Question about multiple backup repositories

[rarochelle]

So my issue is that I have 4 ISCSI 2TB luns presented to a windows 2008 server(that server being my Veeam B&E server).

How would i go about pooling these multiple LUNS to have 8TB of total backup space for any 1 job. I can only choose 1 backup repository for a job, and in backup repositories i can only set 1 drive. I read that it is reccomended to keep your partitions smaller than 2TB.

These LUNs are on an Equallogic array located offsite.

[Vitaliy S.]

Actually I heard completely the opposite thing, many customers create a single (more than 2 TB) volume, format it with NTFS and present it to the backup server for storing backup files.

Could you please tell me where did this recommendation come from?

[rarochelle]

Upon further reading it looks like i just have to partition the drives with GPT rather than MBR (mbr being the limiting factor for 2.2TB)

[Gostev]

That's right.

[rarochelle]

I have 1 more question sort of related to this issue.

The way i have the backup repository setup is to a local server with the remote array presenting the volumes via ISCSI to the local server.

Will that cause issues? Should i present those volumes to a remote server at the same location as the array, then just ensure i use a local proxy to backup to the remote repository.

I'm worried that the traffic over the WAN between the remote array and the local server it's drives are setup as are causing some extreme slowness with synthethic fulls.

[Gostev]

Should i present those volumes to a remote server at the same location as the array

Yes, that is certainly preferred, as this way all synthetic full I/O will be isolated to the remote location.

[rarochelle]

So i have 100 Mbps going to the remote location but only 10Mbps coming back. I assumed that was my issue. I'll re-present those drives to the remote server as local iSCSI drives and add the new repository in and retry a synthetic full.

[jdgs]

Hi,

We are about to purchase a NAS box or two for our backups, and are using Veeam Backup and Replication. I have been using this up until now just for testing/proof of concept, and so have just been backing up to virtual disks added to the backup server - not ideal I know, but works fine for proof of concept.

I am after some advice on implementing the new NAS box with regards to Backup repositories. What would be the best way to present this to Veeam? As a single backup repository, or segregated?

[foggy]

Jack, I would create a single NTFS volume and present it through iSCSI to the Veeam backup server. Another option is to add the NAS as a Linux-type backup repository (in case it has ordinary Linux installed as SSH and Perl are required; otherwise, you can mount NAS to any Linux box and add this box as repository). The number of concurrent tasks running against the repo can be controlled by the corresponding setting in its properties.

[dellock6]

Another design solution, is to use a proper server with local disks grouped with some raid system, install linux on it, and so be able to install on top of it the repository role from Veeam. In this way you can delegate the repository activities to the linux OS and its CPU, thus relieving some burder from the Veeam server.

Also, if you install Windows on it instead of Linux, you can run directly the power NFS from here, if the network connection of the server is reachable from the ESXi servers.

Luca.