Backup Nimble Non-VM Volume

[dualdj1]

As Veeam now has access to Nimble Snapshots, even those on volumes not connected to VM's or VMWare/hyper-v (Standalone iSCSI volumes, etc)... Is it possible to back up these snapshots without selecting a VM, or is everything VM based at this point? If not possible, could we get a feature request to add this capability?

The reason this is important to my environment, is that we have several Microsoft Windows failover clusters utilizing direct mapped iSCSI volumes on the Nimble. If the volumes are configured as a shared SCSI volume in VMWare, it is impossible to snapshot the VM. The alternative was to have a volume mapped directly in Windows (but the VMWare is unaware of the volume). I believe we could still backup the volume(s) utilizing agents, but if Veeam has access to the SAN snapshots, it would make more sense to leverage backing up the volume directly via snapshot, and not need the agent(s).

[dellock6]

Nimble integration (actually, any storage integration also with other vendors) is usable only for volume formatted with VMFS filesystem. we leverage volume snapshots to backup the VMs in it, not any snapshot created by the storage array.

[dualdj1]

So my understanding was that the volume is backed up directly via the SAN, not through vCenter, is that correct? Or are you still coordinating the backup through vCenter, but accessing the data through the SAN? This would be more of a feature request then. If you have access to the SAN, and the ability to backup from a volume on the SAN, would you not be capable of backing up a volume that's not tied to vCenter? I'm sure I'm not the only one that has volumes outside of the VM environment that need backed up. Is it more of an issue with the format of the volume being NTFS? Is this something that's potentially doable down the road?

The Nimble integration otherwise is nice, but the value of upgrading to enterprise plus licensing decreases significantly without this capability.

[foggy]

The whole idea behind the product is VM backup (you can review the workflow used to backup VMs from storage snapshots here). Your request is accepted though, thanks for the feedback.

[dualdj1]

Thanks. I realize that the product developed from a VM backup prospective, but since its inception VEEAM has added file level backup via agents (which wasn't in the initial roadmap), as well as tape support, and I see opportunity to expand functionality again, and be able to further protect the environment. Thanks for your consideration!