Offsite Backup and Replication

[joe.walsh@walshbs.ie]

I am new to Veeam, and I would like some help.
I have a standalone ESX 5 server. This has two VMs, SBS Server 2011 and a Terminal Server (Windows 2008 R2, 5 users).
Total allocated capcity is approx 720GB.
This server will be in a remote, unattended office.
People will log on the the terminal server there.

I have a second server and the hardware is identical to the production server.
This will be at another site, my own office.
I have an LTO-5 tape on another server in my office.
I want the second server to act as a failover to the production server, and I want to backup that server to disk and then to tape.

What is the best practice to achieve this.
My office will be connect to the other office over the WAN.

[foggy]

Joseph, as I understand, you want to replicate your VMs to the second host for the purpose of possible failover and also have these VMs backed up to disk (and then to tape). You can consider different strategies to achieve this depending on different factors (link speed, for example), all of them have been discussed many times on these forums so I'd recommend you to use search for "offsite+backup+best", "backup+tape", etc.

The most straightforward way which affects WAN link less is to replicate your VMs and then to backup replica VMs. Though in this case you will have to disable changed block tracking in the job settings, as replica VMs are powered off and CBT is not capable of tracking external modifications to them. This will result in a few times slower incremental backup speed but save your bandwidth eliminating the need to transfer both backup and replication changes of the same VMs.

[joe.walsh@walshbs.ie]

That is correct foggy.
I have searched using the criteria you specified, but I have not found a suitable anwer.
I have managed to set the two servers on our local LAN.
I have loaded Veeam Backup & Replication software on a third local server.
I have been able to replicate the main server to the second server, and I have been able to backup that server to the local disk on the third server, and then backup that to tape.
We have two DSL broadband connections in the office, but when I isolate the main server, as if it were on a remote site, I cannot connect to it from the Backup & Replication.
This is where I am stuck.
Any ideas ?

Regards,
Joe

[foggy]

Most likely this is due to some network-related issue and not connected with Veeam B&R. It is hard to guess not knowing your network topology.

[joe.walsh@walshbs.ie]

Thanks foggy.
My difficulty is that I cannont find any guidance document on how to configure the network topology.
I have no dofficulty setting up DFS in a Windows Server2008/2003 environment.
I am at a loss here as to how to route the traffic, and what ports, if any to route.
Do I need a VPN connection between the two sites ?

Regards,
Joe

[Vitaliy S.]

Yes, site-to-site VPN through a DSL line will allow you to connect to the remote site from Veeam B&R server, just make sure you opened all ports required?

See our User Guide (page 31) for more information on the ports.

[habibalby]

[merged]

Hi,
I'm replicating VMs to the DR Site and at the DR Site I do have another Veeam Backup & replication. From DR Veeam Machine I backup the VMs that replicated from production.

Any consequences doing this? Backup initiated in Reverse Incremental once replication is done from production site

Is it a good practice?

Thanks,

[foggy]

Hussain, please see my first post above. Thanks.

[habibalby]

Hi Foggy,

Thanks for merging this thread, I will have a look on it.

Appreciated.
Hussain

[habibalby]

The most straightforward way which affects WAN link less is to replicate your VMs and then to backup replica VMs. Though in this case you will have to disable changed block tracking in the job settings, as replica VMs are powered off and CBT is not capable of tracking external modifications to them. This will result in a few times slower incremental backup speed but save your bandwidth eliminating the need to transfer both backup and replication changes of the same VMs.

What if I leave the CBT enabled? Does it effect anything? I will make sure that the Backup job doesn't start unless the Replication Job succeeded!! + the Backup jobs are in Reveres incremental mode to save disk space.

Thanks,
Hussain

[foggy]

Just found out that with v6's new replication engine there's no need to disable CBT, it should work fine for this case either.

[habibalby]

Hi Foggy,
But I'm on v5, on the process or upgrading to v6, but after I complete the entire Veeam Setup.
Thanks,

[mteamjpy]

Hi, I got a stupid question ( one more i know)
we are in reverse incremental
If we do CBT on offlline backup site
suppose that our local site crash
we had to restore our veeam on distant site ...
and the backup was made first on the local site ...
how will restore from the offsite backup , will perform with a vbk of 159 Mo for example ?

[foggy]

If you are talking about the possibility to restore from the backup created by another Veeam B&R server, then this is, of course, possible. You can always import the backup file to the newly installed Veeam B&R in your remote site and make it ready for restore. Otherwise, you can use a standalone utility (extract.exe) coming with every Veeam B&R installation and allowing to restore VMs from any VBK file, even without the product installed.