Veeam Agent restore to VHD

[TitaniumCoder477]

Asset: Server
Job: Veeam Agent copy job
Repo: Cloud connect

Trying to restore... Since I can't restore directly to Azure from the cloud connect repo, I'm trying to export to VHD to a local repo on the Azure BNR server, then upload to Azure blob and use for VM creation.

Figure 1: Specifically says for use with Azure


However, Veeam exports as dynamic disks and Azure requires fixed disks. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/ ... -vhd-image

And please don't tell me that the expectation is that, post Veeam export, one is required to do the conversion manually using Convert-VHD...

[TitaniumCoder477]

This is what Azure says when we try to create the VM using the VHD that Veeam exported:

Code: Select all

{
    "error": {
        "code": "BadRequest",
        "message": "Disk [redacted]-DC16-1_Disk0.vhd' with blob https://[redacted].blob.core.windows.net:8443/temp/[redacted]-DC16-1_Disk0.vhd is of Dynamic VHD type. Please retry with fixed VHD type."
    }
}

[TitaniumCoder477]

Figure 2: Microsoft definitely requires fixed, so I am very puzzled why Veeam's export wizard for VHD says "or Microsoft Azure"

[TitaniumCoder477]

Well, I have concluded, between this post and support, that this is a known issue that no one really wants to acknowledge. In the end, we had to upgrade the VM type in Azure to one that supports Hyper-V extensions. Then we had to leverage the Convert-VHD cmdlet to perform the dynamic to fixed conversion since Veeam isn't doing this on our behalf. I cannot say how frustrating this is, but oh well.

[Dima P.]

Hello James,

Sorry for the delay. You've mentioned that you have a case with us. Can you please share the case ID to look through the details? Thank you in advance!

[TitaniumCoder477]

The case is 04275838. I have closed it because the engineer assigned did not appear to have a clue what I was talking about and we had to proceed with "Plan B" which was to upgrade the VM type to support nested virtualization in order to install the Hyper-V role and gain access to the Convert-VHD cmdlet to perform the conversion from dynamic to fixed. Unfortunately using vboxmanage and qemu tools did not result in a conversion plus valid disk alignment to get the VHD usable for an Azure VM. Only Microsoft's PowerShell cmdlet worked. This was very much a pain to have to do manually, not to mention the additional cost of having to run the backup server as a more expensive VM type just to facilitate this conversion.

[Dima P.]

I'll discuss your issue with RnD folks and get back to you. Thanks for the details James!

[Dima P.]

James,

Talked with RnD folks: indeed disks are exported as dynamic and currently there is no workaround within Veeam B&R. I've noted an improvement request and will discuss it with the development. Thank you for your post!

[TitaniumCoder477]

Perfect, thanks!