Veeam 6 Incremental Replication

[Alexogir]

Hi Everyboady,

Apologies beforehand for what might be a silly question.
I’m testing VMWare replication to make sure it covers all our needs before we buy it.
I ran a replication from a ESXi5 (1 VM, about 350GB) to another ESXi5 (DR server) locally via LAN. Then I moved the DR server off site, uploaded 500MB of data to the source VM and now trying to run a replication again. It looks like it runs a full replication again, not just the changes.

Can anybody point me to the right direction; I probably just need to enable the job for the incremental replication, have no clue how to do that.
Any input is appriciated.

Cheers.

[Vitaliy S.]

Hello,

Incremental backup/replica happens by default on every subsequent run, so you do not need to enable anything. Make sure your VM is running at least hardware version 7. Btw, what version of Veeam B&R are you currently running?

Thank you!

[Alexogir]

[merged]

Hi Everyone.

I’m trying to test Veeam Replication before we actually buy it .

I’ve set up a job to replicate a VM (~300GB) from one ESXi5 to another ESXi5 (DR server). It ran successfully. Then I moved the DR server to an off-site location and trying to run a replication again.

I uploaded a 100MB file to the VM on the first ESXi5 to test incremental replication.

When the scheduled replication kicks in, it starts the process from scratch, not just changes. Considering the size (over 300GB) it takes forever over 10MBPS Internet connection.

Can someone point me to the right direction please?

Thanks in advance for any input.

Cheers

[Reggie]

Hi Alexogir,

Try these steps:

1. New Replication Job
2. Name it etc. As you normally would, then chick the checkbox "Low Connection Bandwidth (enable replica seeding).
3.Click Next & add your VM
4. Click Next - Now Choose your Host and Datastore etc.
5. Click next - Configure any options on this page as you wish for your needs.
6. Now you will be at the "Seeding" section of creating the job - Where it says (Map replicas to existing VMs), You will see your Original VM listed. Your next step is to map it. So click the checkbox "Map replica to existing VMs" Then, you will actually have to manually point it to the replica, or hit the Detect button.

7. Once detected, or mapped manually, it should have your replica job. Example, My original VM: TEST | Replica VM: Test_Replica
8. After this is done you should be all set. So configure the options on the remaining pages as you wish. You will find your replication runs at a couple hundred MB/s.

Let me know how it goes please.

[tsightler]

Have you setup a remote proxy at the DR site? That's a critical part. Also, when you moved the DR server off-site, did you unregister and re-register in vCenter? My guess is that you need to configure a remote proxy and re-configure the job to use the existing replica as a seed for the job because some part of your process moving the server offsite causes Veeam to not be able to recognize it as the same VM (Veeam uses the moRef ID to locate a VM, not the VM name).

[Alexogir]

Hi Alexogir,

Try these steps:

1. New Replication Job
2. Name it etc. As you normally would, then chick the checkbox "Low Connection Bandwidth (enable replica seeding).
3.Click Next & add your VM
4. Click Next - Now Choose your Host and Datastore etc.
5. Click next - Configure any options on this page as you wish for your needs.
6. Now you will be at the "Seeding" section of creating the job - Where it says (Map replicas to existing VMs), You will see your Original VM listed. Your next step is to map it. So click the checkbox "Map replica to existing VMs" Then, you will actually have to manually point it to the replica, or hit the Detect button.

7. Once detected, or mapped manually, it should have your replica job. Example, My original VM: TEST | Replica VM: Test_Replica
8. After this is done you should be all set. So configure the options on the remaining pages as you wish. You will find your replication runs at a couple hundred MB/s.

Let me know how it goes please.

Thanks Reggie,

I simply edited the original Job to have the source VM mapped to the replica VM before I ran it via Internet. I thought it would be enough for just changes replication.
Do you think it will make a difference if I try to create a new job and configure the mapping again?

Thanks.

[Alexogir]

Hello,

Incremental backup/replica happens by default on every subsequent run, so you do not need to enable anything. Make sure your VM is running at least hardware version 7. Btw, what version of Veeam B&R are you currently running?

Thank you!

