Veeam B&R - Orientation on file level backup

[xmzmc]

Hi,

We currently have a domain joined Synology NAS in our company, used by users as network drive to store user and project data (documents, files, etc). We want to migrate away from that to a fully fledged Windows Server - File Server VM and I need to find a good backup solution to backup the data on the new file server VM.

Synology has pretty good backup program called Hyper Backup, which in our current setup we use to backup the data stored on the NAS to another location. In our future setup with the Windows File Server VM, we obviously need a different way to backup the data stored on the Windows File Server VM. I've looked into Windows File Server backup but that seems pretty limited compared to Hyper Backup or Veeam Backup and Replication. I was thinking of maybe using Veeam Backup and Replication to backup the Windows File Server VM (something we would do anyway) but also to use Veeam Backup and Replication to backup the Windows File Server VM's data disks and enable the Veeam VM Guest OS File Indexing option in order to fully use it as data backup and to provide possible flexible restore actions (for example when I need to restore only a couple of files or folders). I was wondering if there were any arguments against this and/or if anyone has ever used Veeam B&R like this?

Note: we are pretty happy with Veeam B&R and already use it to backup full VM's in our company and have licences for it (Veeam Data Platform Essentials Enterprise).

Thanks in advance for any input

[Mildur]

Hello xmzmc

A VM backup job for the entire <Windows File Server> VM will solve your requirement.
https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=120

From a VM backup, you can restore single files or folders:
https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=120

enable the Veeam VM Guest OS File Indexing option

Enabling Guest File Indexing is not required to restore single files or folders. The index is required by these two features:
- use Enterprise manager to search files or folders in indexed backups: https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=120
- File system activity analysis (new v12.1 feature) - detect suspicions activities between different restore points: https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=120

Best,
Fabian

[xmzmc]

@Mildur: I knew about the backup method you mention (VM backup) but didn't know guest file indexing was not necessary to restore individual files. Thanks for the tip.

Do you know if this method I'm proposing is uncommon for just file level / data backup? Also, suppose I have the OS disk on the Windows File Server and a separate data disk which contains the data / files and I include the data disk too in the VM backup, will it occupy the full disk size on the backup destination? What I mean with that is: suppose the data disk is 4TB (thin provisioned) but it's only used / filled for let's say 1.5TB, will it occupy at least 4TB on the backup destination / repository? Or will it only occupy the used space (1.5TB)?

[Mildur]

A full backup will occupy less than 1.5TB.
We will only backup data blocks with data inside. And then store those blocks compressed to a Veeam backup file.

Empty blocks and blocks with deleted file data will be automatically excluded from the backup:
https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=120

Best,
Fabian

[xmzmc]

Ok thanks that's great to know. Thank you so much for your insights