Backup NetApp CIFS ??

[m.sauter]

Hi,

does anyone have a solution to backup NetApp Cifs with B&R V7 (Standard) ....

regards
marc

[Vitaliy S.]

Hello Marc,

Can you please clarify your question as it is possible to backup to any CIFS share even now?

Thank you!

[Gostev]

Marc is asking about backing up files from CIFS share. The only to options today are File to Tape jobs, or File Copy jobs (not very scalable).

[m.sauter]

Yes that is what i ask.
Cause if i can Not backup cifs volumes from netapp i need a second backup software
That is Not what Customers wanna have

Regards
Marc

[veremin]

As mentioned, you can backup such shares with the use of files jobs, either files to tape or file copy one. Both have their own limitation, though. The performance of former one might not be that perfect, the later one is not very scalable. So, I recommend you testing both and seeing whether they answer your requirements. Thanks.

[m.sauter]

So we can say - Veeam ist not a perfect backup solution for NetApp - cause 95% of NetApp customers using CIFS directly on the NetApp FAS Filer.
Thats not what the market needs - If they pray NetApp support .... they should do a full job not a half one ...

[foggy]

But Veeam B&R is not a file-level backup solution... we do virtual machine backup, and our NetApp support messaging relates solely to that.

[Gostev]

Marc, could you please estimate the amount of files and overall data size of your NetApp CIFS shares? And perhaps total amount and size of virtual machines you have, just to help me understand what is the ratio of data stored in VMFS vs. CIFS in your environment.

[klin8251]

Do you know if there is any possibility that support will be added to backing up NetAPP CIFS shares with the release of version 8? It would be great to backup NETAPP CIFS snapshots and have the ability to restore (with permissions). Do you if any work has been done on this front?

[Yuki]

Anton,
We are also looking for a solution to backup our customer's NetApp infrastructure. There are only a few dozen TBs of VMDKs, but about 190TB of CIFS data. Right now the customer is using ComVault+ 2x4 drive tape loaders but asked us to find a new solution that doesnt involve tapes. Our favorite solution (Veeam) doesn't have this (at least not until v8 with netapp integration comes around, but even then, i believe you will only be doing it at snapshot level.

[Vitaliy S.]

Peter, backup of CIFS shares is not going to be part of v8 release, but thanks for the feedback. Also can you please estimate the files amount/size that Anton is trying to find out in the post above?

@Yuki, thanks for the numbers!

[klin8251]

We will have about a 50% VM (6 TB) to 50% CIFS (6 TB) ratio stored on our NetAPP. I am really disappointed that NetAPP CIFS will not be part of version 8. I was really hoping you guys could pull this off. Thank-you for the update. Just food for thought without being an expert in this area...integrate two backup jobs for Netapp CIFS shares. 1 job backs up the CIFS snapshot and a second (File Copy job?) copies off NTFS permissions. Two step restore process, but have the speed of backing up snapshots (and incremental backups). Hope this makes sense.

[silus]

Hi,
I see that Veeam has some pretty tight integration with NetApp and its snapshots.

I am looking into the possibility of using Veeam over NetApp Snap Protect. One thing that Snap protect does for us right now is backup NetApp CIFS shares by taking snapshots and then offloading to tape.

Can Veeam do this functionality as well? Or does it solely snapshot those volumes used for vSphere?

[ssharlow]

This still is a big issue and causes issues. If the file copy option performed better, then would would not be as big of a problem. One issue is that the NTFS permissions are not preserved on a file copy job, which creates unnecessary steps/delay/cause for mistake when doing a restore. If I had truly understood this limitation, I may not have gone all in with Veeam. Using NetApp SMB/CIFS has so many advantages inherently, but in order to get Veeam to allow backup of main file shares, you need to create a Win VM and do traditional file sharing and then back up the VM. This is less than ideal but you could argue that it does have it's advantages. Veeam needs to either improve the file copy tool, work with MS to get into SMB, or work with NetApp to enable getting into those CIFS/SMB snapshots and work your magic. Supposedly you are getting into them anyway in V8. Basically Veeam is leaving out 50% of the purpose of a NAS. The conclusion is that Veeam really is a VM backup tool only, and doesn't really compete with other products out there, playing into the marketing speak of other vendors.

[NavyDavy20]

I would like to suggest a future update to the Veeam Software.
As you are already integrated with NetApp it would be an added bonus to be able to take snapshots and backup a NetApp VM(filer) that supports CIF shares.

70% of our data is maintained on these shares requiring us to preserve it on site and off. It would be nice to have one software that is capable of handling both the VMWare and the NetApp VMs.

Please pursue this as it would definitely give your company an edge in this realm.
It seems to be a popular item in this forum and others.

[emachabert]

I agree that those NAS boxes are a real concern when it comes to backup/restore. But perhaps future is more about VM/Software defined than hardware/vendor specific solutions.
We see a lot a of our customers leaving the "hardware/vendor" NAS solutions to VM based NAS (W2K12/R2 or RHSS), even on huge volumes (they scale-out instead of scaling-up aka "controller upgrade").
They are ok to leave some features to get a more agile/flexible solution, with no specific licencing, no specific antivirus, no specific backup & restore, no dedicated hardware and a greater lifetime.

[snovak]

I second NavyDavy20's request. We're using our NetApp appliance for both VM's as well as shares for our corporation. A means to back those up using Veeam would be ideal, instead of having two solutions in place.

Please advise us when something has been put in the works?

Thank you.

Shaun

[thomas321]

Same here, we really look forward to a solution that allows dedupe and incrementals. Even in a workaround combination with the endpoint product.