How Do I Put Veeam Solution in 'Maintenance Mode' for Veeam B&R Server Maintenance ?

[huddie]

First of all, I know Veeam doesn't have an overall maintenance mode - hence the single quotes. We have a Veeam B&R server and a Veeam repository server. This is a newly implemented solution that I've project managed alongside our supplier. I'll also be running it. I want to know what copy jobs and other Veeam activities I need to stop to do server maintenance, such as Microsoft Updates, on the Veeam B&R server. I'm aware of the Veeam article on how to stop everything, however, I suspect that is excessive and that some jobs, such as SOBR offload jobs, may not need to be stopped as they execute only on the Veeam repository server. So, what exactly do I need to stop for VB&R server maintenance ? I've included a quick sketch of our Veeam infrastructure.

• Veeam B&R: v11.0.1.1261
  Veeam B&R server: Windows Server 2019 v1809
  Veeam repository server: Red Hat Enterprise Linux v8.4

https://1drv.ms/u/s!Am8iAwlj8Okc7ByuPxD ... h?e=wm6vX9

[Mildur]

Hi Paul

Stopping the veeam Services on the Backup Server is the way to go.
Offloads are done by the backup repo and s3 gateway server, that‘s correct. But the offload is orchestrated by the veeam backup server. If services on the backup server are donw, no veeam task will run in the entire backup infrastructure.

So, I would do that:
- Make sure that no backup and restore is running
- Make sure that no Backup copy Job is running, disable them after they have copied all restore points (copy job in idle state)
- Make sure, that no offload is running at the moment (offload should pick up after service stop where it was before stopping the services), you can put the object storage in maintenance, if you want to be sure that nothing bad happens. But it is not necessary I think.
- Stop Veeam Services on the veeam backup server

[huddie]

Thanks Mildur.

We have no dedicated 's3 gateway server' (I don't even know what it is). Would this be a service running on our VB&R server or a service/daemon on the repository server? Sorry if this seems like a stupid question, but I'm off work today and don't have access.

So it seems I have to stop all jobs, right? Being new to Veeam and coming from a Commvault / NetBackup background, this seems really odd and cumbersome as I would have expected to see an 'enter maintenance mode' option that took care of this for me.

[Mildur]

The object storage gateway Server is a managed server (windows or linux), which is responsible to offload the files to the object storage.
If you don't choose one yourself in the object storage settings in veeam, veeam uses automatically the server which holds the performance extends as the S3 gateway server.
If you have a Linux hardened repo, then the veeam backup server itself will be the gateway server for the object storage offload.

You can do windows updates even if veeam is running. But as soon you have to reboot, backup jobs needs to be stopped. If a backup copy job or a backup job is running, they will be cancelled when you reboot the veeam backup server. This can lead to incomplete restore points.

There was a feature request somewhere in the forums to implement a maintenance mode for the entire VBR Server, but I cannot find it at the moment.

[huddie]

> There was a feature request somewhere in the forums to implement a maintenance mode for the entire VBR Server, but I cannot find it at the moment.

Yeah, I expect so. I'll try to find it and up-vote.

Thanks for clarifying things for me re stopping jobs.

[Mildur]

Your welcome.
I think, I found it:

Feature Request : Global Maintenance Mode Switch

[huddie]

Cheers. Just liked that thread.