hosts
1 NetApp FAS8020 SAN
1 Physical FC connected proxy for Replication. (from PROD to DR and DR to PROD)
1 Physical FC connected proxy for Backups which dumps backups to a NetApp ESeries storage target.

DR Site:
4 ESXi hsots
1 NetAPp FAS8020 SAN
1 Physical FC connected proxy for Replication (from PROD to DR and DR to PROD)

Thanks in advance.

Right now we only replicate from 6am to 7pm, then stop the jobs (via the time rules in the job). Then at 9PM the backups fire off. So we have from 7pm to 6am the next day where our DR site isn't receiving any updates.

[Shestakov]

Hello Jonathan,
In your case my choice would be backup+backup copy+replica from backup data, which is really convenient since you don`t just have twice less snapshots, you also don`t need to transfer the data twice.
And then you can use backup to tape job for tape achieving.
Are you on version 9?
Thanks!

[jbarrow.viracoribt]

How current could I keep my replica site with this setup? Right now I replicate everything within 1-2 hours. Adding a backup in first, won't that increase my RPO at the replica site?

We are on version 9.

[haslund]

Are your replication jobs configured to run continuously except for when you have the backup jobs running in the night currently?

[Shestakov]

RPO is not going to change, but you will have backups along with replicas.
How often do you backup currently?

[jveerd1]

This sounds like an excellent use case for NetApp storage snapshots. Use Veeam to orchestrate the (app-aware) snaphots with secondary snapmirror to your DR. Use all other Veeam functionality for your archival requirements. Or, less preferred, use NetApp storage snapshots integration for backup and replication jobs.

[jbarrow.viracoribt]

Are your replication jobs configured to run continuously except for when you have the backup jobs running in the night currently?

You got it, they run from 6am, repeating non-stop until about 8pm. Then backups run at 9pm.

[jbarrow.viracoribt]

This sounds like an excellent use case for NetApp storage snapshots. Use Veeam to orchestrate the (app-aware) snaphots with secondary snapmirror to your DR. Use all other Veeam functionality for your archival requirements. Or, less preferred, use NetApp storage snapshots integration for backup and replication jobs.

I could use a bit more help understanding this.

Right now we don't use snapmirror but are licensed for it.

We just use Veeam to replicate our NetApp FAS8020 VM's from one site to another site (which also has a NetApp FAS8020). So "clones" are sometimes made when we do backups of VM's that are on NetApp storage (when it doesen't error out which is most of the time, Case 01155095) but I don't think we utilize snapmirror at all. Should we?

[jbarrow.viracoribt]

RPO is not going to change, but you will have backups along with replicas.
How often do you backup currently?

Backups nightly, replication all day long (only during 6-am-7pm right now, goal is 24/7).

[Shestakov]

And how often do you replicate(every hour/two hours)? How much time does backup job run take?
If you want to replicate constantly I would try to implement above-mentioned replica from backup. Another option is to set a backup job to run once a day + replication job every hour(up to you) with a backup window eliminating the time when backup job works.

[jveerd1]

It would be a missed opportunity not utilising NetApp snapshots and snapmirror. It is very easy to configure, so please give it a shot.
https://helpcenter.veeam.com/backup/vsp ... shots.html

[jbarrow.viracoribt]

We are using hardware snapshots (or trying to) but they fail quite often with device busy errors and default over to regular VM backups (case 01155095).

I don't think Veeam does anything with Snapmirror currently, at least in regards to SAN to SAN replication it isn't.

What am I missing?

[Shestakov]

Indeed Veeam has an integration with NetApp SnapMirror and SnapVault.
There is a discussion in the different topic.

[jveerd1]

Not sure what you mean with Veeam doesn't do anything with Snapmirror. But you are missing a great benefit of Veeam NetApp integration if you don't read the documentation link I posted.

[jbarrow.viracoribt]

I've opened up a ticket with support to help me reach this goal. I'm a bit confused as to the best way to set things up with all the components we have.

