Vbo second copy to dr

[dhayes16]

Hello. I know this has been brought up many times but we are looking for the best way to get a vbo database copied to a Dr site. Right now the vbo function is running on a windows server to local storage (about 1tb). We are thinking of setting up hyperv on this 2019 server and spinning up a vm just for vbo AND the 1TB repo with a lot of room to grow. Then use vbr to backup that vm to the DR site via a backup copy job or replication. Does this sound reasonable?

If so we would need to move the vbo repo which is currently sitting on the server host to a virtual disk. We can get the repo on there but is there anything special to migrate?

Thanks

[Mildur]

Then use vbr to backup that vm to the DR site via a backup copy job or replication. Does this sound reasonable?

That‘s the recommended way todo the 3-2-1 rule.
But if you have now a physical server with local storage (local disks, iscsi), you can use the veeam agent todo backups of this machine. You don‘t need a vm for that. Backup with veeam agent is also supported to get the vbo data to the vbr backup repo and from there with a backup copy job to another site or a cloud connect repo. You can offload the backup data to object storage or tape too.
You only need the vm, if you want to have a replica or if the vbo365 backup data is on a smb share in your case. The veeam agent cannot backup the vbo365 data from a smb share.

https://bp.veeam.com/vbo/guide/design/3-2-1.html

For the migration, have a look at this kb article:
https://www.veeam.com/kb2649
The configuration cannot be migrated. You have to rebuild the entire vbo server configuration on the target server.

[dhayes16]

Thanks for the response. One of the other reasons I was considering a vm as opposed to an agent was because this server also has a vbr vm running on it which is handling the backups and backup copy jobs of the local vm infrastructure and physical machines. It is also running the hyperv role so we can use it for a local DR solution (no live vms on it except the vbr vm) . So vbo would be running in the parent hyperv partition which I believe would not be supported.

This server basically has a boot volume (c) and a very large data volume (d) formatted for refs. Vbr repos live on the refs file system as well as the vbo repo.

Does this change your recommendation to use an agent?

Again thanks very much

[Mildur]

If that‘s the case, running vbo inside the vm is a better choice. You need to backup the vbo installation on volume level. If your vbr repos are on the same volume as the vbo files, that would not be a very good solution. They would be in the backup too.

In your case, I would setup a new dedicated vm for the vbo installation, robocopy the vbo database files to the vm and configure the new vbo vm to use the migrated backup repo databases. You can use ntfs for the vbo repo volume. Veeam doesn‘t use refs optimized features for vbo.
https://www.veeam.com/kb2649

That‘s my design for all vbo customers to leverage the 3-2-1 policy and have a ransomware protection enabled:
1) setup a vm on the hypervisor
2) install vbo
3) create the backups jobs to a virtual disk of this vbo vm (retention between 1-5 years, customer decided that)
4) backup this vm to my vbr server (retention 30 days for DR and ransomware protection to linux hardened repo and S3 Object Lock Storage)

Restores can be done in the vbo or in the vbr console.

[dhayes16]

Thanks so much. I am not sure it matters but since this is hyperv the default virtual drive is thin provisioned. I am not sure it matters if it should be designated as a fixed disk. I know in the past fixed disk was recommended for stateful data intensive apps like sql or exchange.

Again thank you for for your replies on the weekend!! I appreciate you taking the time.

[phiaramos]

Hi, just want to ask how do we backup the configuration of VBO365. I noticed on the main menu of console that there's no option for configuration backup like on the VBR console. Is there a way to do it? May I also ask if there's a guide or procedure for it. Thanks a lot!

[Mildur]

Hi Phia

Please create a application aware backup of you vbo365 machine and you have the backup of the configuration.
Importing is not possible yet, but you can restore the entire machine or the configdb and proxydb folder to the same machine.

https://bp.veeam.com/vbo/guide/design/3-2-1.html

Protecting a VBO deployment with Veeam Backup & Replication (VBR) offers the following advantages:

- Ensures swift VBO components restores (ConfigDB, ProxyDB and associated files)

The configuration (ConfigDB) and Proxy (ProxyDb) folder on the VBO Server and VBO Proxy installations are very important. They include all the information and details for the VBO infrastructure configuration. Restoring these components from a backup is the quickest way to maintain the existing (running) configuration without affecting the rest of the VBO deployment and its jobs.

[Natalia Lupacheva]

Hi Phia,

Moved your post to the thread with creating a copy of your VBO server, you can check the discussions here (with a similar solution and also answered by Fabian).

THanks!