Veeam vs Backup Exec VSS writer.. conflict?

[Mindflux]

I run BE to back up the majority of my server software through their Remote Agent for Windows Servers, this installs a Backup Exec VSS writer and *UNINSTALLS* the VMWare VSS Writer to avoid conflicts.

Being that I plan to use VEEAM B&R V5 for VMWare backups, I'm going to *NEED* the VMWare VSS writer (I know how to reinstall it), my question is how do I continue to do my Backup Exec backups (which give me granular exchange/sql/file backups) I run nightly (these are smaller backups, not entire machine backups) and then allow VEEAM to back up the entire virtual machine on a weekly basis (or some other schedule, more frequently I'm not sure)

Has anyone had any experience with this? Right now with the VMWaare VSS writer missing I know that VEEAM cannot quiesce the file system properly.

[Vitaliy S.]

Hello Ryan,

We do not need a VMware VSS writer to perform application-aware image backups, since we leverage default VSS provider from Microsoft (see F.A.Q.
Application-Aware Image Processing part). Could you please elaborate why do you want to use VMware VSS for the backup jobs?

Thanks!

[Mindflux]

Hello Ryan,

We do not need a VMware VSS writer to perform application-aware image backups, since we leverage default VSS provider from Microsoft (see F.A.Q.
Application-Aware Image Processing part). Could you please elaborate why do you want to use VMware VSS for the backup jobs?

Thanks!

I thought I had read that without the VMWare VSS loaded VEEAM would not be able to quiesce the filesystem properly. It seems I am mistaken.

Did something change between January and now? According to this thread: http://www.veeam.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2724 the Veeam VSS driver is what's normally recommended?

[Vitaliy S.]

That's correct, "Veeam VSS" is our implemenation of VSS integration that triggers native Microsoft VSS writers and providers. We do recommend enabling application-aware image processing for all Windows VMs, which allows you to have consistent backups of OS and applications. So Veeam application-aware image processing is capable of properly quiescing the guest OS of the VM being backed up by itself, it does not need VMware VSS. Moreover, it disables VMware VSS automatically to prevent conflicts (instead of requiring you to uninstall it, like in case with Symantec).

The topic you have referenced discusses potential introduction of ability to pre-install Veeam guest agent on processed VM. Right now, there is no persistent Veeam guest agent available that you could install on all processed VM manually, like you do it with Symantec. Instead, we inject temporary process into guest in runtime (during backup) - this allows to completely remove headache of guest agents management.

Hope it helps!