Host-based backup of Microsoft Hyper-V VMs.
Post Reply
mr2nut123
Enthusiast
Posts: 49
Liked: 1 time
Joined: May 08, 2013 8:44 am
Contact:

QNAP

Post by mr2nut123 »

We are wanting to install a new backup solution for a client to backup his Hyper-V VM cluster server (CSV). There would be about 5TB to backup on a daily basis, and would need a few months retention.

What would be a suitable QNAP to use? We have used a T453-Mini for a client but it was a little slow. Are there any devices someone could recommend? I can provide more details on the solution if needed.

The device would be across the road in their warehouse with a fiber link so speed isn't an issue, but I just want to make sure we have enough resource on the device itself. They are wanting to have a 30TB NAS so that they can backup other Servers to it down the line and perhaps use it as an archive.
veremin
Product Manager
Posts: 20270
Liked: 2252 times
Joined: Oct 26, 2012 3:28 pm
Full Name: Vladimir Eremin
Contact:

Re: QNAP

Post by veremin »

Wouldn't it be cheaper and more efficient to deploy Windows Server 2016 physical server, stuff it with bunch of disks and put into use all the goodies 2016 and more specifically ReFS 3.0 has? Thanks.
mr2nut123
Enthusiast
Posts: 49
Liked: 1 time
Joined: May 08, 2013 8:44 am
Contact:

Re: QNAP

Post by mr2nut123 »

I wasn't sure really, I just have experience of doing it as a backup job direct to a NAS. Does this ReFS require Server 2016? The Server we would be backing up from is only 2012 R2.
jmmarton
Veeam Software
Posts: 2092
Liked: 309 times
Joined: Nov 17, 2015 2:38 am
Full Name: Joe Marton
Location: Chicago, IL
Contact:

Re: QNAP

Post by jmmarton » 1 person likes this post

Yes, ReFS requires Server 2016, but only for the target repository. It doesn't matter what the H-V host is, what the guests are, etc. And I agree with Vladimir on this. I've been speaking with many partners about this over the last few months. Instead of going with a NAS for backup, for just an incremental increase in cost to go with an x86 server with some disk, Server 2016, and ReFS. I say it's an incremental increase because now with ReFS you likely won't need as much disk as you would with a NAS (whereas without ReFS you'd probably need the same amount of space in both solutions). Plus then you get an increase in performance for things like Instant VM Recovery and SureBackup.

Joe
nmdange
Veteran
Posts: 527
Liked: 142 times
Joined: Aug 20, 2015 9:30 pm
Contact:

Re: QNAP

Post by nmdange » 2 people like this post

A physical Windows server is definitely the way to go. If you can also run Veeam on this host, that will make recovering during a disaster much easier than if it was a VM in your production environment.
mr2nut123
Enthusiast
Posts: 49
Liked: 1 time
Joined: May 08, 2013 8:44 am
Contact:

Re: QNAP

Post by mr2nut123 »

jmmarton wrote:Yes, ReFS requires Server 2016, but only for the target repository. It doesn't matter what the H-V host is, what the guests are, etc. And I agree with Vladimir on this. I've been speaking with many partners about this over the last few months. Instead of going with a NAS for backup, for just an incremental increase in cost to go with an x86 server with some disk, Server 2016, and ReFS. I say it's an incremental increase because now with ReFS you likely won't need as much disk as you would with a NAS (whereas without ReFS you'd probably need the same amount of space in both solutions). Plus then you get an increase in performance for things like Instant VM Recovery and SureBackup.

Joe
Thanks a lot for the detailed explanation Joe. So it needs to be an x86 version of Server 2016 installed on the Server?

How to you configure the backup, simply create a backup repository, and configure the backup job as per usual? How do you specify the ReFS? This is all quite new to me, so if it's just a small performance gain, it probably isn't going to be worth me risking getting something wrong for this solution. I have a test Server capable of taking Server 2016 and another one with Server 2012 R2 already installed. I could test it using these Servers right?
jmmarton
Veeam Software
Posts: 2092
Liked: 309 times
Joined: Nov 17, 2015 2:38 am
Full Name: Joe Marton
Location: Chicago, IL
Contact:

Re: QNAP

Post by jmmarton »

Well I'm not aware of Windows Server for Itanium or PPC or anything else so yeah it will be x86. :-) Or if you mean 32- vs 64-bit, Microsoft went to 64-bit only starting with 2008 R2. As far as how do you configure ReFS, it's just another filesystem, so when you format the disk that will be used as your repository format it as ReFS instead of NTFS. That's it. From the Veeam side once you configure the repo we'll automatically detect that it's ReFS. If you have a server capable of running Server 2016 and it has some disk space available to partition off as another drive besides the system drive, you have what you need.

Joe
Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Google [Bot] and 25 guests