Back of a local ESXi host with a remote vCenter server

[AndyL]

Hi,

I have a customer with 3 sites who is about to deploy a vShpere Essentials system. They have a head office and 2 branch sites. The plan is for each site to have a single ESXi host and the head office to have an ESXi host with the appliance version of vCenter running on it. Each of the ESXi hosts will be running 2 or 3 Windows 2012 and Windows 2008 virtual machines on internal storage

We are planning on installing a Windows 2012 server on each site with Veeam Backup & Replication configured to backup the local ESXi VM's to the Veeam server's internal storage (4x 750Gb SATA drives). The Windows 2012 servers for B&R will be 'workgroup' servers, not in the customers AD domain.

I have a nagging doubt in my mind about potential issues with the branch offices. My worry is that the Veaam B&R in the branch sites will attempt to query large amounts of data from the remote vCenter server. The comms between sites are pretty slow (256kb/s) mpls links, so while I beleive it will be fine querying configuration from the remote vCenter server, if there is any requirement from Veeam B&R to send/recieve large amount of data, we'll have problems.

I'm hoping that features like cbt backups, talk directly to the local ESXi host, and that vCenter is only involved in telling Veeam B&R the details of the local server and which VM's reside on it.

Does this sound like a workable solution? or am I planning myself into a 'world of mire' here?

Thanks, in advance, for your help

Andy

[Vitaliy S.]

Hi Andy,

Can you please tell me why do you want to install three backup servers as opposed to using only one on the production site and a proxy servers installed in each site? In this case VM backup traffic will also be kept within each site, backup proxy will retrieve VM data directly from the ESXi host, and then will save it to the local repository.

For me this kind of deployment seems more transparent and easier to manage. As regards the connection link you have, then it would sufficient for both deployment scenarios.

Thanks!

[AndyL]

Hi,

If I can deploy a proxy to each site that backs up to a repository on that site and control all 3 sites through a single centralised management server, that would be great. I'm not sure why, but I had it in my head that this would require a central repository, rather than one on each site.

[veremin]

Nope, with one management server you can have as many repositories as you want to. Thanks.

[AndyL]

I should also have mentioned that each of the 3 backup servers will also have a tape drive for taking backups offsite. A single version of Veaam B&R in the head office and a proxy & repository on each site will allow me to do local backups of the ESXi hosts to the local disk repository, and also allow those backups to be written to a local tape drive an taken offsite?

So, if I'm reading this right, it's looking like it will do everything I will neeed, and only need one copy of Veeam B&R Essentials to accomplish it...looking awesome

I think I just thought that this would need 3 seperate versions of Veeam as the systems I have used in the past worked that way

[veremin]

Hmm, with the taking data to tape, it’s a little bit more complex.

In this case, you will have to, indeed, deploy backup server at each site, since with the current implementation the tape device should be directly connected to management server.

Support of tape appliances connected to proxy servers should be added in one of the next releases.

Thanks.

[AndyL]

Thats fine, I had budgeted for 3 copies of B&R. Whilst I'm hoping to never need the tapes, the business continuity insurance requires backups of data to be taken offsite, and I beleive the mpls circuit is far too slow for any kind of backups to be done over it.

Hopefully though, you have answered my question, in that configuration information will be read from vCenter, but as long as the backup jobs only try to backup local vm's, the actual backup traffic is purely between Veeam & the local ESXi host

Thanks for your help

Cheers,

Andy

[veremin]

Thats fine, I had budgeted for 3 copies of B&R

Actually, VB&R license isn't concerned with the number of installations you have. In other words, the number of VB&R copies doesn’t matter. What matters is the number of physical CPU socket of "source" hypervisor host where VMs to backup/replicate are located.

Thanks.