Confused - need a backup job that includes VMs and a Windows Share

[MikeLeone]

I'm very new to Veeam, so please bear with me. I've been using EMC Networker for 17 years, so I'm familiar with backup concepts, just not clear on how to implement what I want in Veeam.

Using Veeam B&R 11.0.1.

I need a backup job that includes 5 VMs from VMware vCenter, and also the contents of a Windows share, all in the same job. I am told by my developers that all the data needs to be consistent, and so backed up, all in the same job, all at the same time.

So I created a backup job (Backup job-> Virtual Machines), and added my 5 VMs. No problem, looks like it should all Just Work. But how to I add that Windows share to this same job? If I edit the job, and try and add another source, all I see are my VMs, I don't see any way to add a Windows share to this job.

Do I need to instead make the job as Windows computers, meaning it will push the agent? If so, my Windows share is actually a Windows cluster, would that make a difference? Since it's a cluster, it won't show up as a VM name, even thought the nodes are actually VMs.

I would ask support, but my account isn't set up to open technical cases. I've asked my boss to change that, but in the meantime, I need to get this done.

Thanks for any clues.

[Mildur]

Hello

VM jobs and Veeam Agent for Windows backup jobs cannot protect "file shares". For that we have file share backup jobs.
But even if you could have everything in the same job, nobody can guarantee you that the VSS snapshot or file backup happens in the same millisecond for all machines.
There will always be a gap between a few seconds or even minutes. If you check your 5 VM backups, you will see that they do not have a VSS snapshot created at the same time in the last job session.

If you have a Windows cluster for the file share, then you can protect with two options:
- use Veeam Agent for Windows Server edition to backup both cluster nodes --> https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=120
- use a File Share Backup Job to protect the file share. --> https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=120

But there is no option to time snapshots/backups for all those jobs at the exact same time.
If you really need consistence between those 5 VMs and the file share, you must solve that outside of Veeam.
Pre-Job Scripts can be used to stop all applications which can change your production data or lock down access to the file shares and servers for your end-users.
Use a Post-Job script to start applications again and open the access for your end user.

Best,
Fabian

[MikeLeone]

I will re-phrase - I don't need millisecond precision, just all done at the same time, meaning all during the same job run. So if I set the job to run at 10PM, the file share needs to also be backed up at 10PM, along with the file systems of the VMs. You're assuming way too much complexity.

So there's no way to include the contents of a file share, and the contents of various VMs, all in the same job? If it needs to backup the VMs by using a Windows agent, that's fine, that's what my EMC Networker has been doing for years.

[Mildur]

Consistence is only given with backups within milliseconds

Is the cluster a physical machine or a VM?
You can use the agent to protect the cluster nodes. It can even run at the same time as the VM jobs, if there are enough task slots available on your backup repository.
Just make sure, that you don't protect a virtual cluster node with an agent and vm backup job the same time. Microsoft Windows VSS only allows one backup method to run at the time.

Best,
Fabian

[MikeLeone]

All my clusters are VMs. However, as you may know, you can have multiple virtual cluster names within the same cluster. So I can have "NT1" and "NT2" clusters, which are appear as completely separate hosts, yet both are actually services presented by nodes which have entirely different names themselves.

So, to make sure I have this right: I can make up a job to backup my 5 VMs. I can make a different job that backs up my file share.

Q: Can I make a "protection group" that will run both jobs at the same time? Or do I just need to set each individual job to start at the same time frame, 10PM?

I don't necessarily need this to back up the whole cluster, only one of the file shares that the cluster presents. (The other file share it presents will be added to completely separate jobs).
So the 2nd job will be a file share backup. I will make a completely different job that will backup the whole cluster, which can run on an entirely different schedule.

Thanks! Things are starting to clear up, a bit ...

[MikeLeone]

Hmmm ... when I go to create a file share, it fails. I give it the DNS name of the cluster, and tell it what credentials to use. (I know these creds work, because when I RDP to that same DNS name, and use these same credentials, it works fine, I connect immediately). Yet Veeam reports "Network path not found, or invalid credentials supplied". So I'm blocked again ...

Do I need to make this a job as a Windows cluster? That will give me the whole cluster contents, and not just the one file share I want. I'd be getting extra data that I don't need. As an example, I have clusters that have 2 different file server shares, and each is over 2TB. I don't want to backup an extra 2TB if I don't need to. (not this cluster, but I use that as an example)

Veeam has to be able to handle this, Windows file share as a cluster have been a thing practically all century. An Enterprise level system can't just not know about that. So it's me, I'm doing something wrong, but what?