v6 Offsite Replication : Seeding How To

[chad156]

Hmm interesting...i'll have to keep that in mind as a partner when selling this solution.

[bertrand]

hi everybody,

I red this topic and some more around, and I guess my questions wasn't asked yet.

I've got 2 sites with ESXi, and a VEEAM server on each site backing up "local" VMs on a local repository.

I'm trying to set up a replication of some VMs across a (symetrical) 1Mbps link.
it's very "narrow" and I'm wondering if it's even possible.

as a test, i set up a replication with seeding of a VM with a 70 GB virtual hard drive. as it was said, when you first replicate, you have 2 tasks in the job: SERVER1 (seeding) and SERVER1
after a 12h night, first task "seeding" was 6%... which means around 8 days just creating the initial VM - with snapshot growing and no backup awhile.

so my questions:

- does anyone have a working production replication across a 1 Mbps?
-what bandwith would you recommend? i want to replicate 3 VMs of 70, 400, and 400 GB respectively.

- to improve performance, is it better to create the replication job on source-side VEEAM server or on destination-side VEEAM server?

thanks,

bertrand

[foggy]

Bertrand, do you have backup proxies from both sites selected as the source and target proxy servers in the replication job settings so that only compressed changed blocks between original VM and its backup to be transferred over WAN during the seeding process? Also, have you specified the source proxy to store replica metadata?

- does anyone have a working production replication across a 1 Mbps?
-what bandwith would you recommend? i want to replicate 3 VMs of 70, 400, and 400 GB respectively.

I think we have some existing discussions on the forum where customers report successful replication over similar WAN links.

- to improve performance, is it better to create the replication job on source-side VEEAM server or on destination-side VEEAM server?

Veeam server location doesn't matter here. Correct configuration of the proxy servers is really important.

[dellock6]

Hi, I have a couple of customers replicating over a 1 mbits link, and it works. With 6.5 version even better, thanks to the network resiliency features Veeam added to the software.
About the question "It's enough?" it all depends on two things:
- the amount ot daily change the VM produces between two replica jobs
- the required RPO
Without an RPO statement is not possible to find out if the replica is running fast enough to fulfill the RPO itself.
For exaple, I got a small customer asking for "best effort", so whatever it takes the replica to complete, is good for him.

Luca.

[bertrand]

hi,

and thanks guys for your answers.

@foggy:
- no i don't configure proxy servers. i will work on that! it could be the solution


@Luca:
- daily changes are rather huge, 2 of my servers are applications TSE servers with many profiles and databases modifications
- RPO would be what it can be - if daily synchro isn't possible, i'll be fine with weekly one, over weekend.

thanks again, i'll let you know

best regards

bertrand

[cphillips]

All

We have Veeam B&R 6.5 We have two virtual servers on ESXi 5.1 which are being replicated between 2 sites. I've recently had to re-install Veeam on the remote site and as a result start from scratch with the replication process.

One of the machines we are replicating is an Exchange Server and is about 230Gb in total. My question is this - am I able to connect up an external device (i.e. a laptop) into the "source" network, point the replication to go to that laptop, then physically visit the 2nd server where the replication target is located and restore from the laptop? This would save me a whole load of time waiting for the initial replication process to take place.

Is this something that I would be better off using the replication or backup feature for (if indeed it's possible at all)?

Physically collecting the 2nd server and replicating it locally would obviously be the best solution but unfortunately I am not in a position to be able to do this!

Look forward in advance to any assistance.

Kind regards
Colin

[veremin]

Hi, Colin.

It’s possible, indeed, to create a local copy of given Virtual machine, then, take it away, using external device, restore at DR site and, finally, map a replication job to it. Though, a local copy should be created by a backup, not a replication job.

This process is even automated in Veeam Backup and Replication and is called “replica seeding”. This method allows you to avoid replicating the whole VM thorough the existing connection. Once the VM is restored and replication job is mapped to it, difference between VMs will be calculated and only changes will be transferred to remote location.

More information regarding it can be found either in the answers provided above or in the corresponding User Guide.

Thanks.

[foggy]

Colin, the step-by-step instructions on how to seed your replica are given in this thread above.

Also, if you still have the previous replica VM on the target host, then it might be even better to just map the new job to the existing VM.

[Projectfocus]

Hello All

I have a question regarding the setup of Veeam and the replication setup. I have a single Veeam licence that covers the estate for Backup and replication. I am backing all the servers up locally to my site without issues. I have configured replication from the server to a remote site and this connects direct to the VCenter at the other end and the servers are replicating over the Link. However I have 1 Server that is 1TB in size and it will fail over the link every time. This takes days to get the data partially there and then it stops and retries. this drops all the transferred data and has to be started again. As this locks the server the backups have not been correctly taken. I have now stopped this replication for this server so I can get the Snapshots consolidated and the Backups working and secured.

The issue is how can I get the files of this size over the link without a proxy the other end. Can we take a copy of the Backup files and load them into a datastore the other end. I really just help trying to get this solution running with a single server over a WAN link for a one off large transfer.

Any help would be very much appreciated.

ProjectFocus

[foggy]

Craig, please see the topic above and the corresponding user guide section for details. Basically, yes, you can use the backup file created locally to seed your offsite replica.