Replicate snapshots along with VM

[msummers123]

I have been setting up our own Veeam 5 Backup and Replication environment. I have an ESX 3.5 server and a number of ESXi 5 servers at our main site being replicated to a number of ESXi 5 servers at our datacenter. I'm basically testing and learning the software in preperation for a larger rollout to a number of sites for our customers.

I have set up scripts to create rolling snapshots in VMWare to allow customers to restore the VMs to points in time, which so far has been working great. However, when I replicate the VMs, Veeam removes all the snapshots as part of the replication process. I would like to have it replicate the snapshots along with the VM, so the customer could restore the replica to specific points in time. Is there a way to get Veeam to not consolidate the snapshots once the replication finishes?

An alternative would be if I could come up with an adequate customer facing interface for them to restore the VMs themselves. My understanding is that for them to run the Veeam client they need administrator privileges, which I'm not prepared to do unless there is no other option. I'm new to this technology so please correct me if I'm wrong.

[Gostev]

Hi Mark, currently it is not possible to replicate snapshots.

However, v6 replica will store each restore point as a snapshot, so this may help to achieve the same thing. The customer will be able to just power on any restore point with vSphere Client. But, generally we still recommend using Veeam UI as this would enable them to perform advanced operations later (such as failback, or permanent failover). Doing this through Veeam UI will also take care of automatically updating existing jobs to exclude failed over VMs. So, doing failover from UI really makes life much, much easier.

You can limit users to restore operations only by grating them the Restore Operator role (see page 152 in the User Guide). This way they will not be able to change any settings, manage and control jobs, and so on.

Thanks!

[msummers123]

Hi Mark, currently it is not possible to replicate snapshots.

However, v6 replica will store each restore point as a snapshot, so this may help to achieve the same thing. The customer will be able to just power on any restore point with vSphere Client. But, generally we still recommend using Veeam UI as this would enable them to perform advanced operations later (such as failback, or permanent failover). Doing this through Veeam UI will also take care of automatically updating existing jobs to exclude failed over VMs. So, doing failover from UI really makes life much, much easier.

You can limit users to restore operations only by grating them the Restore Operator role (see page 152 in the User Guide). This way they will not be able to change any settings, manage and control jobs, and so on.

Thanks!

Thank you for your reply, Gostev. Sounds like the future release may be one possibility. Any idea when that might be released? I saw the options to create a backup operator, but it looks like you need administrator privileges on the server the software is installed on to run the client ("Veeam Backup and Replication" which points to "veeam.backup.shell.exe"). Is there any way around this? My main concern is actually them screwing up the application server moreso than within Veeam itself.

[Gostev]

This quarter.

Administrator privileges are only need for file level restores, you *should* be able to do everything without them, at least it was possible before - but I have not tested this personally on the current version.

[msummers123]

Ok, thanks for the info.