VBO Integration with VB&R

[stre1026]

Hello,

We've recently started deploying some cloud resources on Office 365 (late to the game, I know) and I'm looking for some ways to backup those Sharepoint sites with VBO but also then have them backed up by our VBR server so those backups fall in line with our normal backup policies (IE: dumping to tape monthly, etc.). It does not appear you can use a VBR Repository as a repository for VBO so I'm wondering if there is a way or workarounds that I'm not familiar with.

[Mildur]

Hi stre1026

VBR is capable of doing application aware backups of a VB365 Backup Server.
What type of backup repository are you using for VB365?

Object Storage:
Tape Backup is not possible. But you can use Backup Copy Job to send the your backups to archive storage.

Local Disks:
If you use local disks for storing the VB365 backups, you can configure a VM or Agent Backup Job to backup the VB365 server. If you backup drive C and the drive where you have stored the backup repositories, you will have a consistent backup of your vb365 backup data as normal backup chains (VBK's + VIB's). You can write them to tape with your other machines.

My recommended design for smaller M365 tenant is always:
1) Create a VM with diskspace from your production storage
2) Install VB365 on this VM
3) Let the server backup your M365 Tenant
4) Take a Backup (VM or Agent) of the VB365 VM with a VBR Server
5) Use Tape or immutable backup targets for a second copy of the backup.

[stre1026]

Hi Mildur,

Thank you very much for your suggestions. I will have to do that. Currently, my VB365 server is a physical server with local storage but I can change it to be a VM and back it up as you suggest.

[Mildur]

Physical Server will also work. No need to change anything.
Use the veeam agent to backup the entire computer and you have also a consistent backup

I forgot to post the link.
You can read about our 3-2-1 for VB365 in the Best Practice Guide:
https://bp.veeam.com/vbo/guide/design/3-2-1.html

[ian.watts]

Even later to the game.

So sales was telling me VBO would integrate with my VB&R infra.. which from what I am seeing here is just not the case. Can you confirm?
I already have a local repo, a backup copy repo, and object storage. I also have SOBR configured. I also was hoping to utilize what I had and integrate VBO with this infra.

So the recommend is to VM VBO as a separate thing and scoop it up with VB&R? Bear in mind in order to get what I want I will now burn another VUL license (which we also just got converted to, from sockets..) to get what I need here. It also makes DR an order of magnitude more challenging.. given I would need to address the VBO VM stuff before I can even recover any 365 content in a full disaster (maybe.. malware..).

Let me know so I can toss VBO off my B&R machine..

[Mildur]

Hi Ian

We can do the following with our VBR integration:

• Take Backups of the VM/physical machine to protect Configuration and VB365 Backup Data on DAS repositories (3-2-1 Rule). This backups can then be written to Tape or copied to another storage (simple repository, SOBR, Linux hardened Repo, Capacity tier, ....)

• Use the VBR Console to do restores directly from a protected VB365 Machine without powering on the VB365 Machine. Just right click on the machine in the VBR Console and start a application item restore. Sharepoint, Onedrive, Teams or Exchange, all 4 services are available.
  

• Use the Explorers from a VBR server to open the VB365 repository database files (*.adb) in case VB365 cannot be used anymore.

• Use VBR to connect to a service provider which uses his VB365 environment to protect the clients M365 tenant.

You cannot use:

• VBR cannot protect your M365 data. VB365 and VBR are not the same products.

____________

So the recommend is to VM VBO as a separate thing and scoop it up with VB&R?

Yes, it's not recommended by us to install VB365 on the same server as VBR. It's supported, but comes with disadvantages. Both share some components. You must always update both products at the same time and check for compatibility between both of them. And you have to consider the resource (CPU/Memory) planning. Addionally, if you use the same volume for VBR and the VB365 Repos, you can't use a backup job to get a second copy.

So the recommend is to VM VBO as a separate thing and scoop it up with VB&R?

Yes, as mentioned in the Best Practice Guide. It's the only way to protect at least the configuration.

Bear in mind in order to get what I want I will now burn another VUL license (which we also just got converted to, from sockets..) to get what I need here.

You get a copy of the restore points (if you use Direct Attached Storage as the backup repository) for this VUL license. As recommended by the 3-2-1-1-0 rule, there should be a second backup copy when ever possible.
If you use Object Storage as your backup repository, you can use backup copy jobs to Archive Storage on Amazon or Azure.

It also makes DR an order of magnitude more challenging.. given I would need to address the VBO VM stuff before I can even recover any 365 content in a full disaster (maybe.. malware..).

