Veeam Replica between 2 esxi 5.0 hosts

[robby.vecchi]

Hi to everybody.
I am implementing a virtualization solution that consists of 2 Esxi 5.0 Hosts, 1 virtual vCenter Server, 1 NAS and Veeam B&R 6.1.
In each host, i have 4 NICs. 2 are destined to production LAN and 2 for Backup & Replication.
Veeam Backup&Replication is installed on vCenter Server. All the components reside on a single location / single subnet. vCenter
server is Veeam Proxy Server.
Backup are executed at nighttime on NAS, no problem for that. My doubt arises on how to implement Replicas. My idea would be
to Replicate Vms on residing Host1 on Host2 and viceversa. But how can i "force" Veeam to use my backup networh and not the
production one? If ia run Replica jobs during production, i would like to avoid the overhead of traffic generated by Replicas on
Production Network Card.
I am trying to find a way for this to happen, but i cannot figure out how.
Any help would be really appreciated.
Thank you.

Roberto

[Gostev]

Hi, just make sure both source and target proxy servers are sitting on the backup network. Thanks.

[elite-11]

[merged]

Hi,

Thanks for taking the time to look at this post.

I have a client which is implemnting a DR location on the same site linked via fibre. The network has multiple VLAN's in operation to segregate traffic and we want to setup a replication schedule of high priority VM's from one site to the other. The key here is to ensure that the replication traffic is isolated and is not saturating any of the main server VLAN's.

I'm not sure whether or not I should implement backup proxies or not, as this is not an over the WAN setup. They have a single backup server located at the primary location which has Direct SAN access. At the DR location we have some standalone ESXi hosts connected to a fibre channel SAN of which I will target in the replication jobs to.

Would using backup proxies benefit me in this scenario or would simple deployment be enough for my needs?

How can I target the ESXi hosts from the backup server so that the repliocation traffic goes over a specific VLAN?

At a guess I am thinking about enabling management on the relevant port group in Vmware of which I want the traffic to go over, and then targeting the ESXi host in the replication job direct over IP.

Is this right or could you advise on a better solution?

Many Thanks
elite-11

[elite-11]

Hi Gostev,

I'm either being stupid or it does not seem quite as simple as that for my scenario. I only have one backup proxy (simple setup) which does everything. Are you suggesting that we create a backup proxy on the destination host and target it from the source proxy server to the IP that I have assigned to it on the relevant VLAN?

Thanks

[foggy]

Yes, having both proxies added to the Veeam console by IP addresses from the separate VLAN would keep the traffic within this network. Also, having target proxy on the host which is connected to the datastore you're replicating to allows for fast VM data population via hotadd mode.

[rbrambley]

Review the Veeam Architecture for Replication here.

In summary 2 Veeam Proxies are required. In short you will need a source site Proxy on the VLAN you want to replicate from that sends replica data to a target Proxy at the DR site.

[p2psistemi]

[merged]

Hello, in my test environment I'd like to replicate some VM on a local ESXi host, for HA purposes.
I was thinking about reservig a phisical NIC on the main ESXi host to connect directly (point to point) to my backup host, in order to exclude the whole office LAN from traffic. I am having troubles configuring ESXi networking for this kind of purpose, I realise this is not the right place to ask but I would never implement such a configuration if not for backup purposes, so...
thank you for any help you can give me

[p2psistemi]

well, let me see if I understad it
I have to create two virtual networks in the main and replica servers, then in both hosts I have to configure a B&R proxy on the virtual network which connects directly the hosts. So, doing this I am sure that the network traffic will go thru the dedicated link without messing with the virtual machine virtual network. Right?
If I install B&R to a VM in the "uplink" virtual network, will it be able to see even the VM in the "virtual machine" virtual networks? in both hosts?

[dellock6]

1. Yes, since the VM acts as any other VM, and will only use the portgroup you gave it
2. Yes, since you mount vmdk disks via esxi hotadd APIs, even for those VM without a network connection. Every proxy in each ESXi will see its own local VMs.