Host-based backup of VMware vSphere VMs.
Post Reply
ksl28
Enthusiast
Posts: 48
Liked: 8 times
Joined: Sep 21, 2016 8:31 am
Full Name: Kristian Leth
Contact:

Design considerations

Post by ksl28 »

Hi,

We are currently looking into, redesigning our entire Veeam B&R infrastructure, and the way that jobs are working.
We currently have Veeam Enterprise plus license, for both B&R and Enterprise manager - and we plan to keep both of them.
The environment consists of 5 B&R servers around the world (with alot of proxies), that are all linked to the Enterprise Manager.
Everyday the backup for the given B&R server is performed, and stored on the same site, as the production. After the job is done, the backup is then copied to an alternative location.
This is due to slow uplink at some of the sites, and that we want, to have the backup perform as fast as possible, leaving an minimal impact on the production during work hours.

Considerations:
My idea was to convert everything, to be handled by tags in VMWare, using some standard backup policies. Example:
Daily category:
EMEA_DAILY_7_DAYS
EMEA_DAILY_14_DAYS
EMEA_DAILY_21_DAYS
EMEA_DAILY_31_DAYS
Monthly categori:
EMEA_MONTHLY_3_MONTHS
EMEA_MONTHLY_6_MONTHS
EMEA_MONTHLY_9_MONTHS
EMEA_MONTHLY_12_MONTHS

So to split it up:
EMEA = The location - could be USA, ASIA, EMEA, etc
DAILY / MONTHLY = Indicates how often the backup is performed
Number = Indicates how long retention, will be held for the given job
MONTHS / DAYS = Indicates the value combined with the number above.

Each VM can ONLY be part of one entry, within each category. But ALL VMs will atleast, have 1 DAILY tag enabled.
So VM1 can have EMEA_DAILY_14_DAYS AND EMEA_MONTHLY_3_MONTHS, but cant have multiple daily or monthly tags enabled (This is handled in VMWare).
VM2 can have EMEA_DAILY_7_DAYS, since this is just an frontend server, and can be deployed using an Git repository = the server dont have any "real data" stored there.

The Issue:
Since the daily and monthly jobs are different backup jobs, we dont have an backup chain.
Meaning that when the monthly backup starts, it will pull everything from the production SANs, causing alot of load on the production system.

Ive looked into the Veeam GFS setup, and im a huge fan in general of the concept. But that is done on the job level, for all the VMs within the job.
So if 80% of all VMs in the EMEA_DAILY_14_DAYS job DONT have the EMEA_MONTHLY_3_MONTHS tag, it will still create an backup, containing the 80% of the VMs, that shouldnt be part of this.


From my point of view, there is 2 options.
1.
Create alot of backup jobs, covering our backup strategy:
EMEA_DAILY_7_DAYS_3_MONTHLY
EMEA_DAILY_7_DAYS_6_MONTHLY
EMEA_DAILY_7_DAYS_9_MONTHLY
EMEA_DAILY_7_DAYS_12_MONTHLY
EMEA_DAILY_14_DAYS_3_MONTHLY
EMEA_DAILY_14_DAYS_6_MONTHLY
EMEA_DAILY_14_DAYS_9_MONTHLY
EMEA_DAILY_14_DAYS_12_MONTHLY

2.
From what ive read, Veeam Enterprise Manager can include the Server Version of Veeam Agent.
So we could go with only Daily backup jobs (EMEA_DAILY_7_DAYS,EMEA_DAILY_14_DAYS, etc) within Veeam B&R, and then leave the monthly, quarterly or even yearly backups to the Veeam Agent.


I dont believe we will ever disaster recovery any servers, more than 31 days old. So the monthly backup is only for File-level and maybe MSSQL database-level recovery.

From my point of view, that Veeam agent solution might be the best one, since only 5-10% of our servers, will require more than 31 days of backup.
But im not very familiar with the Veeam agent, and what possibilities there is (can we control the schedule from the B&R servers, can users self-service restore through the Enterprise manager, etc).

We got everything else covered in the upcoming Veeam B&R design, but cant seem to find an "no management approach", to handle our jobs.
So im all ears to any ideas, thoughts, whispers from god, on how to design this! :)

Sorry for the long post, but would really appreciate some help :)
orb
Service Provider
Posts: 126
Liked: 27 times
Joined: Apr 01, 2016 5:36 pm
Full Name: Olivier
Contact:

Re: Design considerations

Post by orb » 1 person likes this post

Hi,

Sorry for the short answers but you might want to look at the following
  • Consider the WAN acceleration feature since you have an E+ licence type. This part can be tricky to size well, check the manual and Veeam BP website
  • VMware tags can be consumed in a Backup Copy Job to keep your main backup chain as the primary source.
  • The advantage of Backup Copy Job over Backup Job are they can be restarted, paused without restarting from the beginning
  • Veeam can throttle network transmission over the time
As a side note:
  • The longer you wait, the more difference you have between schedules. Daily might be your best way for Backup Copy job.
  • Veeam Agent backup in a VM isn't allowed anymore when your licence in VBR is a perpetual type.
The following tools will help you with your new design

https://rps.dewin.me/
https://rps.dewin.me/bandwidth/
https://vse.veeambp.com/#/


Oli
ksl28
Enthusiast
Posts: 48
Liked: 8 times
Joined: Sep 21, 2016 8:31 am
Full Name: Kristian Leth
Contact:

Re: Design considerations

Post by ksl28 »

Hi Oli,

Thanks alot for the post :)
We are actually using WAN accelerators at the moment, but only from our many branch offices.