You have three Options, if both your OnPremise and Cloud environment are affected.

• As already mentioned, use VBR and the Explorers to restore the data directly from the backup of the VB365 machine back to the cloud.

• Run the VB365 machine in a instant recovery session and connect to the console of the vm, if you want to have full access to the VB365 console with all the features.

• Restore the entire VM back to your hypervisor. You can use Quick Rollback, which should not take to long to restore a vm, if only a few GB were changed.

[brkdncr]

What are the requirements for VBR and VB365 integration? I've backed up my new vb365 server with up-to-date vbr but when i try to do an app restore from the vbr server the vb365 explorer says it's an unsupported database.

[jorgedlcruz]

Hello,
What is the Backup Repository for VB365? Normal onprem direct attached disk, or object storage?

[Mildur]

What are the requirements for VBR and VB365 integration? I've backed up my new vb365 server with up-to-date vbr but when i try to do an app restore from the vbr server the vb365 explorer says it's an unsupported database.

@brkdncr
For normal backup repositories (jet database), the Machine where you start the VBR Console must have the same or newer OS version as the VB365 server. It must be able to read the jet databases. Each windows brings another version of the jet db driver. The explorer on an older windows version cannot read jet db version backed up of a newer windows.

[brkdncr]

I installed the vb365 veeam explorers onto my vbr console server and it is now working.

[Mildur]

Thanks for sharing your solution.

[redhorse]

Hello,

I have a question regarding the recommended installation as we are planning to implement a hybrid installation for Office 365:

- VB365 will be installed within an ESXi-VM on Drive C: with backup repository on Drive D:
- B&R will be used to backup this VM so that the backup of the O365 data will be part of the established backup procedure

Questions:
- How can we ensure that the backup of the VB365 is consistent? I think there must not run a VB365 backup job during the B&R backup of the VM, am I right?
- Depending of the retention within VB365 we always fire a fullbackup of the while retention period to tape, what is recommended to avoid this? Keeping the VB365 retention short?

[Mildur]

- How can we ensure that the backup of the VB365 is consistent? I think there must not run a VB365 backup job during the B&R backup of the VM, am I right?

I recommend to check the timing of both Jobs (VB365 + VBR), so that the VB365 job is successfully finished and registered as a new restore point in the config database before you start the VM backup. Or you can only restore VB365 data from the day before and not from the current day.

To have a consistent backup, enable Guest Application Aware processing in the VBR Backup Job and you are good to go. When you install VB365, a new VSS Writer called 'Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 Writer' gets registered. The VSS Writer makes sure, that the jet databases are in a consistent state when the VM backup happens.

Depending of the retention within VB365 we always fire a fullbackup of the while retention period to tape, what is recommended to avoid this? Keeping the VB365 retention short?

At which point are you doing the fullbackup? VBR, VB365?
With VB365, there is only one fullbackup, the first one. All others are just incremental backups.

The retention of the VB365 backups is a business decision. When I was working at a service provider, we used mostly a retention of 1 year.
I would keep it simple if you have the storage to keep all the incremental data. Let VB365 use the retention your business requires for your backups. If you want to have the capability to restore for the last 3 months, configure a VB365 retention of free months.
The VBR VM Job Retention can be lower (7-14 days), because each Restore Points is containing all VB365 backup data within the VB365 retention period.
If you require a backup on tape, just do a Backup to Tape Job.

[redhorse]

At which point are you doing the fullbackup? VBR, VB365?
With VB365, there is only one fullbackup, the first one. All others are just incremental backups.

I mean the VBR fullbackup to tape which we perform each week.

The VBR VM Job Retention can be lower (7-14 days), because each Restore Points is containing all VB365 backup data within the VB365 retention period.
If you require a backup on tape, just do a Backup to Tape Job.

That's what I mean, we always have a fullbackup of the VB365 backup with the whole VB365 rentention (e.g. 1 year) on the weekly tape. But I must admit there is no other chance I am afraid.

[Mildur]

If you create a forever incremental backup chain with the VBR VM Backup Job, you can use a regular media pool (not GFS) and configure the virtual full to only be created on specific months. Then no full backup should be written to tape at the weekends.

I don't recommend to do it. Just buy two tapes and switch them on a weekly basis.
Do you see issues with the performance in weekly full to tapes?

[redhorse]

I don't recommend to do it. Just buy two tapes and switch them on a weekly basis.
Do you see issues with the performance in weekly full to tapes?

That seems to be a good idea. I could separate the backup of the VB365 VM and create a tape job with a full backup to tape every week on a dedicated media set.

Thanks!