Execute VM backup from Workload Automation tool

[pierre-benoit.gerber]

Hello,

I have clients who use Workload Automation tools to execute many operations on VM and also as an external scheduler to execute the backup of the VM.
But in Veeam B&R a VM is fully linked to a Backup Job who defined the retention, the schedule, the repository,etc...
Therefore I cannot run an individual backup of a VM from an external scheduler; I have to run a Backup Job with all included VM.
One solution is to create a backup job for each VM, but with thousands of VMs to manage, this seems impractical.
In other backup software solutions, the VM is directly tied to a retention policy, not necessarily to a backup job, this makes it possible to run a manual backup of an individual VM while maintaining the backup retention period.
Any suggestions for addressing this need?

Thank you,

[vnikiforov]

Hello, Pierre-Benoit,

Can you explain the specific workflow you and your clients desire?
You write:
>Therefore I cannot run an individual backup of a VM from an external scheduler; I have to run a Backup Job with all included VM.

But this is not quite accurate, Veeam has both the QuickBackup and VeeamZIP functions intended for out of band one-off backups. QuickBackup produces an on-demand incremental (VMWARE and HyperV), while VeeamZIP produces a standalone full backup and you can further customize the retention on VeeamZIP.
Both can be triggered by our automation endpoints (PowerShell, REST API), but if you could tell a bit more about your desired workflow we can better advise

[pierre-benoit.gerber]

Hello,

Each VM has is own "lifecycle".
For example the tool execute several sequential tasks who can be different for each VM like:

1. application specific jobs or maintenance task
2. database backup
2. database files shrink
3. VM backup
4. OS update
5. OS restart

So I want to use REST APi or Powershel Script to execute the VM backup within the scheduler's task sequence.

[vnikiforov]

Hello, Pierre-Benoit,

Thank you for clarifications.

There is no native "back up this individual VM right now according to its assigned retention policy" option right now.
However, Veeam provides several mechanisms that, when combined, can closely replicate the workflow your clients need.
You can also disable all scheduled options for any job and start any job via powershell or API
(i.e Get-VBRJob -Name "BackupName" | Start-VBRJob)

Other approaches worth mentioning:

1. Quick Backup via PowerShell (only VMware and HyperV)
That triggers an individual VM backup while respecting its existing retention policy,it uses VM's existing backup chain and inherits the retention settings of whichever job the VM belongs to.
https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/vbr/p ... tml?ver=13

2. VeeamZIP for Fully Independent Ad-Hoc Backups
If the requirement is to create a standalone backup completely outside any job, Start-VBRZip performs an ad-hoc full backup of a single VM with its own independent retention.
https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/vbr/u ... tml?ver=13

3. Architecture Redesign with Tags (Recommended for large scale if talking about VMWARE)
Rather than creating one job per VM (which you correctly identify as impractical), for large environments you may use vSphere tags or folder-based container jobs to organize your VMs into a manageable number of
jobs grouped by some criteria. You create jobs based on VM tags rather than manually selecting individual VMs. Each tag maps to one backup job with appropriate settings.

When your workload automation tool needs to protect a VM, it assigns the appropriate vSphere tag to a VM. The next time the corresponding job runs, it automatically picks up the new VM with no job reconfiguration needed.