deployment options and SQL database for 50-100 VM

[htoonlinnaung]

If we have 50 to 100 virtual machines in our vsphere virtual environment,

standalone deployment options and built-in SQL express are suitable or not, please suggest me.

[wishr]

Hi Htoon,

Both options are suitable, but in your case, I would stick with SQL Express because of simplicity. Also, I would suggest you take a look at our BP portal for more information.

Thanks

[Andreas Neufert]

The Express has some limitations arround database size (10GB) and that it only uses specific amount of RAM and CPU.
The size could be a limitating factor when you do File to Tape (Backup 2 tape is no issue).
The CPU/RAM limit could slow down the UI when you create hundreds of jobs. => Not the case in your environment.
Go with the Express edition it will be fine.

[Gostev]

According to the current recommendations, SQL Express is considered a safe choice for up to 500 VMs. Beyond that, it depends on whether you do daily backup jobs or continuous replications, how many people are using UI at the same time, etc.

Last year, I've seen one local customer run out of 10GB database size limit still without hitting SQL Express performance limits, and they had over 1000 VMs

[skrause]

Just to give you some numbers for comparison. We have about 270 VMs across three datacenters being backed up every day with around 75 jobs being managed by the same B&R server using SQL Express for the last 3+ years. Our database is less than 3GB in size.

We don't do file to tape jobs - I tried that once and SQL express could not keep up

[Gostev]

These real-world metrics are extremely useful, thanks a lot for sharing Steve.

[skrause]

No problem. I should also note that our logs are 7GB, I am guessing that they have never been truncated since I first installed Veeam on that server years ago.

We do the automatic configuration backup with Veeam. Maybe you could add some periodic log truncation logic to that process (assuming it is for all intents and purposes just a SQL backup)?

[Gostev]

Actually, 7GB means they ARE being truncated... otherwise, they'd just grow forever and your volume would overfill in a matter of weeks. I had to wear a SharePoint admin hat in the early days of Veeam, and these transaction logs were such a pain

[skrause]

That is good to know, thanks!

I was thinking that was a bit large for a 3GB database but now that I think about how many things happen on a daily basis it makes sense they would be larger.

[sandsturm]

Just keep in mind that if you have File2Tape jobs (to backup some SMB-fileshares for example), the 10GB of the SQL express instance is not enough. File2Tape jobs have a huge impact on the Veeam DB size. I ran into this problem for one of my very small locations with just a few VM's and a File2Tape job for SMB-share backup of some Netapp fileshares, were I thought it's enough with the SQL express, but it wasn't

[skrause]

You do have to keep in mind that the File to Tape job impact on the database size is very dependent on the number of files. If you are backing up a directory that has a few hundred really large files there really won't be much impact. It is when you are backing up hundreds of thousands or millions of small files that it hammers the DB.