Feature Request - Seed to Cloud Conenct

[simplicity]

We desperately need the option to be able to seed VEB backups/BareMetal to a cloud connect provider. We are a provider and this going to really limit us selling the VEB product.

Already had two cases open one trying to get it to work and then the second they confirmed this is not going to currently work. (0265441 02088134)

[adamm_bws]

This will be supported in the next version of VEEAM agent for Windows.

See this thread for more information
veeam-agent-for-windows-f33/topic40495.html

[awatkins31]

I don't see that mentioned in the thread. Our business too is seeing this as a major need. We have several customers that we know would jump on this and store their backups in the cloud but without a way to seed the backups, we are at a standstill due to the amount of data that the initial backups require.

[adamm_bws]

My apologies - I was misunderstanding. I don't know on the seeding portion of it, but I do know that directly backing up to cloud connect will be supported.

[Dima P.]

Guys,

First, it’s possible to map agent backup to agent job. The only mandatory rule – backup job should remain the same on the agent side (frankly speaking you are allowed to change the destination).

- Create a local backup
- Ship to cloud connect side
- If you are using subtenants place backup to the correct location Repo/TenantName/Users/SubtenantName/Backup Job VAWHostName/MyBackup.vbk
- If you are using tenants Repo/TenantName/Backup Job VAWHostName/MyBackup.vbk
- Run rescan at VBR CC repository
- Modify the VAW job with correct subtenant account
- Start a VAW job

Seeding for clear VAW installations is not supported. If agent database was recreated – mapping won’t work as well.

Second, mapping for backup copy job is not supported. We will add this functionality to Veeam B&R in later versions.

Hope it helps!

EDIT: Added rescan step

[ispnet]

Tried seeding locally, manual copy to Cloud Connect Server, but first backup after local seed tried a full again. This feature is making the product unusable for a lot of our clients on ADSL or slower comms links.

Desperately need to be able to locally seed otherwise we will have to continue using another product.

Is there an ETA on when/what version this will be allowed?

Currently I can only sell the product to clients with 50Mb or more bandwidth.

Thanks

Andrew

[awatkins31]

I had same experience as ispnet. After reading Dima P's post, I too tried to seed again using those steps. I created a new backup with VAW and had that write to USB drive. Copied the Backup job folder and files including the .vbk file and the .vbm file from the USB drive to the cloud connect tenant folder. I then opened VAW backup configuration and changed the job to cloud connect. When I run the job again, it creates a new full (actually created a new folder of the same name as the existing job folder with an "_1" at the end. Is there possibly a hack that allows you to change the job backup location via config file or sql script as opposed to changing the job destination in the GUI of the VAW software?

[Dima P.]

Thanks for sharing. Please submit a support case if mapping is not working in VAW 2.0 and we will check your debug logs. Do not forget to post the case ID in this thread.

[Dima P.]

Guys,

Can you try to rescan repostiory on VBR side before starting the VAW job to the Cloud Connect? Thanks.

[awatkins31]

I have found a work around...may be a waste of time if seeding is going to be included in a future versions. I am not going to provide step-by-step details, but the general idea was that I setup a "portable seed cloud connect server". This server can be taken to a client site to get an initial seed. The "seed server" is running Veeam Cloud Connect and has identical settings (think repository, tenant name/pw, certificate, etc) as the production Cloud Connect server. Configure VWA to backup to cloud connect using the host name of your production cloud connect server but make sure that you edit DNS for client site so that the host name resolves locally to your "seed server". Once the initial backup has completed, take the seed data to the production cloud connect server and upload to repository making sure to put all of the data including job folder into a tenant folder of same name on production CC machine. Make sure to rescan repository and make sure that you have setup a tenant with identical name, quota, concurrent tasks, password, etc (may not matter but just to be safe). TIP: make sure that the repository you are using is set to automatically import backup jobs so that a rescan will see the newly copied data.

On the VWA side, after you have adjusted DNS back to resolving production CC to the actual production server, if you go ahead and run the backup job, it will most likely fail due to a repository ID mismatch. This is ok. What you need to do is simply open VWA control panel, choose configure job and just step through each step without changing any settings. all the settings should be identical including the certificate if you followed my advice above. Once you have stepped through all of the settings, VWA should reach out to the CC server and establish the connection. Now you should be able to run the VWA job, it will see the initial full job on the CC production server and run an incremental.

it would be a good idea to do this on a fresh VWA install or at least reset the VWA database if you want to try it out. Also, I tried to do the same thing with the free Endpoint but it did not behave in the same way...I tried to do Endpoint ---> Veeam local repo. Then Veeam local repo --->seed CC backup copy. Copy data from seed CC to production CC but it would run a full backup copy job each time. Oh well.

