Backing up VM with Agent and B&R

[HDClown]

I run VM's in a VMware Hosted IaaS environment where the IaaS provider uses Veeam to do a backups of my hosted VM's on a nightly schedule. The VM backups done by the IaaS provider do not have application aware processing or guest file-system indexing enabled.

I also run VM's on-prem where I use B&R to backup my on-prem VM's. I would like to deploy, from my on-prem B&R server, Veeam Agent out to the hosted VM's at the IaaS provider. The primary reason I want to do this is so I have an on-prem copy of my data/VM for DR purposes. I would have used cases with using Agent to backup these hosted VM's, with some set as entire computer backup (so I can restore the entire VM to my on-prem environment), and others as file-level only backup (where I only care about certain file data and not the entire VM).

I had briefly reviewed my desire with the IaaS provider to have an on-prem backup of the hosted VM and they said using Veeam Agent to do this would be fine, and they would even let me purchase Agent licenses from them on subscription (which I can use on my own on-prem B&R server).

Is there any technical concerns I need to consider with this dual backup method given there would be two jobs running against a single Veeam where each job is managed by a different B&R server? I will use the default CBT driver for Agent (not the Veeam driver). I would like run my Agent job with application aware processing and guest file-system indexing enabled.

[Natalia Lupacheva]

Hi,

in the case you've described you need to remember that the direct network access from your Backup server to your Agents is required.
Also, did you consider Backup Copy job creation on the Provider site? It might help if you need to have a copy of your data.

Thanks!

[Vitaliy S.]

and they would even let me purchase Agent licenses from them on subscription (which I can use on my own on-prem B&R server).

On a side note, rental license keys (belonging to your service providers) cannot be merged with your existing license keys installed into Veeam B&R. You will need to spin up a separate backup server and let this service provider manage it.

Merging license keys is only possible in the subscription/perpetual scenarios (not rental).

[HDClown]

There is direct access via VPN between my on-prem environment and hosted VM's.

The provider said they have no way at this time to send me Veeam backup data to my on-prem environment, which is what I want. It's not just to have a second copy of the data in general. The provider is actually using Backup Copy to send my data to one of their other data centers in another state, so multiple copies of the data in covered (same site and offsite) This is specifically for me to have a copy of my data in my own hands outside of this providers environment.

On a side note, rental license keys (belonging to your service providers) cannot be merged with your existing license keys installed into Veeam B&R. You will need to spin up a separate backup server and let this service provider manage it.

Good to know, as this was not mentioned by them. I won't be using their rental licenses anyway as I decided to buy them under my own on-prem licensing. This just makes that decision the only viable route to go as I have no desire to maintain two B&R servers