Planning for offsite disaster recovery

[trackstar]

Hey guys,

Our environment consists of VMware vCenter/ESXi and Veeam. We run backup copies which are stored on an iSCSI drive from AWS.

We are looking to build a disaster recovery plan utilizing the cloud (AWS). Please comment /recommend .

1) Utilize S3 within Veeam (on premise) for our backup.

2) From AWS, have a Windows Server with another Veeam Server (second server). We currently have an on premise Veeam Server

3) Restore the VMs within AWS if whenever the data center faces a disaster.

[Seve CH]

I am no specialist on AWS... but why are you using iSCSI on AWS? I consider iSCSI ultra-fragile and using the internet to reach it (VPN or not) is something that would never cross my mind.

[veremin]

Yes, the configuration with ISCSI looks somewhat strange, the recommended approach is to add AWS S3 as an object storage repository and subsequently use it as a backup target. Thanks!

[trackstar]

I am no specialist on AWS... but why are you using iSCSI on AWS? I consider iSCSI ultra-fragile and using the internet to reach it (VPN or not) is something that would never cross my mind.

A decade ago we wanted to get away from a traditional NAS hardware. So AWS offers storage via iSCSI with NTFS/share permissions. Eventually we got a new hardware NAS and left the AWS as a backup feature.

[Seve CH]

Hi Trackstar
I would use S3 for the backup copy jobs instead of iSCSI. I suspect it will be cheaper, you may require less storage, and it will be more performant than iSCSI (very latency sensitive). You can also implement hardened repos to protect your data against ransomware.
Having a fully provisioned Veeam Server on the cloud instead of deploying it only on demand can be onerous, but it depends on your RTO requirements, etc.
Best regards.