Veeam B&R/proxy host OS and SME setup.

[simondo]

Apologies if this has been well covered, I think I'm on the right track, and would like some clarification if anybody has the time...

I'm investigating using Veeam Essentials for a small (~100 person) business who have outgrown SBS. Their needs are currently generic and MS-centric; AD, Exchange, Sharepoint.

I'm thinking something along the lines of


With 3 virtual 2008 servers replicated from Server 1 to Server 2, 1 physical veeam server, onsite NAS backup Rsyncing offsite.

So, questions!

• I understand that there should be a Veeam proxy on server 1 (and on server 2?)
• If also Server 2, would this require a further Windows license?
• I understand that Veeam B&R works on pretty much any windows OS, though I'd imagine that a server class OS would be preferred, is this the case?
• How well does Veeam B&R/Proxy play with others? Are they best off on their own, or, bearing in mind the small nature of the company, can or should they be installed with other applications? I'm thinking in particular about a secondary DC somewhere, perhaps on the physical Veeam B&R server, although guidance appears to have relaxed wrt virtualised DCs of late... is there a more efficient way of doing this?

Have I missed something blindingly obvious?!

Thanks all for taking the time to read this far, it's really appreciated.

[dellock6]

Hi,
1. you only need a Veeam server in server1, proxy is to be used if replica has to cross a WAN link, in a local replica is not mandatory
2. no need for it, look at my answer #1
3. yes, I personally ever preferred server class windows OS
4. optimal is of course to run on its own, but since 6.1 its processes has been designed to run at low priority in the OS, so they can leave with other. I see you have 3 VMs in your design: if you plan to buy an enterprise license, you can have 4 OS licenses and in this way using the 4th one for a dedicated Veeam server.

Luca.

[foggy]

For better replication performance, you can deploy a single virtual proxy that has access to both source and target hosts. That will allow to use hotadd both to read the original VM data and write it to replica VM disks. You can re-use any existing VM for that.

[simondo]

Thank you Foggy and Luca for your responses, you've filled in some of the (massive!) gaps in my knowledge, and some great leads to follow up on there.

Luca, wrt 4:

4. optimal is of course to run on its own, but since 6.1 its processes has been designed to run at low priority in the OS, so they can leave with other. I see you have 3 VMs in your design: if you plan to buy an enterprise license, you can have 4 OS licenses and in this way using the 4th one for a dedicated Veeam server.

Just to be clear, enterprise license of Veeam?

[chimera]

Just to be clear, enterprise license of Veeam?

Windows - 1 x Enterprise license allows you to run 4 x Standard licenses... I believe thats still the case.

You can then run a 4th Windows server VM that can have the Veeam proxy installed on it.

[dellock6]

Exactly, thanks for explaining on my behalf My information are based on 2008 R2, do not know how it would be with the upcoming 2012...

Luca.