VAW for backup a Hyper-V host and the virtual guest

[mc_g]

Hi, one design question; will the Veeam Agent for Windows support the backup of the Hyper-V host AND the virtual guests?
Or will it be necessary to install the Veeam Agent for Windows AND the B&R on the host to backup and restore computers in such an environment?
Or can the B&R or another product used in such an environment?
Just for the layout:
Branch location with a Windows 2012R2, which also contains user files and a virtual server for the alarming system
BR
Markus

[Dima P.]

Hi Markus,

VAW is not designed for backing up virtual machines on a guest level, elder brother Veeam Backup and Replication is recommended for this level of protection. However, VAW can protect you Hyper V host and VM’s disks as files. If you want to install VAW and VBR on the same machine this is fully supported.

[mc_g]

Thank you for the quick response, for the design VAW & VBR on the same machine, do you have any best practice? i.e. in the VAW select File level backup and exclude the .vhd files?

[Dima P.]

It should work out of the box. Just make sure that VAW exclusions are properly configured to avoid the unwanted backup growth (i.e. exclude VM disks if you are going to protect VMs with VBR).

[SBarrett847]

Odd Question I know... A question has arisen from a customer asking why could they not use VAW for backing up small 1 VM Hyper-V Server, given that the Licensing is much much cheaper than Veeam Essentials. I honestly didn't have proper answer, other than the Hyper-V VMs / VHDs would not be quiesced and applications processed for backup.

Is there any reason I can give that this might be a bad Idea?

[PTide]

Hi,

I honestly didn't have proper answer, other than the Hyper-V VMs / VHDs would not be quiesced and applications processed for backup.

Good news for you - when you trigger VSS snapshot on the host the Hyper-V VSS writer triggers VSS snapshot inside every guest OS (provided that they all have Integration Services installed). In other words - guests' applications will be quiesced, however no advanced AAIP such as SQL log processing will occur.

Thanks

[SBarrett847]

Much obliged - looks like I might switch to VAW (Server) for smaller Hyper-V customers in future. It works very well with VBR Free (to enable Backup Copy Jobs), and is much much cheaper than Veeam Standard.

[Jacv]

Good news for you - when you trigger VSS snapshot on the host the Hyper-V VSS writer triggers VSS snapshot inside every guest OS (provided that they all have Integration Services installed). In other words - guests' applications will be quiesced, however no advanced AAIP such as SQL log processing will occur.

Thanks

Can I get clarification on this please?

Vitaliys's post about a month later (post237990.html#p237990) said to run VAW inside the guest to get consistent backups VS the host level.

Cheers
Jac

[Vitaliy S.]

I think I can clarify that To get advanced AAIP options, you need to run Agent inside the VM. The "good news" Pavel refers to the fact that when doing VSS backup on the host level, it also triggers VSS snapshots inside the guests which gives basic consistency.

[Jacv]

Thanks Vitaliy.

So for a windows guest without AD, SQL etc , is that better than crash consistent?

[jmmarton]

Yes, because chances are there are still some VSS writers installed from *something* so you'd still get application-consistent backups.

Joe

[Vitaliy S.]

It's always better to have application consistent backups regardless of the apps installed in the guest OS.

[marius roma]

A customer have a Windows Server 2016 physical server acting as a standalone Hyper-v server and hosting some Windows VMs.
Can they use Veeam Agent for Windows to backup on a local NAS and restore either the physical server and the guest VMs?
If so, can they use the free version or should they use any other version?
Is there anything else to consider?
Regards
marius

[PTide]

Hi,

Can they use Veeam Agent for Windows to backup on a local NAS and restore either the physical server and the guest VMs?

Yes, they can. Please keep in mind that VAW will be be treating the VM as a set of files (virtual disks plus config files) and therefore restores of the VMs will involve some manual work.

Thanks

[marius roma]

On page https://www.veeam.com/agents-windows-linux-pricing.html I read: "Instant Restore to Microsoft Hyper-V VM " - "Quickly restore service to users by starting a virtual machine (VM) directly from a Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows backup file.": what does it mean, exactly?
Regards
marius

[Vitaliy S.]

Please take a look over here. Thanks!

[PTide]

You can spin-up a VM out of a physical backup instantly, without any preliminary conversions or unpacking.

Thanks!