Backup of File Server

[tecniciSolunet]

Good morning.

I have a File Server with Windows Server 2016 on an ESXi Host.
I need to be able to backup the hard drives connected to it.
The disk drives (29 vmdk files) are connected to the VM.
From Veeam I see all the hard drives but my intention is to perform a backup job for each vmdk instead of a single backup.
Is there an alternative to the classic backup job of the vm File Server with disks inserted in the exclusions? I have the standard version of Veeam so I couldn't even use the agent for Windows.

Thanks in advance

[Egor Yakovlev]

Greetings and welcome to the Veeam Forums!
If by "standard" you mean Community Edition, than "Yes, we can"(c) use Veeam Agent for Windows as long as it is within 10 free instances count. Having that said, you have 2 ways to achieve your scenario:
- Classic VM jobs with Disk Exclusions set. One job per vmdk disk.
- Veeam Agent for Windows: Volume Level Backup. One job per guest volume.
/Cheers!

[tecniciSolunet]

Thanks for the quick response.

We currently use the Veeam Standard Edition not the Community Edition.

If I choose the classic Job mode with the exclusion of the disks and create a single job per disk, will veeam take a snapshot of the whole VM for each job? even if I in the exclusion have deselected all the disks and the disk C?

i can't create simultaneous snapshot for single vm

Thanks

[Egor Yakovlev]

Yes, entire VM is snapshoted for each backup, even when discs are set to be excluded(those discs are skipped from processing).
/Thanks!

[foggy]

Doing so is not recommended due to possible restore issues.

[TaylorB]

I think your best bet to keep these 29 drives in a more manageable state is going to be to split them into multiple VMs or to combine them into fewer, larger drives. You may get better performance for users, too.