Put Backupjobs on Resourcepools

[azubiiai]

Hi,

i' m planing to use veeam backup to backup my virtual infrastructure. So i have different typs of servers. 3 ESX hosts, which are included in virtual infrastructure 3 and a standalone ESXi unlicensed.

1. Can i put backup jobs on resourcepools? for example, the VMs in that resourcepool should be backed up at the same ways and times.
2. every weekend i want to make a fullbackup. on weekday i want to make a differential backup. Is it also possible, to delete the old backups which are older than a special time?

Thank you for your answers.

[Gostev]

Hello,

1. No, currently you can select all other infrastructure object (clusters, hosts, regular folders, VM folders) - but not resource pools.

2. Veeam Backup does not do differential backup, it does syntetic backup instead. This essentially results in forever-incremental backup that gives you full backup file after every incremental pass. You can use built-in post-job script functionality to copy the full backup file to another location or tape every X backup cycles (full backup file name never changes).

Yes, we have automated retention policy that deletes older restore points. This control is available in the backup job wizard (can't miss it).

Thanks!

[azubiiai]

Hello,

i have got another question

When i perfom a restore of an entire VM, do i have manually shut down the VM or delete the VM data?

By adding an VC-Server, i put in an andministrator account. It works
But in VC there is a user group called VMware Consolidated Backup User. Can i use this usergroup too?

Thank you!

[Gostev]

Hello,

1. If you are restoring over existing running VM - yes, it needs to be shutdown first (manually).

2. Yes, you can use this account too, backup will still work but some functionality will not be available in this case (for instance, setting backup results into VM notes). This is why we require vCenter administrator account.

Thanks!

[azubiiai]

Hello,

it's nice to have a person like Gostev who gives very helpful answers. It's nice in this forum . So this is a reason for buying veeam backup for our infrastructure, too.

I have read your whitepaper about VMware and VSS.
But i got still questions about it.

What do i have to do to active VSS? What do i have to configure in veeam backup? Do i have to install VMwaretools on the windows server 2003?
How is the interaction between Veam backup, VSS, VMware tools and operating system?

Is there another possibility to test my backups if they are consistend and if VSS works well?

Thank you for your answers!

[Gostev]

Hello,

Thank you for your kind words, I just love my products and customers using them - so I am always glad to help

To activate VSS, you need to enable the first checkbox on the Backup Consistency step of the wizard, and provide domain account with having local administrator privileges on VMs you want to backup with VSS. This account will be used during backup to deploy and run very small VSS agent. This agent is not persistent - it will be automatically removed after the backup is completed, leaving your VM "clean" without any 3rd party agents on it.

You do not need VSS components from VMware Tools to use our Veeam VSS implementation, however I still recommend that you install VMware Tools because they are leveraged otherwise during backup operation.

Veeam VSS OS interaction logic is the following:
1. Veeam VSS agent is deployed to the VM and started.
2. Veeam VSS agent detects and configures certain applications requiring custom restore logic (DC, Exchange).
3. Veeam VSS agent requests OS to perform shadow copy.
4. OS notifies all registered VSS writers from all installed VSS-aware applications to perform freeze, and gives them time to prepare.
5. All VSS aware application commit their transactions, suspend all activity and notify OS of being ready for shadow copy.
6. As soon as all application signal that they are ready for shadow copy, OS flushes all buffers, freezes I/O.
7. Veeam VSS agent detects when OS is ready to create snapshot, and notifies main Veeam Backup agent to performs regular VM snapshot.
8. Veeam Backup is limited to 60 sec for snapshot creation. When snapshot is created, main Veeam Backup agent notifies Veeam VSS agent.
9. Veeam VSS agent lets OS to complete shadow copy operation.
10. OS then unfreezes I/O and notifies all VSS aware applications to continue normal operations.
11. Veeam Backup processes the created snapshot normally.

If you receive no warnings about VSS failure, your backup should be consistent. To check if your backup is consistent without restoring backup, you can simply investigate system Event log of your VM. It should have events talking about shadow copy operation performed around the time of backup - most VSS-aware applications like DC, Exchange, SQL have custom event log messages logged during VSS processing.

Thanks!