Some advice for my first installation

[DarkCorner]

This is my first time in Veeam and I want to use the B&R Community Edition.

In the office there are: 4 PCs Win10, 1 ESXi 6.7 Server (Free Edition), 1 VM Win10, 1 VM WinSrv 2016, 1 VM Debian Server.

At my disposal for Veeam I have a Win10 PC.

For the target I wanted to use a PC with 3GB WD Red 3HDD.
On this I wanted to install a NAS software in Debian (Openmediavault) to manage the 3 disks in RAID5 with ext4.
Or I install a NAS software in FreeBSD (TrueNAS Core) to manage the 3 disks in RAID-Z1 with ZFS.
On the target then I would enable one or more shared folders in SMB.

I wanted your opinion on this configuration and some advice.

I would also like to understand.

1. Do I have to install agents on the 4 PCs? What about ESXi and its VMs?
2. On the "Target" PC, can the backups be saved in a single folder or in different folders, one for PC and VM? In other words, is Veeam responsible for keeping backups separate?

[HannesK]

Hello,
and welcome to the forums.

1. yes, agents are needed everywhere, because the ESXi is free edition which has the backup API locked
2. per backup job there is one folder. per machine, there will be one file. so even if you add the 4 PCs in one job, there will still be 4 files per backup run (4 fulls, 4 increments etc.). If you create 7 jobs, then there would be 7 folders.

The agent management guide might be interesting for you.

Best regards,
Hannes

[DarkCorner]

Hello Hannes, thank you for your answer.
About the PC for repository, what do you suggest? RAID 5 with ext4 or RAID-Z1 with ZFS?

[HannesK]

Hello,
minimum requirement for me is always "double parity" (RAID6 or similar - which makes little sense with 3 disks). But I don't work with such small environments, so I cannot really give advice on the products you mentioned.

NAS is the worst option for Veeam from a performance / efficiency point of view. REFS / XFS is the way to go in 2022 because of fast clone. I would put the 3 disks into a Ubuntu / Debian / something that is supported for XFS machine and add this machine as Linux server / Repository.

And the Linux server would allow to use the machine as hardened repository

Best regards,
Hannes

[DarkCorner]

I can also think about installing Debian server with XFS file system only, adding Samba for shared folder management.

But I didn't understand what you mean by the phrase "And the Linux server would allow to use the machine as hardened repository"

[HannesK]

sorry, forgot to link... https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... itory.html

[DarkCorner]

Thanks, I'll read it right away.
And thanks for your suggestions

[DarkCorner]

sorry, forgot to link... https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... itory.html

Is a Linux Hardening Server compatible with the Community License?

[veremin]

Correct.

[mschwaermer]

Hi there,

just a small observation.
You wrote in your original Post that you are using "1 ESXi 6.7 Server (Free Edition)".
This kind of a Roadblock, because the API's / calls which are leveraged by Veeam for creating the backup are disabled in Free ESXi Version.

https://www.veeam.com/kb1435

[Mildur]

Hello Encrage

Welcome to the Forum.
Hannes already mentioned the free Hypervisor in his first answer.

Thanks
Fabian

[ChrisNaisbitt]

Hi DarkCorner,

I know the joys of zero budget IT well. You clearly have enough common sense to ask for advice and the drive to do the best job you can so I suspect you will move on to bigger and better things in fairly short order. Make sure you don't leave the next guy with a solution only you understand

I second HannesK's comment about low end NAS. If you have sufficient Linux skills to manage it and if you also have somewhere else to run the VBR server, investigate the Linux hardened repository. If not, stick to a Windows PC. If there's any minimal budget available, look at a real RAID card and 4 disks in RAID10 for best speed and some resilience. You may even find the desktop can do this with the onboard controller. Second hand PCIe cards from enterprise servers are a good bet, something HPE or Dell but watch out for physical ports as custom cables are often used.

Do not connect your repository to the domain (assuming you have one) and instead use local accounts with strong passwords to manage it, NEVER browse the internet from it and if you have the ability to limit it's access to the internet, do so. Turn on the Windows or Linux firewall and lock it down as tight as you can, both inbound and outbound. Document your rules!

Again, if there's any budget, look at the VMware "vSphere Essentials Kit Term" license as a reasonably priced upgrade for your ESXi host: https://store-us.vmware.com/vmware-vsph ... 20900.html
If there's a chance you may expand to more than 1 host in the future look at the "vSphere Essentials Kit Plus Term" license which brings DRS (auto balancing of VMs across hosts) and distributed switches plus some other nice to have features. These kits are limited to 3 hosts and fixed term licenses but represent huge value when compared to standard VMware licencing. You'd also have support to back you up if you run into problems.

Also consider Windows Server Standard licensing for your ESXi host and repository. You can run 2 VMs of Windows Server Standard for 1 physical license. If you keep the software assurance current they can also move around between hosts in a cluster. There aren't many ways to run virtual Win10 and stay compliant with Microsoft's licensing terms....

Best of luck,
Chris