What is the best way of protecting the Veeam Backup server?

[skrause]

Is it possible with the same license to have the Veeam Backup server in SiteA, and a second Veeam server acting as the Replication server in SiteB so that it is immediately available in case of a SiteA disaster to orchestrate the startup of replicated SiteA's VMs in SiteB ?

This is how we are set up and it works well (using enterprise manager to manage licenses as foggy mentioned.) An added bonus: since our B&R management/console servers are virtual, we have them back each other up

[syl81]

Tnahks foggy and skrause for this quick reply.
I helps in managing a quick disaster in fact, and having the second one backing up the first one is a very nice bonus, for sure !

[ndearing]

Hi everyone. I am writing a new IT disaster recovery plan for my organization and wanted some opinions.

My question: What is the quickest way to restore Veeam B&R so that you can quickly start restoring backups in the event of a major disaster?

I have a dedicated physical backup server that hosts my tape drives, and internal RAID0 array for daily backups. This is great for quick recovery of a failed VM or files restores that don't involve a major disaster.

However, in the event of a major disaster, with damaged servers and hardware, what solutions do you use to restore Veeam B&R as quickly as possible to begin restoring VM's? I am planning to have servers running VMWare ESXI at my emergency location so once I have Veeam restored, I will be able to quickly migrate the VM's. Even if I virtualized my Veeam Backup server, it would still require Veeam to recover the VM data.

Just curious how others plan for this crucial part of recovery planning.

[foggy]

Nick, this thread discusses different approaches to protecting Veeam B&R backup server, among which using the built-in configuration backup is the most recommended one.

[hoFFy]

Even if I virtualized my Veeam Backup server, it would still require Veeam to recover the VM data.

I would recommend to copy the "Veeam.Backup.Extractor.exe" and the "Extract.exe" ("extract" file with no extension for non-Windows-OS) to an external storage. You need them to restore the files of one or more VMs from a VBK file. After restoring the files you can upload them to your host, re-register the VMs and start them up.

You could, for example, restore your VBR-server and then start an Instant VM recovery.

Also keep in mind to save these files on a tape, if you use them for very long time archiving to be able to restore VMs after several years.

[SteveKratz]

I'm using Veeam Endpoint to back up the physical B&R server's system drive to a rotating set of USB drives All of the actual backup data is on a completely separate drive array on the same machine - Other backup data is off-site on tape.

[ndearing]

Wow, that's great information to have. I was not aware of this. Just to clarify, with these files on a Windows 8 or 10 machine, you can extract raw VM files from Veeam backup files without Veeam B & R being installed?

Thank you for the useful info!

I would recommend to copy the "Veeam.Backup.Extractor.exe" and the "Extract.exe" ("extract" file with no extension for non-Windows-OS) to an external storage. You need them to restore the files of one or more VMs from a VBK file. After restoring the files you can upload them to your host, re-register the VMs and start them up.

You could, for example, restore your VBR-server and then start an Instant VM recovery.

Also keep in mind to save these files on a tape, if you use them for very long time archiving to be able to restore VMs after several years.

[Gostev]

That is correct, but from full backups only.

[hoFFy]

That is correct, but from full backups only.

Yes, therefore I wrote "from a VBK file".

[AlexK977]

Hi all,

i have a little question to you all.

We use a physical server for our Veeam Environment.
On top of that, we use the local MSSQL Server to hosts more DBs, not just the Veeam/VeeamOne/Enterprise Manager one.

Is there a way you would backup the whole machine itself ?
Does anyone use the Veeam Endpoint backup to backup the server itself through Veeam ?

thanks in advance

[Shestakov]

Hi,
Yes, you can backup the physical machine with Veeam Endpoint or you can use configuration backup inside VBR to protect all the settings.
Thanks!

[omg]

We use Veeam B&R 9.0. Currently it is Windows 7 Professional 64-bit Virtual Machine.

Just wondering if all the veeam users here backup their Veeam PC or just backup the configuration only.

Is it good or bad to backup the Veeam machine use Veeam software ?

[foggy]

Backing up Veeam B&R configuration is typically enough.

[tholyoak]

I want to backup my VM that has Veeam on it. I was thinking of using the Free Edition on another server to do so, since I have passthrough PCI cards on the Veeam machine (for connecting storage), and will have to turn it off to do the backup.

Or would the Endpoint Backup running on the Veeam server be a better way to do it? Does it do a complete backup that would include the PCI configuration within the VM?

[veremin]

Does it do a complete backup that would include the PCI configuration within the VM?

Such disks would be visible inside the guest, thus, EP should back them up smoothly. Thanks.

[tholyoak]

It's not the files in the external storage I'm worried about (which are being backed up separately), it's the settings, drivers, etc., both in Windows and VMware that make the VM talk to the storage.

[tholyoak]

I ended up playing it safe and just did a full backup of the VM using the free version of Veeam on another computer. This will make for a simple restore if it's ever needed, as well.

[danswartz]

I've read various KB articles about how to restore VCSA if you don't have another Vcenter server. I actually had my VCSA appliance get corrupted (my fault) and went to restore it, using the KB article. This worked just fine. What I am *not* sure of is the other side of the coin. e.g. the Windows Server 2008R2 VM that is my veeam installation (and proxy.) Chicken & egg problem. I seem to recall seeing an article recommending doing a quick and dirty install of Veeam B&R elsewhere and using that for the restore The thing is, I can easily create a replica of the veeam proxy (updated daily?) Isn't there a less tiresome way, by using the replica? If so, what is the best way? If not, I suppose I can create an OVA of the appliance and stash it somewhere safe.

