How to secure my servers on Google Cloud?

[sandroalves]

Hi friends,

I've just been managing an environment on Google Cloud for a short time where I need to implement a granular solution for backup of servers and SQL database with Always On. There are few servers at most 10.

I've been using Veeam Backup and Replication in an Onpremises environment with VMware for some time now and I'm thinking about doing the same to protect my servers on Google Cloud using the community version.

I understand that being a Cloud environment the method of transferring the backups will be via agent, that is, or should I raise a VM and install the community version, deploy it and that's it. That's right?

Or do I have other recommended alternatives?

Thanks.

[Gostev]

Hi Sandro

Either of these approaches leverage legacy agent-based backup method and will work fine because agents don't really care of the nature of a machine they are running in (physical/virtual/cloud).

However, this sub-forum is for our purpose-built cloud-native backup solution for VMs in Google Cloud called Veeam Backup for Google, so why not give it a try before failing back to a legacy agent-based backup? We offer free edition for this product too.

Thanks!

[sandroalves]

Hi @Gostev,

oops! I'm sorry, as the question is referring to Google I believed that here is the best place.

Answering your question: I've read about but don't worry if even using this version I need the agent or not, can I do agentless? In other words, what differs in practice using this version mentioned by you from the version installed in practice?

Another question is if using this community version if I want to upgrade the version I can install the definitive licensing if it is necessary to increase the amount of protected servers.

Thanks.

[Gostev]

Veeam Backup for Google is best compared to "host-based" VMware backup job, so we're talking agentless backup here.

And yes, you can always convert the free edition to a licensed one if needed.

[sandroalves]

Hi @Gostev,

I'm getting ready to create the Google instance for Veeam.

I noticed that it will create a Linux VM (Ubuntu) and I will need a storage location to put our backups, just like I do in onpremises (Backup Repository).

Doubt 1:
We know the backup and restore process needs a storage location with good performance. What type of repository is commonly used on Google that guarantees good work rates?

Doubt 2:
Does the server that will be created to store the Veeam instance need to be on the same network as my servers? Or can I put it on an independent network and still be able to do granular file restores in guest or VM restore in Google?

Thanks.

[sandroalves]

Hi,

I have read the documentation and it is only mentioned that Veeam for Google needs internet inbound access to access the APIs. I needed to enable the APIs in Google as well as during deploy it had an error.

However, we were evaluating internally and initially we will guarantee our backups using Google's own snapshots. It's simple to do it's simple to restore, so we believe that as far as protecting the entire machine is concerned we won't work on that right now.

However, we want to take some files to Veeam and with that make a copy to an external storage (Blob Azure). In this case the files that are inside the windows operating system of the servers, so I had doubts!

If I keep using Veeam for Google can I back up files from my servers? I understand that in this case I will have to deploy Veeam for Google on the VPC network where my servers are so that communication between them exists.

Another point was that if I manage to continue using Veeam for Google to backup these files and copy them to Azure for example, I have a lower Windows licensing cost than I would pay with an instance installed.

Does my understanding make sense?

Thanks.

[Vitaliy S.]

Hi Sandro,

Doubt 1:
We know the backup and restore process needs a storage location with good performance. What type of repository is commonly used on Google that guarantees good work rates?

Standard storage tier should be enough to process the incoming data.

Doubt 2:
Does the server that will be created to store the Veeam instance need to be on the same network as my servers? Or can I put it on an independent network and still be able to do granular file restores in guest or VM restore in Google?

The Veeam backup appliance can be in a different Google Project, also you can specify networks where workers (the ones that process VMs) will be deployed. Here is a bit more info on this> Managing Workers

However, we want to take some files to Veeam and with that make a copy to an external storage (Blob Azure). In this case the files that are inside the windows operating system of the servers, so I had doubts!

Didn't quite understand the second piece about Windows OS. Can you please clarify it? As for the Azure Blob, then you cannot go directly from GCP to Azure for storing data.

If I keep using Veeam for Google can I back up files from my servers? I understand that in this case I will have to deploy Veeam for Google on the VPC network where my servers are so that communication between them exists.

With Veeam Backup for GCP you can back up entire VMs with all data they have, so If I understood you correctly, all data you have inside VMs will also be backed up.

Another point was that if I manage to continue using Veeam for Google to backup these files and copy them to Azure for example, I have a lower Windows licensing cost than I would pay with an instance installed. Does my understanding make sense?

You cannot copy backups from GCP to Azure with Veeam Backup for GCP.

Thanks!