Backup proxy deployment scenario

[Morgenstern]

Hi, I was wondering if I could pick your brains on the strategy of proxy deployment. I did look into the FAQs and the manual but I am still unsure whether I've done it properly.

Basically, we have a main site where our main vmware host resides together with a separate physical instance of the veam main server/console/default proxy.

Then we have another site across the road connected wirelessly to our LAN via a pair of microvawe antennas. There resides our backup vmware host which we replicate our vm's to.

Initially we had the default proxy in our main office processing the replication. Then I thought that placing another one on the other side and excluding the default one could optimize the load on the network and speed up the whole process. Would that be a correct assumption? What I want to achieve is the data to be processed on the other side and fed directly into the replicas without a need to send anything back via the wireless link.

Or would it be more effective to have both the default and the proxy on the other side running at the same time and let veeam to decide what is best to do? How will it tell that the one on the other side is considerably closer to the target?

I hope my rambling maskes a bit of sense...

[Shestakov]

Hi Martin.

I thought that placing another one on the other side and excluding the default one could optimize the load on the network and speed up the whole process. Would that be a correct assumption?
Or would it be more effective to have both the default and the proxy on the other side running at the same time and let veeam to decide what is best to do? How will it tell that the one on the other side is considerably closer to the target?

It`s better to have proxies on both sides, and have one proxy as a source proxy and another as target proxy, so you don`t need to delete default one. You can even have several source and target proxies and let Veeam B&R to choose automatically between them. In a case of having several jobs running simultaneously, VBR can use all proxies at the same time.
Thank you.

[Morgenstern]

But will the veeam somehow measure the effectivity of each proxy to ensure achieving the best results?

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Edit

I just went though the job settings again and realised that I can allocate specific source and target proxies. I suppose that in itself answers my question.

Sorry to bother you, I should've done my homework first!

[Shestakov]

Yes, it will.

Backup proxy acts as a “data mover”, it retrieves data, processes it and transfers to the target destination.
The primary role of the backup proxy is to provide an optimal route for backup traffic and enable efficient data transfer. Please read.

No problem, Martin. Once you have a question, don`t hesitate to ask.

[foggy]

Veeam B&R does implement the smart proxy selection algorithm, according to which the most optimal proxy server is selected. Basically, if automatic proxy selection is used, Veeam B&R selects the most efficient proxy in terms of source data retrieval transport mode (direct SAN is preferred over hotadd, which is, in its turn, preferred over network mode). Network access mode backup proxy servers are selected based on their subnet (proxy located on the same subnet as the processed host is preferable). If no such backup proxy is found, the first least-busy proxy is selected (the one with least tasks currently assigned). Of course, you can manually select the particular proxies to be used, if required.

As Nikita has already mentioned, for optimal offsite replication performance it is recommended to have proxy servers on both sides, so that the traffic crossed the slow link in a compressed format: the source proxy should be located closer to the source datastore for faster data retrieval and the target one on the target host, to be able to use hotadd to populate target datastore with replica VM data.