Cannot backup a running guest server with Veeam Backup

[ajl119]

Hello,
We are trialling Veeam Backup with ESXi and it works fine with offline guest servers, but I get a locked error when trying to backup a running guest server.

This is critical and the single mandatory requirement that a backup solution must provide for us.

Thanks in advance.

[Gostev]

Hello, unfortunately it not possible with current technology because in such setup Veeam Backup would freeze itself during the snapshot creation and will not be able to complete the required operations. But of course you can always backup Veeam Backup VM with another Veeam Backup install. Thank you.

[davidshq]

Gostev - I'm not sure I followed this thread. If I have VM1 and VM2 (my physical machines) and then have sql, iis, and dns running on VM1 and iis2, exchange, and backup running on VM2 and backup runs the Veeam instance, are you saying that I will be unable to backup any machines on VM2 b/c to create a snapshot would freeze up the backup instance running Veeam?
Dave.

[ssimakov]

Assuming that I've understood your configuration correctly (you run Backup on a virtual machine and Backup will try to backup itself) then yes, issues will arise when trying to do it.

[davidshq]

Okay, what about if I run the backup on a virtual machine and just backup the other vm's on the physical server? Will that cause an issue?
Dave.

[Gostev]

Dave, I don't understand your last posts, could you please clarify?

If I have VM1 and VM2 (my physical machines) and then have sql, iis, and dns running on VM1 and iis2, exchange, and backup running on VM2 and backup runs the Veeam instance, are you saying that I will be unable to backup any machines on VM2 b/c to create a snapshot would freeze up the backup instance running Veeam?

Scenario is not clear... if VM1 and VM2 are physical machines as you say, then you cannot backup them with Veeam Backup at all.

Okay, what about if I run the backup on a virtual machine and just backup the other vm's on the physical server?

Sorry, I don't understand this description either. Do you have 2 Veeam Backup installation, one is on virtual server, and another one is on physical server?

[davidshq]

Okay, we have two physical servers - we call them VM1 and VM2. These are physical, hardware servers.
On VM1 and VM2 ESXi is installed. VM1 contains the virtual machines sql, iis, and dns. VM2 has the virtual machines iis2, exchange, and backup.
Veeam is installed on virtual machine backup.
So, what we want to do is:
Have Veeam (running in virtual machine backup on physical server VM2) backup all the virtual machines on VM1 and iis2 and exchange on VM2.
As I understand it, this should be possible - even though backup, iis2, and exchange all exist on the same physical server, because Veeam only has issues if Veeam attempts to backup the virtual machine it is installed on, not the other virtual machines on the same physical server. If this is confusing, try replacing the names VM1/VM2 with ESX1/ESX2. VM1/2 does not stand for "virtual machine" but essentially "virtual machine host."
Dave.

[ecleppe]

Davidshq, can you post some kind of error message you get during your backup.

Never mind, I thought you weren't able to backup any of the virtual machines.

[Gostev]

Dave, thanks for clarifications. Yes, issue only occurs when Veeam Backup is running in the virtual machine and attemtps to backup this same virtual machine. All other VMs can be backed up without issues, including those on the same ESX host.

[davidshq]

Okay, great. That's all I needed. Thanks.