Help understanding Veeam proxy configuration for storage snapshots

[kevin.boddy]

Hi,

I am trying to understand what is meant by this statement in the documentation for Veeam proxies configured for storage snapshots.
https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=120

"We recommend that you add only one proxy to one initiator group. Otherwise, you may encounter issues on proxies with the number of devices that correspond to storage snapshot clones. During the backup process, devices may be unintentionally created on all proxies added to the initiator group, for example, if two backup jobs that use proxies from the initiator group work simultaneously. The created devices may be accumulated."

We use iSCSI for storage, I currently have one backup proxy configured for storage snapshots which is working great.
I want to add another backup proxy for storage snapshots connected to the same SAN with access to the same iSCSI LUNs.

Does this statement in the documentation mean I should only have one backup proxy?

Thanks
Kevin

[david.domask]

Hi Kevin,

Typically storage devices will have initiator groups that you configure, servers used to request and mount the storage snapshots. If multiple proxies are added to the same initiator group, when a storage snapshot is created for backup, it will be added on all proxies in the initiator group. So you can have multiple backup proxies for Backup from Storage Snapshots, but they should each be in their own initiator group on the source storage. Refer to your storage vendor's documentation on the initiator groups; which storage system out of curiosity? Typically just searching "Vendor + Veeam + reference architecture" or something similar will show a configuration guide.

Multiple backup proxies are recommended so that part is fine, the line above is about configuration on the storage itself.

[kevin.boddy]

Hi,

We are using an Infinidat Infinibox.

The Infinidat has the concept of a cluster where you map the SAN volumes to a cluster and the ESXi hosts are added to the same cluster, but it also supports mapping directly to a host.
The current Veeam proxy is added as a standalone host and I didn't even do that, Veeam and the Infinidat plugin did that by itself.

So, I assume from what you're saying is that I can add more Veeam proxies for storage snapshot backups as they are added as standalone hosts and Veeam will take care of mapping the individual storage snapshots to the correct Veeam proxy. Is that correct?

Thanks
Kevin


Thanks
Kevin

[david.domask]

Aha, Veeam (and the vendors with Storage Integration plugins) will try to configure everything automatically; I'm not immediately familiar with Inifidat's configuration, but it sounds like they handle the initiator configuration by making each proxy a standalone host, so adding additional proxies for this should be fine.