Host-based backup of Microsoft Hyper-V VMs.
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LarsSjoeholm
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In search for small business backup solution

Post by LarsSjoeholm »

Hi forum,

what I ask myself is whether it's possible with Veeam to backup my small business Hyper-V-System. It has two guests (2012 R2 DC with user files and Exchange 2013 with mail database). The only available Hardware for backup purposes is an unused internal RAID 0 with 4TB and an external USB 3 Tandberg RDX Quikstor with two removable disks, each 2 TB. There are about 10 Windows workstations, very little data. And very small bandwidth to the internet, that's why mail hosting is not an option.

The requirements are:

a) no additional hardware (like "repository" server or whatever)
b) in a single DC environment there must not be any software running on host (parent) for stability reasons
c) host does not need to be backuped (this can easily be achieved with Windows Backup)
d) full backup & restore of both VMs, incremental backup of both VMs and single file or mail item ("brick level") restore

Is this possible with Veeam?

If it is inevitable to have an exterior system involved I could imagine to buy a Windows license and install a third VM only for backup purposes or to abuse one of the existing workstations for this (it might wake up in the night by BIOS timer and do some necessary jobs).

Thanks for a short outline of the Veeam solution, if any.

Lars
Gostev
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Re: In search for small business backup solution

Post by Gostev »

Hi, Lars.

Your requirements b) and d) are mutually exclusive, because changed block tracking functionality (which is required for true incremental backup) does require running a CBT filter driver on the host. Aside of that, Veeam fully meets your requirements (and you will find it is actually the only solution available today which does).

Thanks!
Anton
LarsSjoeholm
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Re: In search for small business backup solution

Post by LarsSjoeholm »

Gostev wrote:Your requirements b) and d) are mutually exclusive, because changed block tracking functionality (which is required for true incremental backup) does require running a CBT filter driver on the host.
Anton,

thanks a lot for input. If I understand it right it's only mutually exclusive if I use Veeam for full VM backup. But if I do it with WSB I don't need any additional software. Right? What I need, as far as I see, is additional software that allows me to restore, let's say, an email that was accidentially deleted month ago. If it instead were a simple file I could mount one of the older backed up images and copy the file back to it's original location. But with mail items this would not work that easily.

I think it's hard to discuss such a typical small business backup solution in theory, since backups got so much more complicated in times of virtualization. That's why I hoped to get someone from the manufacturer to outline, where he/she would install which module to backup which data to which destination... :-)

Thanks,
Lars
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Re: In search for small business backup solution

Post by Gostev »

Lars,

With host-based backups, changed block tracking filter driver is absolutely required for true incremental backup. Host-based backups are the recommended way to backup VMs.

Since you note WSB, you seem to be fine with doing agent-based backups (legacy way of backing up VMs, by treating them as physical server). Such solution should not be compared to Veeam Backup & Replication, but rather to Veeam Endpoint Backup FREE. Check it out, as it meets all your requirements too (even though this is not really a "professional" way to backup VMs).

Thanks!
LarsSjoeholm
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Re: In search for small business backup solution

Post by LarsSjoeholm »

Hi Anton,

I can't get you: WSB is agent-based? I'm not sure what agent based does mean, then. I always thought you would have to install something - an agent -, if you want to use agent based backups. But WSB is part of Windows, you do not need any agent for it. Right? And why is it legacy? It's doing a perfect job in full and/or incremental backing up a VM.

Thanks,
Lars
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Re: In search for small business backup solution

Post by Gostev »

Yes, WSB is agent-based.

Backup agent = Persistent software running in each guest (no matter pre-installed or not).

Agent-based backup is considered a bad practice for VM backup for a number of reasons (very long list - there are multiple white papers available on the internet if you want to learn more).

Legacy as in "old way". Does not mean it does not do the job, think of wired phones - people who already have it home are still using it (albeit also dropping gradually). But no one ever buys that for their new house or flat :)

And if it was actually "doing the job" for you, you would not have come to these forums in the first place looking for the better solution, right? :wink:
LarsSjoeholm
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Re: In search for small business backup solution

Post by LarsSjoeholm »

Hi Anton,

I'm just horrified by installing additional third party software onto the parent partition. I want to keep it as clean, simple, stable and safe as possible. What is the better way to image VMs then? And, particularly, how does Veeam backup and restore file and email data from within the VMs? Where would I install which agent or software?

Thanks and regards,
Lars
Gostev
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Re: In search for small business backup solution

Post by Gostev »

Well, if you don't want any software in your parent partition, then there are no options left except using Veeam Endpoint Backup FREE installed in each VM. Please refer to its User Guide for more information on how to restore individual files or emails, and if you still have questions feel free to post them in the corresponding product forum. Thanks!
nmdange
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Re: In search for small business backup solution

Post by nmdange » 1 person likes this post

LarsSjoeholm wrote:Hi Anton,

I'm just horrified by installing additional third party software onto the parent partition. I want to keep it as clean, simple, stable and safe as possible. What is the better way to image VMs then? And, particularly, how does Veeam backup and restore file and email data from within the VMs? Where would I install which agent or software?

Thanks and regards,
Lars
It is fully supported and normal to install "infrastructure" software on a Hyper-V host such as backup agents and monitoring agents. If you didn't want "3rd party" software, you could purchase Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager which is made by Microsoft, but it works exactly the same as Veeam in that you have to install an agent on the host. And having used both Microsoft DPM and Veeam, Veeam is definitely better :)

I've been running Veeam to backup a fairly large Hyper-V environment (about 400 VMs) for about a year now and it has been 100% stable.
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