Thanks for the reply Vitaliy.

the hardware version is 7. and I'm using Veeam B&R 6.
I tought that I would not need to do anything specific to have only changes replicated, other than mapping the source VM to the replica in the job.
But still when the replication runs with the DR server Off site, it does the whole over 300GB VM not just a few hundreds MBs I uploaded to the source VM.

thanks.

[Alexogir]

Have you setup a remote proxy at the DR site? That's a critical part. Also, when you moved the DR server off-site, did you unregister and re-register in vCenter? My guess is that you need to configure a remote proxy and re-configure the job to use the existing replica as a seed for the job because some part of your process moving the server offsite causes Veeam to not be able to recognize it as the same VM (Veeam uses the moRef ID to locate a VM, not the VM name).

Thanks tsightler.

I will need another Windows machine at the off site location in order to set up a remote Proxy, right?
As for the vCenter, I didn't add any of those server to it, just using vSphere client to manage VM on both ESXis.
When you say "use existing replica as a seed", do you mean I need to enable "initial seeding - get seed from the following backup repository"? I have only one repository in the list and it's a Windows machine at the on site location.

Thanks.

[Alexogir]

I tried to recreate a replication job with the source VM mapped to the initial replica stored on the ESXi server moved off site and it failed.
Can't check the report. when try to click on the report option it returns an error "the system cannot find the file specified". does anybody know where Veeam keeps the reports?

[tsightler]

I will need another Windows machine at the off site location in order to set up a remote Proxy, right?
Yes.

As for the vCenter, I didn't add any of those server to it, just using vSphere client to manage VM on both ESXis.
So did you have to re-add the server to the Veeam GUI, perhaps with a different IP address? I'm guessing that something caused it to change the moRef ID of the VM and no longer recognize that target VM as the same VM when it was sitting by your server.

When you say "use existing replica as a seed", do you mean I need to enable "initial seeding - get seed from the following backup repository"? I have only one repository in the list and it's a Windows machine at the on site location.
No, this option is if you were seeding from a backup and moving the backup file to the remote site. You want to use the setting at the bottom part of that screen to map your replica. Basically you select the source VM and map it to the target VM so that Veeam knows the relationship between the two (because it was somehow broken when you relocated the target server). Also make sure you select both your source and target proxies as well. This will cause a "resync" but it will use the Delta Sync algorithm which will only copy the changes.

[Alexogir]

I will need another Windows machine at the off site location in order to set up a remote Proxy, right?
Yes.

As for the vCenter, I didn't add any of those server to it, just using vSphere client to manage VM on both ESXis.
So did you have to re-add the server to the Veeam GUI, perhaps with a different IP address? I'm guessing that something caused it to change the moRef ID of the VM and no longer recognize that target VM as the same VM when it was sitting by your server.

When you say "use existing replica as a seed", do you mean I need to enable "initial seeding - get seed from the following backup repository"? I have only one repository in the list and it's a Windows machine at the on site location.
No, this option is if you were seeding from a backup and moving the backup file to the remote site. You want to use the setting at the bottom part of that screen to map your replica. Basically you select the source VM and map it to the target VM so that Veeam knows the relationship between the two (because it was somehow broken when you relocated the target server). Also make sure you select both your source and target proxies as well. This will cause a "resync" but it will use the Delta Sync algorithm which will only copy the changes.

Thanks for the reply tsightler,

I will definately set up a remote proxy.

As for the server relocation, I didn't need to re-add the server in the Veeam GUI since I mapped the server using the name. I simply updated a DNS record with the public IP of the location where I had moved the DR server. I can successfully browse all VMs on the DR server after the moove.

I'll set up a remote Proxy and will try to run the replication job again.

thanks

[Alexogir]

I'm trying to add a remote proxy but the process fails with "failed to install deployment service".

I have both 6160 and 6162 ports open on the firewall.

is there anything else I need to do besides the port forwarding?

Thanks for any input.

[Vitaliy S.]

Don't think so, but debug logs will tell what is the problem for sure, so please take a look at them or contact our support team for assistance.

[Alexogir]

Don't think so, but debug logs will tell what is the problem for sure, so please take a look at them or contact our support team for assistance.

Thanks Vitaliy,

Can you give me a hint where I can find debug logs?

Thanks.

[Vitaliy S.]

Open backup console and navigate to Help->Support Information.