I was thinking that Backup Copy jobs would fullfill our needs, but im still note sure.
Lets say that the EMEA_DAILY_7_DAYS backup job, contains VM1 and VM2. VM1 is the only of those 2 VMs, that have the EMEA_MONTHLY_3_MONTHS tag.
If i create an backup copy job called "EMEA_MONTHLY_3_MONTHS_REPLICATION" to an offsite location, what tags should i then include?
I would guess its the EMEA_MONTHLY_3_MONTHS, but are Veeam B&R then intelligent enough, to use the backups from the EMEA_DAILY_7_DAYS backup - or will it use the EMEA_MONTHLY_3_MONTHS, that contains VM1, but dont have any backup chain in this job, and therefor not really copy anything?

I hope you or someone else, can answer that question - because then our struggle is over! :)
orb
Service Provider
Posts: 126
Liked: 27 times
Joined: Apr 01, 2016 5:36 pm
Full Name: Olivier
Contact:

Re: Design considerations

Post by orb »

Hello Kristian,

As long you VBR server is "aware" of all sources and acts the central hub/orchestrator for a region. You are good.

VBR-Region
localOffice (source) -> localOffice_BackupJob (Daily_Sched-RestorePoints:30_Weekly:Full) -> localOffice_BackupCopyJob (Daily_Sched-RestorePoints:7) -> RegionBackupCopy (Daily-RestorePoints:RetentionAnythingYouWant-RetentionAnythingYouWant)

That's one of many possible solutions while you use also Veeam Cloud Connect or even Object Storage in the public cloud.

Veeam 10 allows GFS with a Backup Job and Backup Copy job which make a killing feature as soon as you leverage block cloning technologies (ReFS or XFS) because you don't have to worry about your full being transmitted over the wire.

Hope it helps
Oli
ksl28
Enthusiast
Posts: 48
Liked: 8 times
Joined: Sep 21, 2016 8:31 am
Full Name: Kristian Leth
Contact:

Re: Design considerations

Post by ksl28 »

Hi,

Thanks ALOT!
This really helped alot!

I will look into this, and also the GFS part, since we are going to use Linux XFS scale-out repository, when its released :)
orb
Service Provider
Posts: 126
Liked: 27 times
Joined: Apr 01, 2016 5:36 pm
Full Name: Olivier
Contact:

Re: Design considerations

Post by orb »

Glad to hear it.

You can already use Linux with limitation since v10 but v11 is around the corner indeed.

Oli
foggy
Veeam Software
Posts: 21069
Liked: 2115 times
Joined: Jul 11, 2011 10:22 am
Full Name: Alexander Fogelson
Contact:

Re: Design considerations

Post by foggy » 1 person likes this post

Hi Kristian, as an addition, v11 will add support for multi-tags - if you add several tags to the job, only VM's that have all of them assigned will be backed up. Might help in your planning.
ksl28
Enthusiast
Posts: 48
Liked: 8 times
Joined: Sep 21, 2016 8:31 am
Full Name: Kristian Leth
Contact:

Re: Design considerations

Post by ksl28 »

Hi,

Thanks alot for the reply.
I like the new feature in V11, but i dont think, it will suit our need. I believe it will make it more complex, for our end users to define an backup defition, when spawning VMs.

Ive created an PoC with the settings Orb mentioned, but i cant seem to figure out, how to setup an GFS job for an non-existing Backup job.
So far ive created these jobs, and its working as intended.
https://ibb.co/rxQFbM8
(Not sure ive uploaded it correctly - dont seem i can upload directly to this forum???)

What i would like now, is to create an monthly GFS backup for VM1, that has BOTH "EMEA_DKHO_DAILY_7_DAYS" AND "EMEA_DKHO_MONTHLY_COPY_3_MONTHS".
It should perform the GFS backup from the "EMEA_DKHO_DAILY_7_DAYS" job, to an local repository, that is copied to an external repository.
So that all backups are stored at 2 locations, and the ones with the MONTHLY_COPY tags, are included in an GFS backup.

I hope that makes sense :)
orb
Service Provider
Posts: 126
Liked: 27 times
Joined: Apr 01, 2016 5:36 pm
Full Name: Olivier
Contact:

Re: Design considerations

Post by orb »

Hi,

I understand "EMEA_DKHO_DAILY_7_DAYS" is your source. You cannot make a new backup chain but only a backup copy chain. In your case, I would recommend using always first periodic over immediate unless you have a particular case (ex SQL log shipping). Periodic is more flexible

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=110
https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=110

Oli
Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 101 guests