Prod:
4 x ESXi Hosts, 1 Cluster
1 x NetApp FAS8020 with SnapMirror/Snap Vault Licenses
1 x FC connected Physical Proxy

Local DR (we want backups to go here, at least nightly):
1 x FC connected Physical Proxy
1 x NetApp E5660 Storage Server (274 TB raw disk space)

Offsite DR (we want this to be a running replica of Prod with as low of an RPO as we can get):
4 x EXSi Hosts, 1 Cluster
1 x NetApp FAS 8020 with SnapMirror/Snap Vault Licenses

Right now we try and use storage snapshots with our Veeam jobs but get "device busy" errors quite often which slows down the jobs and they revert to traditional snapshots for backups.
We don't really use SnapMirror/SnapVault in our current design but maybe we should.
We currently replicate only between the hours of 6am and 7pm, then stop the jobs and allow backups to run at 9pm.
We want to replicate 24/3/365 (and keep the RPO as low as possible) but still get backups using the hardware we have now.

[PTide]

Hi,

Prod:
4 x ESXi Hosts, 1 Cluster
1 x NetApp FAS8020 with SnapMirror/Snap Vault Licenses
1 x FC connected Physical Proxy

I'd recommend you to stick with a direct-SAN approach here.

Offsite DR (we want this to be a running replica of Prod with as low of an RPO as we can get):

Minimal time interval is to start new replication cycle as soon as the previous one has finished.

We don't really use SnapMirror/SnapVault in our current design but maybe we should.

Yes, you should give it a try as it will reduce the load on your primary storage (actually, backup operations will not touch your primary storage at all thus preserving its performance), all I/O load will go to your secondary array. That will allow you to configure replication with your production storage being the source. Pleas check this article.

Another option would be to use replica from backup feature as Nikita's suggested.

Thank you.

[stevedem]

Hi,

I manage a datacenter, and now the client askt us te create a diversion location in case of and catastrofix failure on the primary location.
This is not very exiting, i replicate the servers at night to the other location, this works well.

But there is one server, wich runs a special software wich changes every few minutes.
it hosts an access db, en some folders with files.

Is there a way to live replicatie this server ?
So every change made to the primary server imediatly replicates to the second server ( 1 minute delay can be alowed )

Can i achieve that by making an replication job, en set the schedule to "continuously" ?

[Pat490]

upcoming version 10 will bring new CDP (Continuous Data Protection) feature which does exactly what you want!

https://go.veeam.com/v10

[DGrinev]

Hi Steve and welcome to the community!

You cannot replicate every minute right now, but as Patrick mentioned above, we are going to implement new feature named CDP in Veeam B&R v10.
It would be hard to replicate every minute due to the fact that replication job has to create and delete the VM snapshot during every job pass.
However, there is a couple approaches available right now, please review this existing discussion. Thanks!

[stevedem]

Thanks, i will search for alternatives.

Is there a release date know for v10 ?

[DGrinev]

Hi Steve,

I cannot share any dates yet, but feel free to subscribe to that webpage to be among the first ones to know about the release! Thanks!

[student1363]

Hi,

I am not quite familiar with whole WEEAM products and their features, so I am asking here.
Is it possible or better say, has VEEAM a solution to have 2 sites replicating in real time? (like DAG in microsoft exchange if you are familiar with)
I have 2 sites in two cities connected via a limited-bandwidth WAN connection. My infrastructure is VMWare ESXi 6 and I have around 30 VMs which I want to have in my second (backup) site too.
I read about Replica but it is not live and automatic replication, it is a scheduled incremental backup. I want 2 VMs in 2 sites replicate their data automatically and continuously.
is it possible?

Thanks in advance

[DGrinev]

Hi Elysa,

It's not possible with the current version of the product, but one of the major features called Veeam CDP (Continuous Data Protection) will be available in the upcoming version 10.
Please review the link for additional information about Veeam CDP and other features. Thanks!