FileShare IP only accessible by an Agent but not the VBR sever

[rleon]

Hi all,

I understand a Veeam Agent job can only select local disks or USB drives to backup.
That means Mapped network drives (E.g., Z:\ mapped to a network NAS) and UNC, SMB/CIFS paths (E.g., \\networkShare\docs\) cannot be selected in the Agent job for backup.

Normally, this could be dealt with by using the File Share Job type. (The issues of no-GFS and no-Tape-out support with this kind of jobs aside... we'll leave them for another topic...)
But a question came up with a client where there is this NAS path, let's say \\NAS\documents\, that is only accessible by a Veeam Agent host, but not accessible by the Veeam server, due to security/firewall/corporate-drama™ reasons.
Note: There is only one Veeam server with all the roles: SQL DB, VBR, Repository, Proxy, Gateway, Tape Server, etc.

That means a File Share Job cannot be created to backup this NAS because the Veeam server has no direct network connection to it.
If only the Agent Job allows the inclusion of these NAS files (I.e., for the Agent to see these files as the same as any other locally accessible files), then the VBR server could essentially use the Agent as some kind of network-proxy-device to reach those network-isolated NAS files.
But, as we know, this is not supported.

In short: Veeam server can reach Agent, Agent can reach NAS, but Veeam server cannot reach NAS directly.
Does anyone know of any workaround for backing up this NAS SMB path?
Thanks!

[HannesK]

Hello,
did you try adding the "Backup Proxy" role to the agent machine?

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

Best regards,
Hannes

[rleon]

Hi Hannes,

Your solution worked nicely!
Client is still unhappy that VUL license is counted twice: One for the Agent's own local backup, another for the File Share backup through the Agent-as-a-Proxy.
But that's another matter entirely. (Personally I think it's still fair)
Thanks!