Backup a mounted NFS/smb share

[mark49808]

Looking for opinions on backing up large file shares. It seems with Veeam I have two options:

1) Use the NAS backup feature to hit the share directly via NFS/CIFS at $/TB VUL consumption as well the the other limitations/features of NAS backups.
2) Use an agent installed on a linux/windows box, mount the NFS/CIFS share on that box, and configure the job to backup the mounted share.

What reason, if any, will #2 be problematic? Obviously it "works around" the licensing thing. Is this allowed? Will i run into issues given i'm not able to snapshot a remote mounted NFS share?

Also if it matters tape might be involved in some cases, which i understand NAS backup does not support. So what other way do I have to do this? Any tunables for remote mounted NFS/CIFS shares?

[HannesK]

Hello,

2) it does not scale. So "large share" will simply not work. And it only works with the Linux agent. The Windows agent cannot back up from SMB / NFS shares.

From a licensing perspective, it's fine.

File-to-tape works today with SMB / NFS shares (and is free of charge). Same problem as 2: it does not scale. In V12, file-to-tape will scale and it will be charged the same as NAS backup (file-to-tape for Veeam backup files is free of course. we don't charge one backup twice). NAS-backup-to-tape will also be supported in V12. That would be NAS-to-disk-to-tape.

Best regards,
Hannes

[GianlucaCroci]

Hello,

We've the same problem.

We'd like to eliminate the current Microsoft FileServers to share documents directly via NAS.

Unfortunately the NAS is not supported by Veeam for a backup, and therefore we'd have to use a File Backup Job.
We're already using it for some Shares, but I'm not very satisfied, especially due to its organizational complexity.
In fact, instead of creating a VBK or VIB file, it creates many folders and files.
We should save 50 TB of documents, where we've almost 1 TB of changes per day.
With this type of backup it would be unthinkable, in my opinion.

Much better to perform a backup via Agent.
We've already tried to mount the Share, and created a job. In the "Objects" part we entered the mount path in the various ways allowed by Veeam, but never worked.

Code: Select all

Failed to perform managed backup
There are no objects to backup

Any suggestions or other rescue options?

Clearly the possibility of saving to tape is excluded before the start. Even if we use the tapes for a monthly save, it would not be feasible to use them for dailies.

Thanks in advance
Regards
Gianluca

[PTide]

Hi,

Please see this:

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=120

We've already tried to mount the Share, and created a job. In the "Objects" part we entered the mount path in the various ways allowed by Veeam, but never worked.

Where was the agent installed, and where was the share mounted?

Thanks

[GianlucaCroci]

Hi,
We mounted the NFS Share on a Linux machine, where we also installed the Agent.
Then created a Backup Linux Computer Job

[PTide]

If all three conditions are met:

1) The share is NFS
2) The absolute path of the mountpoint in the backup job is correct
3) The backup job mode is set to "file-level, back up from live filesystem"

and it still does not work, than I would suggest to open a support case and post your case ID here.

Thanks!

[GianlucaCroci]

hello,
no, the 3th is "Volume level backup" and not "File level backup".
we can't use this one?

Thanks

[PTide]

'Volume-level' is for block-level backups. If you want to back up NFS share, you should pick file-level.

Thanks!

[mjr.epicfail]

Keep in mind that Filelevel backup is slow and even slower when you introduce the latency of a share.