vApp support

[Rumple]

Does veeam support doing a backup of vm's in a vApp as a single job. Ie, i want to backup all of department A's VM's in a single job and have it email them the results.
Ps - being able to restore the VM's in a vApp all at once would be nice as well (saw that in another post)

[Vitaliy S.]

Hello,

Yes, we fully support vApps (backup/restore) in Veeam Backup and Replication. You can choose which vApps to backup using "Host and Clusters" view at advanced job configuration settings, also you configure email notifications on the job completion results.

Thank you!

[glennsantacruz]

Does this support include vApp-wide simultaneous snapshot support? For instance, suppose I have three VMs as part of a single vApp, and want those three VMs all backed up as part of a "single state". I would anticipate/need a snapshot across all three VMs at the same moment in time ; if I understand your post, you're pointing out that the vApp is merely a "container" for Veeam selection, and nothing more -- that the three VMs would be backed up sequentially (and therefore, their snapshots for backup would be offset by the total amount of time each VM took to backup).

I realize VMware doesn't offer a vApp-wide snapshot either, but that doesn't prevent the vStorage API from issuing concurrent requests to separate VMs to accomplish the same thing... is this even considered, or baked into the Veeam product already?

[Gostev]

No, we do not do simultaneous snapshot on vApp. Depenging on what specific VM runs, snapshot creation may take anywhere from a few seconds to 15-25 minutes (mostly determined by the quiescence time, but also there is a number of other factors). Such difference between VM states renders the whole idea of "single state" snapshots useless.

[glennsantacruz]

I would hope your point is that the difference renders the whole *implementation* of single-state snapshots useless -- I certainly hope it doesn't render the whole *idea* of single-state snapshots as useless. May seem a trivial difference in words, but the net impact is tremendously different. The idea that an implementation impediment renders a conceptual goal as "useless" is dangerous - I would hope that Veeam considers goals as worthy achievements and doesn't see roadblocks as being a complete destruction of the idea itself...

[Gostev]

That's right implementation would be better word to use.

[rurouni]

Hi, I joing this Thread because i'm questionning myself about VAPP Backups too.

I implemented a backup policy based on Folders.

Some of my folders contains vApps for application consistancy. Though the Vapp is inside the folder it seems the Veeam V7 Jobs doesn't take it into account, so my vm's inside my vApps seems to be discarded from the backups.

Am i missing something? Or veeam doesn't backup vApps on a Folder selection basis?

Thank you for the help.

[Vitaliy S.]

Hello,

Though the Vapp is inside the folder it seems the Veeam V7 Jobs doesn't take it into account, so my vm's inside my vApps seems to be discarded from the backups.

What do you mean they are discarded from the backups? How did add your VMs to the backup job? Via folder or vApp?

Thank you!

[rurouni]

I mean:

I setup a job based on Folder:

Folder 1:
-VM A
-VM B
-VM C
-VM D
-VM E

I ran a job with all five vms included. Job Backed up all 5 vms A,B,C,D,E.

I set up dependencies with vApps on vms A,B,C. vApp is located in Folder 1.

I ran the Backup again: Only VM D and VM E were backed up.

Do you see the point?

Thank you for the answer.

[Vitaliy S.]

Thanks for clarifications! Do you see the newly created vApp if you expand the folder in the backup job wizard (on the virtual machines tab)? What happens if you explicitly add it to the job as well as the parent folder?

[rurouni]

I checked and made some tests:

- When i browse the vcenter with vSphere client, on VM and Templates view, i can see my Folder, individual vms and vApps inside.
- From Veeam Backup Job Screen selection, i can only see the individual VMs in this Folder.
If i choose host and clusters view i can see the vApps Separately.

I could still manage to include Folder and vApps in the same Job but I had to change my initial "Folder" only selection to Folder Selection + vApps Excplicit selection from the "Hosts and Clusters" view to fetch the vApps.

That s a bit annoying for me since i initially planned backups on a Folder structure only.

Is there a better workaround than having to edit my jobs again once new vApps are created?

[Vitaliy S.]

Yes, I agree with that, but I'm afraid this is the only workaround that comes to my mind. Thanks for the feedback, I will pass it to our R&D team.

[drboltz]

I too have this problem.

I created backup job, vm's by folder and its only today now that customer has requested a restore that we have realised this CRITCAL bug.

I have logged a P1 call with veeam but it won't help my customers upset about our inability to perform a restore...

[Vitaliy S.]

Adam, yes, this has been confirmed as a bug, so we are going to address this in the next updates, thanks for the heads up.

[Anders]

Hi

Not sure if this is a feature/intended behaviour, or a bug or just my installation.

All our backup jobs are targeting a Folder in the "VM and Template" view. That way, when admins create new virtual machines they are automaticly being backed up.

Recently I discovered that when admins create a vApp and place the vApp in a folder that is being backed up, the vApp is not being backed up. I've been unable to determine why! - its simply being ignored as far as I can tell.

Is it a bug? Is it a feature? Should I contact support because it only happens in my environment?

We are running Veeam 7 R2 and vSphere 5.0 and 5.1.

Thanks,
Anders

[foggy]

Anders, this is currently a known issue/behavior that should be addressed in future releases.

[lohelle]

Is this fixed in v8? (vApps in folders)

[foggy]

This was addressed back in v7 Patch 4. Thanks.

[lohelle]

one followup question:

Will V8 + tag-support be able to select single VMs from vApps? An example would be if we want to have different retention policy from the VMs in a vApp, adding the VMs to different jobs (but not the same VM in multiple jobs)

[lohelle]

Did some testing myself in a small test environment.

I created some test VMs, some vApps etc. I tagged some random VMs with the tag 30d, and some with the tag 2y (same vApp had VMs with different tags)
I then ran backup jobs based on the tags. All the correct VMs are processed.

I tried backup copy jobs as well, and all is good. At first I had problems with the backup copy job reporting "no new restore points" (or something like that), but when I created an extra repository, all worked as it should. It seems like Backup Copy Jobs does not work from and to the same repository.

[Gostev]

It seems like Backup Copy Jobs does not work from and to the same repository.

Correct, as this configuration is basically meaningless.

[madefh]

The "vApp in Folder"-Problem when i create a Backup-Job to a Folder is still exist in Version B&R v9.
When is this planned to be fixed?

Short remember of the Problem:

Folder ABC

• vApp Z
  • VM Z1
  • VMZ
• vApp X
  • VM X1
  • VM X2
  • VM X3
• VM A
• VM B
• VM C

When i create a Backup-Job at "Folder ABC" then only VM A, VM B and VM C would be backedup, the VM in the vApp are be not backedup.

Thanks,
Marcel

[foggy]

Marcel, we were not able to reproduce this behavior on the latest version. If you still see it, please contact technical support for a closer look. Thanks.

[mcvosi]

I'm seeing this issue even on the latest Update 1.

[foggy]

There are indeed a couple of issues regarding this in the current version, we're going to address them further down the road. Thanks.