Best Practises to backup and restore a Vcenter with Veeam

[Barastam]

Hello all,

Anyone know how to backup and restore a Vcenter Server with Veeam V7 please?

Is there a KB or something like that which explain the way how to do this?

Thanks for your help

B.

[foggy]

With v7 there should not be any issues with backing up vCenter Server, since it automatically handles vCenter database exclusion from VSS processing. Here's also a KB article that can be useful.

[Vitaliy S.]

...and for restores you need to add standalone ESXi host to the backup console prior launching the restore process.

[Barastam]

Thank you guys, it worked !!!
Have a nice day.

[albertwt]

Hi,

Is there any document or link that I an follow to backup VMware VCenter VM using Veeam Backup v 8.0 ?

what is the best practice that I must follow ?

Thanks

[veremin]

Backup it as an ordinary VM (its database will be automatically excluded from VSS processing) and add a standalone host to a console that would be helpful, should restore be needed.

[albertwt]

People,

May I know what are the best practice and the suggested method when backing up the Virtual Windows VCenter using Veeam v8.0 Patch 1 ?

My current VCenter is version 5.1 Update 2 and the SQl Server DB is als in the same VM itself.

[Shestakov]

Hello Albert,
Have you tried to back it up as Vladimir suggested to you above?
Thanks.

[albertwt]

Backup it as an ordinary VM (its database will be automatically excluded from VSS processing) and add a standalone host to a console that would be helpful, should restore be needed.

ok, so in the Veeam Backup & Replication v8.0 Patch 1 I just add the New Backup job of this one particular VCenter VM and then set the backup schedule to be outside of the other VM backup window.
Do I need to worry about anything else that I may have missed before activating this backup job in Porduction ?

[Shestakov]

Albert, in a case of desaster, your vCenter will be down, so you need to add a standalone host for the restore.
Thanks.

[veremin]

And since it's a Windows VM, you might want to enable Application Aware Image Processing for it to have consistent backup. Thanks.

[albertwt]

Albert, in a case of desaster, your vCenter will be down, so you need to add a standalone host for the restore.
Thanks.

Where do I specify this ?

[albertwt]

And since it's a Windows VM, you might want to enable Application Aware Image Processing for it to have consistent backup. Thanks.

ok, so in this case I'd just create new VM backup job and then select the VCenter VM, then select the Application Aware backup (VSS quiesce) due to the fact that SQL Server is installed in this same Windows VCenter VM ?

is there any side effect when the VCenter is backed up the same time with other Production Server after hours ?

[Shestakov]

You can add a host to you backup infrastructure using VBR UI. Backup Infrastructure>Add Server. The server will be used as the target in a case of restore.
Thanks.

[foggy]

ok, so in this case I'd just create new VM backup job and then select the VCenter VM, then select the Application Aware backup (VSS quiesce) due to the fact that SQL Server is installed in this same Windows VCenter VM ?

Correct.

is there any side effect when the VCenter is backed up the same time with other Production Server after hours ?

There should not be any side effects.

[marius roma]

I have a vSphere 5.0 infrastructure where the vCenter is a Windows 2008 R2 VM.
At the moment the VM is backed up to a NAS using a different backup solution.
Is there any reason to not use Veeam B&R 7.x to back-up the vCenter?
Is there anything to consider before creating a job to back-up che vCenter?
Regards
marius

[Shestakov]

Hello Marius,
There is no reason not to use VBR to backup vCenter. Best practices are provided in the current thread and this topic. Please get familiar and ask questions if you have any.
Thanks.

[albertwt]

Correct.
There should not be any side effects.

Thanks guys, so in V8.0 shall I backup the VCenter VM through the VCenter or through a stand alone host where the VCenter VM runs ?

This article seems to be outdated: up2v.nl/2011/05/06/backup-of-vcenter-server-sql-database-using-veeam-backup-replication/ but is it still the case in VBR 8.0 Patch 1 (Veeam Backup & Replication 8.0.0.917) ?

[foggy]

Thanks guys, so in V8.0 shall I backup the VCenter VM through the VCenter or through a stand alone host where the VCenter VM runs ?

You can back it up via vCenter server connection.

This article seems to be outdated: up2v.nl/2011/05/06/backup-of-vcenter-server-sql-database-using-veeam-backup-replication/ but is it still the case in VBR 8.0 Patch 1 (Veeam Backup & Replication 8.0.0.917) ?

No, this is not the case with v8, since vCenter database is automatically excluded from VSS processing.

[albertwt]

You can back it up via vCenter server connection.
No, this is not the case with v8, since vCenter database is automatically excluded from VSS processing.

Many thanks Alex.

The blog post out there is quite confusing