Best Practice for Hyper V 2 Node Cluster

[pcts]

Hi there, we have a two node hyper v cluster (Windows Server 2012 R2). Two Hyper V servers have their OS on local drives. Our setup has 5 VM's, 3 of which are on shared storage (SAN) and the other two are domain controllers one local to each host.

I am currently trialing Veeam B&R to backup the VM's from the shared storage to another server repository.

I'm looking for some guidance around what to backup and how with Veeam to ensure we have all bases covered - specifically

1. I'm wondering would it be possible to back up the Hyper V Server Host operating systems (since they are local to the server) and will the Veeam Agent work for this?
I see in the Veeam Agent user guide - it says Microsoft failover cluster is not supported and I was wondering if anyone has successfully been able to backup the host operating systems?

2. What is best practice in terms of backing up the cluster configuration etc is this something Veeam Agent can help with?
I suppose I'm trying to imagine if something happened and we needed to BMR the hosts - would Veeam be able to restore the failover cluster configuration or is that something we would need to document and then reconfigure manually?

3. Should we be backing up the quorum and can Veeam Agent help with this or do we need some additional Microsoft backups also in place for this?

Thanks
PCTS

[Dima P.]

Hello pcts,

Standalone VAW is not cluster aware, so it can protect a single node as if it's a regular server.

1. I'm wondering would it be possible to back up the Hyper V Server Host operating systems (since they are local to the server) and will the Veeam Agent work for this?
I see in the Veeam Agent user guide - it says Microsoft failover cluster is not supported and I was wondering if anyone has successfully been able to backup the host operating systems?

It should work in case you want to backup the operating system only (go for volume level backup > operating system).

would Veeam be able to restore the failover cluster configuration or is that something we would need to document and then reconfigure manually?

After BMR procedure cluster should be reassembled manually.

Should we be backing up the quorum and can Veeam Agent help with this or do we need some additional Microsoft backups also in place for this?

I might be wrong, but I don’t quorum should be protected since it’s basically a copy of your cluster configuration.

[pcts]

Hi Dima

Sorry for the delayed reply - busy week. Thanks for the update and answers to my questions - it is great to get your answer, much appreciate it.

I hear VAW as part of Veeam 10 might be cluster aware so I also look forward to this development.

Kind Regards
PCTS

[Dima P.]

Hi PCTS,

Not v10 but upcoming Update 3, stay tuned