How to backup content libraries

[onthax]

We have a few large comprehensive libraries, previously we've kept them as VM Templates and backed them up like this, but we've changed to a content library methodology to enable automatic synchronization between datacentres.

How do we back up the content library through veeam?

[anthonyspiteri79]

Hey there.

Given the content libraries present themselves as folders\files on a datastore, in theory you can use the File Copy job to back them up to a local\remote folder. From there you could ingest that folder into a regular VM backup for retention. To restore you would need to copy the files back into the Content Library, though the challenge you may have is the ID that's associated with the library. If all was lost, the structure will have to be re-created, but all the ISOs, OVAs etc can be recovered.

[onthax]

Thanks Anthony,

that looks like it will be workable, as you say even though the structure will go the OVAs can be recovered and library recreated.

Is there any expectation that Veeam will have a more robust content library backup method moving forward since VMware are pushing more in that direction?

[anthonyspiteri79]

I believe it makes sense but would be dependant on a few things at our end plus how VMware present the structure out from vCenter...

The Product Managers keep a keen eye on these forums...so It should be marked down as an FR.

[its-user01]

Is it possible to make Veeam backup of VMware Content Library?

[DGrinev]

Hi Brian,

In the current version of the product you cannot backup Content Library, however, there is a kind of workaround described in this thread above.
Your voice heard and counted as a feature request, thank you!

[its-user01]

Ok, thanks all for Quick reply. We are using the workaround, but was hoping that it was supporter by now.

[cfizz34]

Has there been any updates to this or a better/cleaner way to accomplish backing up and restoring from the content library?

[Andreas Neufert]

I guess you could place it on a NFS datastore and use the Veeam NAS backup in v10 to backup the files.
But there is no API on the VMware side to back it up.