Veeam Agent for Windows -> Synology NAS : Does each machine need it´s own Share?

[Pfalzgruber]

Hello everyone!

I´ve a little question about the network share of my Synology Nas, to which i send backups from three different machines to via the Veeam Agent for Windows (free Edition).

My Synology Nas is accessed via "\\\*Servername*\Mediaserver", which directs to the "Root"-Folder of that NAS. Also, credentials are used.

Since 2 years, each of my 3 machines (Notebook, Office and Music Studio) back up to that NAS, and on each Agent, the "Shared-Folder" in the jobfile-settings is set to "\\*Servername*\Mediaserver".

So on that share (root folder of the Nas), each agent has created it´s own Folder, named like the matching job and puts it´s backup into it. Without any issues and without any problems.

So now i found this posting : veeam-agent-for-windows-f33/veeam-agent ... 93938.html

This post states, that it is mandatory to give each machine it´s own, individual root folder, which i understand, that i have to setup on each job a individual share:

\\\*Servername*\Mediaserver\Notebook
\\\*Servername*\Mediaserver\Office
\\\*Servername*\Mediaserver\Music Studio

Is this really true? I mean, the agent then creates, again, a subdirectory inside this share... which makes that path unneccessarily difficult.

Yesterday i used file/processmonitoring software, startet a backup on all my 3 machines... But in the filemonitors, no machine scanned the folder of a "foregin" machine...

I ask, because i found the above thread about creating new folders with "_1" in some case, which matches to a sporadically problem of a colleague.


So long story short:

Is it correct to set the "Shared Folder" inside the Job-Settings to the same Share for different machines?

Thanks a lot for clarification

Toby

[david.domask]

Hi Toby, welcome to the forums.

Can you confirm if the agents are managed by multiple backup servers as was discussed in the topic you linked?

The "folder_1" scenario described in the other topic and that your colleague is facing can have a variety of issues, but the recommendation from that thread was to account for a situation where multiple VBR servers are writing to the same NAS share, as that would fall foul of the restriction here:

Consider the following:

Do not configure multiple backup repositories pointing to the same location or using the same path.
Do not configure multiple backup repositories with "nested" paths (when one repository path is a sub-path of another repository), for example:

/mnt/repo/backups/

/mnt/repo/backups/production/

So a lot of it depends on your setup, and if you are using the same share between multiple VBRs, then yes dedicated folders underneath root for each VBR will be required.

It would be best to open a Support Case for your colleague's issue and let Support review the behavior. As mentioned before, there can be a few reasons why this happens but the mechanism that causes the folder_1 behavior happens when Veeam wants to make a new folder for backup but a folder with the same name already exists.

[Pfalzgruber]

Hi David!

Thanks for your fast reply

No, i´m not running any backup-server. So the Windows-Agents are "standalone" on each of my 3 machines... Same with my collegaue...

My setup is as following:

3 machines, each with an Veeam Agent for Windows (Free Edition). Each Agent writes it´s backup to the same Synology Nas Share \\*Servername*\Mediaserver.

So, there´s nothing running than the Veeam-Agent for Windows (Free Edition) on each machine...

Thanks again for your help... So, i guess... When NOT using a Server / Repository... but 3 Standalone-Agents... there should be no problem if they write to the same share (it is working perfectly on my machines)?

Thank you very much for your help

Toby!

[david.domask]

Hi Toby,

You're quite welcome!

Indeed, your understanding is correct, in this scenario each of the jobs should make it's own folder, however, with similar or duplicate machine names, you may end up with the _1 folders in this scenario.

For your colleague, I would still have them open a Support case even with the Free edition of Veeam Agent. Free cases are processed on a "best-effort" basis, so will depend on Support availability, but still it's the correct approach.

[Pfalzgruber]

Hello David!

Thanks a lot for your kind help, so everything is clear for me now...

My colleagues machine has a lot more issues as far as i found out (full system-drive, network problems and so on)... So i first will do a clean install of the whole machine and restore the user-data...

Afterwards i will give it another try... When the problem with the sporadic "-1 /-2" folders persist, i will open a case... But first, i want to get the problematic machine in a stable state before making your support unneccesary work

Thanks a lot again!

Stay healthy!

Tob