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dionita
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Veeam Server Template

Post by dionita »

Hi guys,

We're in the process of trialling Veeam B&R 9.5 and our environment requires swift deployment of individual instances of veeam servers for different customers. We're planning to do that as Hyper-V VMs (on Windows Server Standard Core platforms), and we were wondering what's the best approach to achieve a streamline to this process...

After doing some digging, we learned that each server should maintain uniqueness and, on that basis, our server template comes pre-installed with all prerequisites, then runs a powershell script to do a full unattended install of the sever components from attached iso. Although not perfect, this process works quite well in our initial testing stages, but we would like to further the concept into a true pre-installed image valid after cloning.

Based on the above info we have a few questions we'd like to clarify:

1. Would the server's sysprep procedure provide uniqueness to the Veeam server instance?
2. Is there a possibility of a script to be ran to alter the key points in registry/filesystem after cloning so uniqueness is achieved safely?
3. Given the nature of our planned deployment (only one Veeam server per Layer 2 site serving local backups as well as sending to Cloud Connect) - we presume local behaviour of a clone would be fine. But how about Cloud Connect? Is there a unique footprint that Cloud Connect needs in order to not clash with other servers establishing sessions to the same VCC gateway?

Thanks,

Daniel.
HannesK
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Re: Veeam Server Template

Post by HannesK »

Hello,
and welcome to the forums.

I do the same for my lab (just based on VMware) for testing new versions. The only thing I pre-install is a license file.

1. yes. I don't even do sysprep because it requires manual choice of passwords, etc. I only use VMware OS customization (including newsid). Don't know whether Hyper-V has something like that.
2. not sure what you mean. I do everything with powershell remoting (invoke-command)
3. not sure what issue you could run into. Multiple VBR servers can use send data to one VCC server.

Best regards,
Hannes
dionita
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Re: Veeam Server Template

Post by dionita »

Hi Hannes,

Thank you for info! Just to clarify some stuff here:

1. Hyper-V (being Microsoft) would rely on Sysprep Generalize to build a template (even via System Center Virtual Machine Manager). This implies a name change and other forum posts suggest that this kills the SQL instance as it tries to work with the old name in the machine's registry. We tested this and the services are indeed not starting after the change.
2. This method would be about having a script (ran remotely or locally & without sysprepping) which runs against a pure clone - to amend machine name / SQL database parameters in registry.
3. My only concern here derives from a lack of knowledge on what handshake mechanics are used behind the scenes between a cloud tenant and the VCC. Registered tenants will be different on the clones, but not sure if any machine-specific stuff is passed along that might conflict (guess it's worth mentioning that we will have the remote console option enabled for the clones)

Everywhere I read on resembling topics, Veeam support always suggests clean installs to guarantee full functionality. We will take on their advice, it's just that we'd like to know how other people do it in a working environment to achieve the best result & if there are any pitfalls. :)

Regards,
Daniel.
HannesK
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Re: Veeam Server Template

Post by HannesK »

oh well, I always do new VBR installation to avoid that SQL hassle. It takes about 30min on spinning disks for a fully configured VBR server, which is fast enough for me.

I guess nobody ever really tested clones :-)
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