Veeam 7 and iSCSI Virtual Tape Library (Disk-Tape)

[CBlackmer]

We’ve just got VEEAM 7 (our first vm-aware backup product! Yay!) and have ordered an improved Cybernetics backup appliance to replace our now-getting-full VLT5 appliance.

I haven’t used iSCSI in a while because our current Backup Exec solution has a physical SCSI connection to the VLT5 appliance. Could someone point me towards KB articles etc. that walk through the process of getting iSCSI on a server to recognize an ISCSI tape library device? I have seen a number of articles that tell me how to set up iSCSI for direct SAN access but if I’m using the proxy VM, I don’t really care about that.

The new LT06 appliance will have multiple virtual tape libraries, so bonus if there’s an easy way to set that up in VEEAM (and switch destination of the jobs). For the purpose of our evaluation, we have been backing up to a NAS drive, but I'd like to retire that.

I spaced and didn’t read the V7 Evaluator Guide carefully (after having pored over the 6.5 one ...) to realize that 32 bit OS were no longer supported for the main server, so my plans to run Backup Exec and Veeam on the same physical server (with a proxy on a VM that talks to all our SAN LUNs) are now kaput. (2003, 32 bit OS) So, back to the drawing board.

Environment (pretty simple, we’re a SMB):
VSphere 4.0
HP BLC3000 with three blade ESX servers
HP EVA4400 SAN
Celerra NX4 SAN
Approximately 20 VMs, not all of which get backed up regularly – including Exchange and SQL
Reverse incrementals and weekly (Saturday) active fulls – this is to facilitate tape cutting for offsite storage

Architecture Possibility #1:
• Main backup server installed on a 2008 stand alone machine
o The one we have available is a Domain Controller (with DHCP) although not high-traffic during off hours, when the backups are taking place
• Current evaluation VM set up as proxy server
• Connect main backup server via ISCSI to disk/tape appliance

Architecture Possibility #2
• Keep all Veeam functions on the current 2008 VM
• Connect this VM via its ISCSI initiator to the new backup appliance

Any tips, suggestions, pointers would be much appreciated.

Many thanks in advance!

Charlotte

[Vitaliy S.]

Hello Charlotte,

Have you had a chance to review this existing topic, seems like it is covering the same very question you have?

Thank you!

[veremin]

For the purpose of our evaluation, we have been backing up to a NAS drive, but I'd like to retire that.

Be aware that VB&R provides disk-to-disk-to-tape scenario. In other words, it doesn’t backup directly to tape medias, instead, it archives already existed restore points. So, there still should be a place to where backup data goes first.

Reverse incrementals and weekly (Saturday) active fulls – this is to facilitate tape cutting for offsite storage

I’m not sure whether I follow you on that. If you’re using reversed incremental mode, each time tape job runs, it will copy a completely full backup. Also, in case of reversed incremental, the demand for performing active full also isn’t that strong – you should be ok with running active full once a month or two.

Architecture Possibility

As to the possible architectures , scenario#2 seems to be preferable, since it’s not recommended to run backup software and DC on the same machine (as in the scenario#1).

Thanks.