[foggy]

You can read about different approaches in this thread, however, the best practice is backing up Veeam B&R configuration to be able to restore it into a newly installed Veeam B&R instance.

[danswartz]

After some investigation, it seems the simplest way for me (given this is a real unlikely emergency situation) is to use Veeam.Backup.Extractor, and point it at the NFS share where Veeam B&R puts the backups.

[veremin]

Be aware that you can restore only from full backups (.vbk), using extract.exe utility. So, it still might be simpler and more convenient just to install a VB&R server anew and use it for restoration purposes. Thanks.

[stephen.loera]

Hello,

I know this question has been asked in the past and I have read some posts back from 2010. I was hoping there has been some updates to this issue since then. Here is our setup. We replicate approximately 160 VMs to an offsite datacenter. Our Veeam Backup and Replication server (VBR) is at the production site orchestrating backups and replication. Failover plans with specific boot sequences have been made. In the event of a major disaster where our primary datacenter becomes either inaccessible or even destroyed, how can I initiate a failover of my VMs that are in our offsite DR datacenter? Is it possible to have 2 VBRs, one in production, and one in DR, that mirror each other? Is there any way to have redundancy of the VBR? Otherwise the VBR becomes a single point of failure. I would like to know of a way to have a redundant VBR or a backup VBR on standby for emergencies such as this?

Powering on these VMs manually through vcenter is not an option. If there was an internet outage to our primary site and the VBR became inaccessible, I would like to be able to initiate our failover plan from our recovery environment, continue our work as a company, and once internet is back, failback our VMs to our primary production site.

I hope this makes sense, I want to eliminate having 1 VBR as the single point of failure on our disaster recovery plan.

[foggy]

Hi Stephen, the recommended approach in case of replication is always to have Veeam B&R instance responsible for replication jobs in the target site. That will allow for automated failover/failback operations right from its UI in case of losing production site. You can review this thread for some other approached to protecting Veeam B&R server.

[stephen.loera]

Hey Foggy,

Thanks for the response. I do have one concern about that solution. I want to have all backups and replication scheduled together to minimize scheduling conflicts. I am trying to avoid having a backup job and a replication job target the same VM at the same time.

So, is my concern valid? Are there any drawbacks to having a VBR at production that only handles backups, and one offsite that only handles replication?

Another approach, would it be ok to have the VBR that handles backups and replication located at the target site, with proxies and repos for backups at the production site?

Could I suggest a feature request of redundant VBR server, both onsite and offsite, that are synced with one another?

And one last thing:
While this is standard replication, there is one feature about cloud connect replication that I would like to see incorporated into standard replication. Cloud Connect replication has a Web Portal that a tenant can login to to initiate their failover plan if their VBR becomes inaccessible. It's called full site failover. And basically the tenant logs into this portal, which the Service Provider's Veeam Enterprise Manager serves up, then the tenant initiate's a failover plan, the Veeam Enterprise Manager tells the Service Provider VBR to start the tenants failover plan. It's a great setup. And at it's core, it's really just 2 VBR's that are synced with one another in real time.

Sorry for the long post. I basically want to request a web portal for standard replication failovers or redundant VBR servers at different location. Is this possible?

[veremin]

Are there any drawbacks to having a VBR at production that only handles backups, and one offsite that only handles replication?

The only drawback I can think about is the fact that both servers are unaware of each other.

Another approach, would it be ok to have the VBR that handles backups and replication located at the target site, with proxies and repos for backups at the production site?

Correct, this approach is among recommended ones.

Could I suggest a feature request of redundant VBR server, both onsite and offsite, that are synced with one another?

Your voice has been counted.

And at it's core, it's really just 2 VBR's that are synced with one another in real time.

Tenants' replication specific information is stored directly in SP's database, so, it's still a functionality of one backup server or in this case Enterprise Manager that can be made available to outside world via RESTful API.

Thanks.

[Vitaliy S.]

Stephen, DR orchestration is coming in our new product Veeam Availability Orchestrator. Once it is available, it should address your concerns of having two or one backup server (production site only), so please sign up to be among the first ones to receive updates about planned features, demoes and betas.

[fcures]

Hi,
I'm trying to make a backup the machine on the same machine I have installed Veeam (whit repositories),
How do they do in these cases?

Thanks

Federico.

[PTide]

Hi Federico,

If the original question actually meant how to backup Veeam server then please review this thread, otherwise please elaborate on your question.

Thanks!

[stijn_multiplies]

Hello all,

Here is a question where i could not instantly come up with a solution.
I'm running B&R on a DC/Data server (as per the clients request).
i'm backing up the files to tapes and the VM's to a NAS.
i know i can instantly recover all the other VM's and all attached drives that are attached but what if my C: driver get corrupted.
Then i would have no access to B&R.
is there a bare metal recovery image i can create? so i can boot into the server and restore a VM from the recovery?
Cause the only image i find is for endpoint protection.

[DGrinev]

Hi Stijn,

You could use Veeam Endpoint Backup to create recovery media and perform bare metal recovery of your Veeam backup server.
Otherwise you could use configuration backup inside Veeam B&R to protect all the settings.

Thanks!