[V13] Practical advice needed in order to weigh up the minimum requirements for the CPU part in relation to our scenario

[massimiliano.rizzi]

Hello experts and good day,

first of all, apologies for the long post.

As part of planning the conversion of existing Windows-based backup servers to the new software appliance (especially for when the conversion functionality will be open for everyone to use), if possible I would like to discuss a pretty common scenario we have across many of our smallest SMB customers, that usually need to backup up no more than 15-20 VMware vSphere or Hyper-V VMs.

For many of these customers, in the past we often deployed an all-in-one physical Microsoft Windows server, whose primary role is the Veeam Backup & Replication server and primary ReFS-based Windows backup repository. We then provided immutability either on-prem (using a separate dedicated Veeam Hardened Repository) or in the cloud (using immutable S3 storage) or both.

For the smallest deployments, we deployed many all-in-one Lenovo ThinkSystem ST250 servers and so far they worked flawlessly without any issue using V12, but now that the system requirements for both the new Veeam Software Appliance and the Windows-Based Backup Server list a x86-64 processor with 8 cores (vCPUs) minimum for the CPU part (as described at https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/vbr/u ... tml?ver=13), it looks like these Lenovo ThinkSystem ST250 servers do not meet the minimum requirements for the CPU part, as can be seen below:



My question is: is this x86-64 processor with 8 cores (vCPUs) minimum requirement for the CPU part a ***strict*** requirement even for the smallest deployments, or there is a chance that these Lenovo ThinkSystem ST250 servers equipped with only 4 CPU cores could be enough to support the new Veeam Software Appliance for the smallest deployments, considering that in our scenario the backup proxy role will be assigned either to the single Hyper-V nodes hosting the VMs or to a set of separate Linux-based virtual proxies deployed from new Veeam Infrastructure Appliance ISO?

Of course the B-plan here will be to deploy the new Veeam Software Appliance in a VM and then repurpose the Lenovo ThinkSystem ST250 servers into a Veeam Hardened Repository using the new Veeam Infrastructure Appliance ISO, but I personally prefer not to run the Veeam Backup server as a VM (when possible) in order not to increase its attack exposure and relying on the security and availability of the hypervisor itself.

To summarize, I am seeking a practical advice in order to weigh up the minimum requirements for the CPU part in relation to the smallest deployments described above and to check whether it is worth giving a try.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Massimiliano

[ybarrap2003]

Hi @massimiliano.rizzi It is not just the cores it should also be on the RHEL certification list. I found a v3 model that has 8 core capabilities here - https://catalog.redhat.com/en/hardware/ ... ail/245767 It might work but it has never been Veeam Ready tested. These are the Veeam Ready models for Lenovo here - https://www.veeam.com/solutions/allianc ... -appliance I can check with my Lenovo contact to see if there is any interest in having this model validated.

[massimiliano.rizzi]

Hi @massimiliano.rizzi It is not just the cores it should also be on the RHEL certification list. I found a v3 model that has 8 core capabilities here - https://catalog.redhat.com/en/hardware/ ... ail/245767 It might work but it has never been Veeam Ready tested. These are the Veeam Ready models for Lenovo here - https://www.veeam.com/solutions/allianc ... -appliance I can check with my Lenovo contact to see if there is any interest in having this model validated.

Hi @ybarrap2003 and thank you very much for taking the time to reply to my question and for the information.

For new deployments, I confirm that we have already deployed the new v3 models as well as some of the higher-end models that have 8+ core capabilities without any issue.

My main concern here are the existing smallest deployments where the older 4 core Lenovo ThinkSystem ST250 servers hardware that is being used at the moment cannot be refreshed soon for one reason or another.

According to the information available at https://lenovopress.lenovo.com/osig#ser ... upport=all these models are on the RHEL certification list as well, so I'm mainly concerned with the CPU part rather than with their RHEL certification.

In other words, my main concern here is simply to check whether it is worth giving one of these older servers a try with the new Veeam Software Appliance or whether this will be a total waste of time here as there is no chance for them to cope with the new Veeam Software Appliance minimum requirements even in the smallest deployments.

Thanks!

Massimiliano

[ybarrap2003]

Your very welcome @massimiliano.rizzi !

I would proceed with caution by trying to install on the older server. It might install ok but it will probably be limited to what it can do. You might want to use in test/dev environment and not production which might might max out your 4 core server. It could be used in as a proxy server or other role instead of a backup server. Have you tried installing already? I will check with documentation support to see if this is a fixed requirement.

[massimiliano.rizzi]

Your very welcome @massimiliano.rizzi !

I would proceed with caution by trying to install on the older server. It might install ok but it will probably be limited to what it can do. You might want to use in test/dev environment and not production which might might max out your 4 core server. It could be used in as a proxy server or other role instead of a backup server. Have you tried installing already? I will check with documentation support to see if this is a fixed requirement.

I confirm that we have already been using these older servers as a Veeam Hardened Repository using the new Veeam Infrastructure Appliance ISO (that comes with significantly lower minimum requirements for the CPU part) without any issue.

I would really appreciate if you could kindly double check internally to see if the CPU part is a fixed requirement.

Thanks again!

Massimiliano

[bytewiseits]

We have many (much) smaller sites with an all in one Windows VBR/REFS system that are only backing up 2-3 Hyper-V VMs on systems with only 4 (some 6) cores and 16GB RAM, and they work perfectly well with V12 - no issues with backup speeds, health checks etc.

Looking at the new V13 requirements, even the Windows based installation of VBR has increased its minimums to be 8 CPU cores & 16GB RAM (up from 4 cores/8GB in V12) which is quite concerning as well. If 8 cores is an enforced hard requirement, none of these systems will be getting upgraded to V13 until next hardware refresh (or possibly may look at switching to other less bloated solutions).

VBR realistically needs a good going over and slimming down if it does truly require (and enforce) the new 8 core minimums as it seems to be becoming very bloated compared to just a few versions ago. Just look at the sheer size of the ISO image now as well as all of the plugins and services installed!!

Will also await to see if the CPU requirement is truly a fixed (enforced) requirement or just 'recommended'.

[Asahi]

Hi,

Of course, we understand that Veeam v13 includes numerous additional features and functional improvements, resulting in increased resource requirements.

Even so, I'm also interested in @bytewiseits's question.
===
Will also await to see if the CPU requirement is truly a fixed (enforced) requirement or just 'recommended'.
===

Asahi

[Dooh]

Following as well, I have about 100 HPE Microservers out there on BaaS contracts with processors like that (or the newer E-2434) that have been rock stars for my customers with up to 5 VMs

The other crazy thing to take into account is core count does not equal performance strictly speaking. Depending on the software and the number of parallel operations, that E-2434 with 4 core @ 3.4GHz will outperform a 5416S with 16 cores @ 2.0GHz.

[Dooh]

Also, "CPU: x86-64 processor with 8 cores (vCPUs) minimum"
Does that count Hyperthreading?
If it was a VM, Hyperthreading would come into play for resource allocation, so the same should be true for bare metal installations

[ybarrap2003]

I been told that there is currently no hard enforcement. There could be a situation where you call support with resources issues and you would not meet the minimum requirements. I am still waiting on a response from our documentation team.