How Does my Backup and Backup Copy Job Look?

[vaicsimmons]

I am new to Veeam B&R and I’m looking for some feedback on how I have configured by backup jobs.

Background….Veeam B&R is running on a physical server running Windows Server 2012 R2. The OS is running on two 256 GB SSDs in a RAID 1 configuration. I have another volume that is just under 30 TB in a RAID 6 configuration to hold by backups.

On the 30 TB volume, I have enabled deduplication using Server 2012 R2. The volume was formatted using /L and a 64KB cluster size. On that volume, I have the following directories:

Veeam/Backup and Replication/Repository/Daily
Veeam/Backup and Replication/Repository/Archive

I have excluded the Daily directory from having Windows Server 2012 run any deduplication.

I am backing up about 15 VMs that contain roughly 1 TB of data. Most of that data is on our file server and changes very little. Our other servers include a SQL and Exchange server.

With all of that said, here is how I have configured my backup jobs:

Daily Backup Job:

-Restore Points set to 14.
-I chose backup my vcenter cluster and excluded a few test VMs.
-Backups are running as incremental with an Active Full Backup taken every Saturday.
-I have enabled Inline Data Deduplication for this job.
-I have excluded Swap File Blocks from Processing (this is the default setting).
-The compression level is set to Optimal.
-Storage optimization is set to Local Target.
-Changed Block Tracking is enabled.
-Enable CBT for All Protected VMS Automatically is enabled.
-Use Storage Snapshots is enabled.
-Enable Automatic Backup Integrity Checks is enabled.
-Enable Application Aware Processing is enabled.
oIn these settings, Require Successful Processing is selected.
oIn these settings, Process Transaction Logs with This Job is selected.
oIn these settings, I am Backup Logs Periodically Every 15 Minutes is enabled on the SQL Tab. Retain Logs According to the Corresponding Image-Level Backup is also selected on the SQL Tab.
-Enable Guest File System Indexing is enabled.
-The job is set to run daily at 7:00 pm.

Backup Copy Job:

-Set to Copy Every 1 Day starting at 12:00 am.
-Objects to Process is set to my Daily Backup Job.
-Restore Points is set to 14.
-Keep the Following Restore Points for Archival Purposes is set to:
oWeekly – 4 (runs Saturday at 11:59 pm)
oMonthly – 12
oQuarterly – 0
oYearly – 7
-Health Check is set to run monthly on the last Sunday of the month.
-Inline Data Deduplication is enabled.
-Compression Level is set to None.
-Data Transfer is set to Direct.

I’m a bit confused on the Restore Points setting of the Backup Copy Job. Since I am copying to the same server, I don’t see a need to keep any restore points….only the weekly, monthly and yearly copies. However, it will not allow me to set the restore points to 0. Therefore, I just set the Restore Points to 14 as it is set in my Daily Backup Job.

Do those jobs look to be configured correctly? I appreciate all comments and suggestions!

[foggy]

Chris, jobs look configured correctly. Though, a couple of comments below:

On that volume, I have the following directories:

Veeam/Backup and Replication/Repository/Daily
Veeam/Backup and Replication/Repository/Archive

I'd recommend to use some external storage for your archive to avoid loss of the entire backup data in case of failure.

-Backups are running as incremental with an Active Full Backup taken every Saturday.

Weekly active full is a bit overkill, running it once a month would be more reasonable.

I’m a bit confused on the Restore Points setting of the Backup Copy Job. Since I am copying to the same server, I don’t see a need to keep any restore points….only the weekly, monthly and yearly copies. However, it will not allow me to set the restore points to 0. Therefore, I just set the Restore Points to 14 as it is set in my Daily Backup Job.

You can set the number of restore points for the backup copy job to a minimum of 2, if you need just GFS ones.

[Shestakov]

Hello Chris,
Your setting looks good generally, but I have some comments:

I’m a bit confused on the Restore Points setting of the Backup Copy Job. Since I am copying to the same server, I don’t see a need to keep any restore points….only the weekly, monthly and yearly copies. However, it will not allow me to set the restore points to 0.

If you don`t need "basic restore points", you can set it =2(minimal value).

On the 30 TB volume, I have enabled deduplication using Server 2012 R2.
...
-I have enabled Inline Data Deduplication for this job.

Among our recommendations is using raw and fast primary backup storage, and use deduplication only on secondary backup storage. Please check this and this topics.

Thanks!

[vaicsimmons]

I'd recommend to use some external storage for your archive to avoid loss of the entire backup data in case of failure.

The setup that I mentioned above is "Phase 1" of my backup plan. Once I have everything setup and running correctly then I will work on getting the backups offsite. I may put a device, such as a Synology NAS, in one of our buildings about 1/4 mile down the road which is connected via fiber to our main office. I will then replicate everything that is on my primary backup server to that device. The other option I am considering is to put my 2nd copy of backups in the cloud.

Weekly active full is a bit overkill, running it once a month would be more reasonable.

Thanks for the advice. If I go this route then I should set my restore points to 31 and take Monthly active fulls, correct?

You can set the number of restore points for the backup copy job to a minimum of 2, if you need just GFS ones.

Among our recommendations is using raw and fast primary backup storage, and use deduplication only on secondary backup storage. Please check this and this topics.

Thanks for the links. While I have read the one thread in the past, the other one was new to me. My intentions were to use this server as my primary daily / archieve backup and then replicate that data onto a NAS in a second location connected via fiber....or move the backups to the cloud. I would assume that most recoveries utilize backups that are fairly new. This is why I set my daily backup repository to be excluded from Windows Deduplication...so the files wouldn't need to be hydrated during a recovery. Only my archive directory which contains my monthly and yearly backups will be deduped.

I know that I could have gotten better performance with a RAID 10 setup. However, the amount of data that I am backing up is pretty small and my backup window is fairly large (we are an 8-5 shop and closed on the weekends). For budgetary purposes, I rolled with the RAID 6 setup.

[Shestakov]

The setup that I mentioned above is "Phase 1" of my backup plan. Once I have everything setup and running correctly then I will work on getting the backups offsite. I may put a device, such as a Synology NAS, in one of our buildings about 1/4 mile down the road which is connected via fiber to our main office. I will then replicate everything that is on my primary backup server to that device. The other option I am considering is to put my 2nd copy of backups in the cloud.

Sounds good! Backup onsite + backup copy offsite + cloud is a perfect protection plan.

Thanks for the advice. If I go this route then I should set my restore points to 31 and take Monthly active fulls, correct?

It`s not necessary to increase the number of restore points. 14 points and monthly full will work fine.
Thanks!