Creating and removing snapshots while VEEAM jobs running

[newguise_]

Is it ok to create and remove snapshots on VMs while they are being backed up or replicated (obviously I'm not talking about removing the VEEAM temporary snapshot)?

We're running VMware ESXi 5.5u2 and VEEAM B&R 8.0.0.2030.

In the past I think I've created snapshots on VMs while they are being backed up, but I've never been game to remove them until after the job finishes.

The reason I want to do this is because out maintenance window is the same as our backup window (i.e. outside of business hours), so if I am performing maintenance on a VM and wish to have a snapshot to revert to should something not go to plan, there is a good chance I'll be wanting to snapshot the VM while it is being backed up or replicated.

Cheers!

[dellock6]

Hi Matt,
no it should not be a problem in terms of data consistency, as each snapshot will represent one point in time and Veeam will only read data of its point. However, be careful multiple snapshots on the same machine will reduce performances of the VM while is running, but also of the backup/replication if the maintenance snapshot is taken before the Veeam one, as VMware now will have to read data from both the base disk and the delta disk created for maintenance.

But from a pure technical standpoint it should work.

Luca

[newguise_]

Thanks for your reply, Luca. Please could I just clarify: performance considerations aside, if I take a snapshot of a VM, then VEEAM starts backing it up, and I remove my snapshot while the VM is still being backed up, will that cause any problems?

[dellock6]

my guess is no because every point is independent. Even if you merge your snapshot into the base disk, veeam has its own snapshot to record writes, while the content of the base disk + your snapshot is still the same as when Veeam took its snapshot