[Dima P.]

Hi Adam,

Thanks for sharing. Have you tested the workaround suggested by me?

[JardaCZ]

Dear community,

We use final version of Veeam Agent for Windows 2.0. One of our customers has 3TB of data and slow internet connection. He needs to do full backup to local USB hard drive, move to data center, copy the full backup to cloud repository and then send only increments. I know it wasn't possible in beta version, but have no info about final version od VAW.


Regards,
Jarda

[Dima P.]

Jarda,

Yes its possible. Kindly review this forum thread for details.

[simplicity]

I have confirm that it does work in 2.0 final release. I have only done two but it worked.

1. Configure and perform a Full backup with VAW to a local storage. (NOT "Backup to another location" this will not work)

2. Place the backup chain into the required folder on cloud repository. See the example below to make sure you have a valid path to your backups For example, your original files reside in C:\VeeamBackup\Backup Job 1 and need to be moved to Veeam cloud repository into following folder: C:\Backup. Under C:\Backup you will need to create a folder named after the tenant account that is used to access the repository. In my test lab, the account was Tenant2, so the folder name would be Tenant2. The complete path to the backup files would be C:\Backup\Tenant2\Backup Job 1

3. Rescan VBR repository. Here is a brief guide on repository rescan:
https://helpcenter.veeam.com/backup/vsp ... ories.html

4. Reconfigure VAW job to the required VBR cloud repository.

After that an incremental restore point should be created on a cloud repository.

FYI it does work on Linux repository. You just need to make sure the job folder is in the correct place/tenant on the repository.

[Dima P.]

Perfect, thanks for confirmation Rick!

[dlewellen]

Do you know when backup copy job seeding from VAW will be supported?

[bulletlynn]

+1 for Veeam Agent Backup copy seed support!

[ckuperstein]

I am not entirely understanding the limitations of backup copy and VAW.

We have a tenant that wants to backup their copy of their VAW backup on their local VBR to our VBR via cloud connect. Is this not possible?

[Customer Bare Metal Server]---> [Veeam Agent for Windows]---> [Customer Onsite VBR] ---> [Backup Copy Job] ---> [Our Cloud connect Repo]?

Is the above solution not currently seedable between the Customer Onsite VBR and our Cloud Connect Repo?

[Dima P.]

Chris,

There is no way to seed or map agent backup to agent backup copy (and visa versa). Right now it’s more a technical limitation, which we plan to remove.

[ckuperstein]

Dima,

Is there a feature or bug tracker I can subscribe to, to track this?

[unicomclint]

+! for Seed

[Dima P.]

Hi Chris,

No. We keep this system internally.

[joshuab]

We are desperate to get the functionality to do a VAW Backup Copy seed. Trying to get customers off of other backup solutions, but with limited internet speeds we cannot convince them to do so if it will take a month or more to get their data to the Cloud Connect repository. Consider me a +1 for VAW Backup Copy seeding too. Thanks

[Dima P.]

Joshua,

Thanks. We have this functionality in plans. Just to make sure we are on the same page - VAW supports backup mapping when backing up directly to Cloud Connect, so you can create a local backup point agent to Cloud Connect repository and then map existing backup.

[adamm_bws]

Dima -

What Joshua is referring to is the ability to seed a backup copy job of a VAW to VBR job. This way they can have both local and cloud backups. Currently, when in the configuration of a backup copy job for Agent Backups, there is no ability to map backups. Only if you do it directly from the VAW, which wouldn't allow for cloud backups.
Backup Copy of an agent job: https://i.imgur.com/hVAVafw.png
Backup Copy of a VMWare job: https://i.imgur.com/RdFvuwa.png

[rgreen83]

+1 hoping something will be posted here when this functionality is available, currently we are picking up whole vbr boxes and bringing them to our office to "seed" over our wan connection and then taking them back to the client

[nilzor]

With a bit of tinkering I was able to move my repository on a remote location without reseeding through the WAN connection. Maybe someone can replicate my steps from here and confirm if this applies here
veeam-agent-for-windows-f33/seed-backup ... 44121.html