Veeam coexist with VDR plus Virtual Appliance Mode Question

[evander]

Hi - I am new to the Veeam revolution so I have a couple quick questions that I have tried searching for but still not 100% sure about.

First Question:
I have Vmware VDR currently running and its doing well, however I bought and would like to implement Veeam, but I would actually like to keep VDR running at the same time. It may sound strange but I cant think of any particular reason why two backups arent better than one. I have enough processing power and only a handful of Virtual Machines to backup. So my plan is to run VDR locally on my production Vmware environment and also have Veeam running on my Distaster Recovery Site. Essentially local backups and remote backups.
What I am unsure about though is if the two will conflict with each other? I am assuming if they are both running at the same time, against the same VM they both will try create snapshots and it will be an issue right? but if they are scheduled to run at different times this wont be a problem, correct?
What about CBT - from the Sticky FAQ, it seems this wont be a problem at all, so thats good.
Are there any other issues I need to consider for this coexist setup?

Second Question:
From my reading up on the subject, am I correct in saying I cant use Virtual Appliance Mode if my Virtual box running Veeam is running at the DR site pulling backups from the Primary Site? The wording in the sticky FAQ says: "No special configuration is needed for VM. Host running Veeam Backup VM must have all datastores where processed VMs reside connected to it"

So here's my confusion, and excuse the ignorance, but if my Veeam install is running on a ESXi 4 host at the DR site, then yes it is in my ESXi 4 VMware environment (all managed by vCenter) but it is not "directly" connected to the SAN at my Primary site and hence the Primary site Datastores. I can obviously storage vmotion between these two sites if need be but does the Veeam server have to be "directly' connected to the primary site for Virtual Appliance Mode to work?
As a side note - the Primary site and DR site are connected via 100Mb connection - essentionally LAN speed but different physical buildings, therefore DR'ish

Thanks for the help

[Vitaliy S.]

What I am unsure about though is if the two will conflict with each other? I am assuming if they are both running at the same time, against the same VM they both will try create snapshots and it will be an issue right? but if they are scheduled to run at different times this wont be a problem, correct?

Multiple snapshots of the same VM shouldn't cause any issues, as we do backup VMs with existing snapshots. Here are some thoughts on similar situation, take a look: Creating a snapshot while a backup is in progress

Are there any other issues I need to consider for this coexist setup?

Since VDR doesn't provide application aware image processing, not sure there are any issues with coexistence.

From my reading up on the subject, am I correct in saying I cant use Virtual Appliance Mode if my Virtual box running Veeam is running at the DR site pulling backups from the Primary Site? The wording in the sticky FAQ says: "No special configuration is needed for VM. Host running Veeam Backup VM must have all datastores where processed VMs reside connected to it"

Yes, that's correct, as there is no point in mounting virtual disk to backup server through a WAN link. Virtual Appliance mode should be used on source site to have maximum backup job performance.

So here's my confusion, and excuse the ignorance, but if my Veeam install is running on a ESXi 4 host at the DR site, then yes it is in my ESXi 4 VMware environment (all managed by vCenter) but it is not "directly" connected to the SAN at my Primary site and hence the Primary site Datastores. I can obviously storage vmotion between these two sites if need be but does the Veeam server have to be "directly' connected to the primary site for Virtual Appliance Mode to work?

Yes, ESXi host running Veeam Backup server must have direct connection to your SAN on the Primary site if you want to use VA backup mode. Only in this case data will go directly from storage via ESX(i) storage stack (bypassing network stack).

[evander]

Great! thanks for the detailed response to my many questions. Much appreciated