Virtualizing a Physical Veeam B&R Server

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I currently have a physical primary Veeam B&R Server which has all of my storage, backup and tape jobs.
The server is FC connected back to my production storage so I can use SAN Mode.
The server is FC connected to the tape library for tape backups.

We recently had a scare where the server almost had to be rebuilt which would have meant days without backups.
I do backup the server with Veeam EndPoint however I want a better and faster recovery model.

Here is my thought. I would like to create a VM running B&R. I would then migrate all of the jobs to the new VM and use the physical server only as a proxy to do the backups and tape outs.
I could then backup and replicate the VM to our DR facility so that I could do an instant restore if need be and have all of my jobs back.

Has anyone done this? Does anyone have any advice?
I am not too worried about the jobs themselves as I can easily recreate them on the new server and sync them up with existing backups.
What does concern me is the tape library. I don't want to lose my entire catalog of tapes. It would be great if I could just transfer ownership of the library to the new VM and have it bring over the catalog of tapes that already exist on the physical server. Is that even possible or does it work that way already? I have over 800 tapes already in the catalog so manually inventorying and cataloging each tape again is not an option.

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Just another thought I had. Perhaps I could build the VM and restore the configuration backup to the new server bringing over the catalog of tapes with it. Just not sure they would be associated with the correct library given that it is a new server.

[Vitaliy S.]

Here is my thought. I would like to create a VM running B&R. I would then migrate all of the jobs to the new VM and use the physical server only as a proxy to do the backups and tape outs.
I could then backup and replicate the VM to our DR facility so that I could do an instant restore if need be and have all of my jobs back.

Your plan looks solid. Just one tip for job migration - looks like Configuration data import/export functionality is a perfect fit for this scenario.

I am not too worried about the jobs themselves as I can easily recreate them on the new server and sync them up with existing backups.
What does concern me is the tape library. I don't want to lose my entire catalog of tapes. It would be great if I could just transfer ownership of the library to the new VM and have it bring over the catalog of tapes that already exist on the physical server. Is that even possible or does it work that way already? I have over 800 tapes already in the catalog so manually inventorying and cataloging each tape again is not an option.

If you migrate the entire database, you shouldn't lose your catalog. Just deploy a tape proxy server to that physical machine to continue running your jobs.

Just another thought I had. Perhaps I could build the VM and restore the configuration backup to the new server bringing over the catalog of tapes with it. Just not sure they would be associated with the correct library given that it is a new server.

Yes, that's basically what I'm suggesting to do above

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OK thanks for the info. I already have a Development B&R VM so I am going to setup a Dev Physical Server with a Dev Tape Library I have and test the process.
Will update once completed.

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It has taken me a while to get around to testing this and I am now at that point.
I built a physical server connected to a tape library and with several repositories setup in a Scale-Out repository.
I have everything setup to mimic my production physical server.

I disabled all jobs, performed a config backup and copied it over to a VM I built.
The VM has Veeam installed but no jobs or anything configured.
I restored the config backup from the physical server and chose the migrate options.
Everything went smoothly. I am able to see my jobs, it already has the physical server setup as a server with all of the repositories attached. It looks like all of my tape info carried over and all is well except for one issue.

The tape library shows offline on the VM and it is still online on the physical server. Though I do have all of my media and everything setup on the new VM I am not sure how to force the library online in the VM.
I know it has something to do with the Veeam install on the VM being able to take control of the library. Is there a way to force the library control over to the new VM easily?

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Never Mind. I found some other issues.

The tape library server had the old server name but it was just the name not the actual server. I had to add the physical server there manually and it detected and took control of the library. I removed the other tape server and all is there correctly now.

I have noticed other issues like this however. The backup repositories are all duplicated from the physical server however they show they are on the new server name and will not allow a re-scan.
I am going to have to figure out how to point those repositories to the physical server where the drives are as I want to only use the physical server as storage. Not sure if i remove the existing repositories on the VM and re-add using the correct server will do the trick. If I do that all my backups will no longer be mapped to the repositories unless it does that automatically when I re-scan and import backups.

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Last update. All is well.

I added the physical server to the VM installation as a proxy.
I manually added the Repositories from the physical server to the VM giving them new names.
I then added the new repositories to the Scale-Out Repository.
I performed a res-can of the SO Repository.
I removed the old (bad) repositories out of the SO Repository.
I removed the old (bad) repositories out of the Backup Repositories screen.

The re-scan did sync up the jobs so I was able to run an backup job. It performed an incremental without issue.
I then ran a tape job and it ran the incremental to tape with no issue.