What is the best way of protecting the Veeam Backup server?

[Yuki]

Just so you know, if you use built-in Veeam configuration backup, you may run into issues upon restoring config or even attaching original VMDK to a new Veeam VM. The problem is system's/install UID and your B&R server may refuse to use it's own proxy. You will need to remove proxy role and add it back for it to re-register properly. Following UID fix KB article didn't solve the problem in our case.

[foggy]

Yuki, could you please provide a case ID for that issue? Our QC seems to be not aware of such behavior (did not show up during their tests) so it would be great if you could provide some details. Thanks!

[tsightler]

Based on his description (attaching original VMDK to new Veeam VM) he's talking about the Microsoft OS UUID being out-of-sync with the VDDK which breaks hotadd. This is actually caused by the configuration backup/restore and can occur in any scenario where a VM being used as a hotadd proxy has it's UUID changed (VM is cloned, old VMDK attached to new VM, etc). The problem is that the new VM has a new UUID, but the registry still contains a reference to the old UUID in the VDDK section which causes all hotadd operations to fail. This problem affects all products that use the VMware VDDK and hotadd.

[Yuki]

Hi Foggy - Case 00259673.

Tom,
You are right, but... supposedly, this condition can be fixed with KB1054. In our case - it did not fix the problem. Furthermore, the proxy checking mechanism could use some improvements as the only way for us to remove ghost proxy (old UID on the one installed on B&R server itself) was to delete all jobs that referenced it originally. Otherwise Veeam would keep on trying to use it. Even after procedure, if we picked proxy by it's server name when adding to available proxies - then jobs would fail. It would only work if we picked "This Server".

[cparker4486]

Hello,

If it necessary to backup my B&R server? It seems a bit like a chicken and egg situation. If my environment is destroyed and I have to rebuild it I can't restore backups until I have B&R but I can't restore the backed up B&R server without B&R...

Thoughts?


Thanks.

edit: In my scenario above my assumption is that the normal course of action is to rebuild the environment including the B&R server and then import the backups.

[chrisdearden]

If you export the config , then all you need to do is install backup somewhere ( 10 minute job ) , then import the configuration. This works even if backup is installed on a physical host.

[cparker4486]

Great.

[larry]

Is there a way to copy all the jobs from one Veeam server to another? I installed a second full Veeam server at a site which I would like to have all the same proxies, WAN accelerators, repositories and jobs.
Can I just copy the SQL database to the new server? If yes any way to keep them in Sync? Can I just copy the database over after the job runs?

Now that we have multiple proxies and repositories why now have dual everything?

[foggy]

Why not just backup Veeam B&R configuration?

[larry]

I can restore the configuration to a different server ? Will try thanks.

[foggy]

Sure. Otherwise it is not a perfect DR solution.

[larry]

Any way to have it do the passwords ? We have a long password list and if I get one wrong I have to import all the backups of that server. As well as lock out a user. If yes to the passwords is there any when to automate the restore of the config. I wanted a backup Veeam server in case the master veeam server goes down this way the backup knows about all jobs that were run. The plan would be to disable all jobs but have them ready just in case.

[foggy]

No passwords currently.

Not sure you would want to automate conf restore on a frequent basis, as you will have to disable all the jobs each time and this will require some PowerShell'ing. Having fresh configuration backup in-place, you will be able to fire up a DR Veeam B&R in seconds (and no need to disable/enable anything). But that's just my perception of this scenario.

Another option is to replicate Veeam B&R server and be able to failover automatically to the replica VM with the latest Veeam B&R settings already configured.

[veremin]

As to PS scripting, the backup configuration can be imported using Import-VBRConfiguration command. And all jobs can be disabled using the following one-liner:

Code: Select all

asnp VeeamPSSnapin
(Get-VBRJob).disablescheduler()

Thanks.

[sbbots]

With the DirectPath I/O passthrough, you can't use snapshots on live VM's

Just to verify, no VMs that use DirectPath I/O to connect to hardware can be backup up with Veeam 7 unless that particular VM is shutdown before backup (e.g. it cannot be backed up while running). My understanding is that this is a limitation within ESXi 4/5 itself and the ability to take snapshots. Is this information correct?

[Gostev]

Just to verify, no VMs that use DirectPath I/O to connect to hardware can be backup up with Veeam 7 unless that particular VM is shutdown before backup (e.g. it cannot be backed up while running). My understanding is that this is a limitation within ESXi 4/5 itself and the ability to take snapshots. Is this information correct?

Correct. Here are all existing VMware snapshot limitations:
http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/topic ... 88613.html

[CTS-Tech]

We have a Windows 7 VM with Veeam installed that backs up all the other VMs. Are there any issues with the Win7 VM backing itself up?

[foggy]

The best way to protect Veeam B&R server is using its built-in configuration backup functionality. Please look through this topic for details on this and other available options as well as possible issues with backing Veeam B&R VM. Thanks.

[tinto1970]

Hi, i'm using Veeam B&R 7 and i'm quite new with it... and everyday i find new exciting, useful feautures

At the moment in my datacenter we have a few vsphere clusters: the "old one" and the "new A" and "new B".

In a VM on the "old one" i have Enterprise Manager + a B&R instance. Yesterday i've set up the "new A" cluster, installed a VCSA as vCenter, and a windows 2012r2 VM (called BAKa1) with VUM and Veeam B&R.
All seems to be working fine, and the new instance is correctly connected to the Enterprise Manager. it was quite late and before leaving the office i have set up 2 backup jobs, one for VCSA one for the other VM.

lately i've realized "hey i've told Veeam to autosave itself... how can it work?". I have connected in VPN and verified that... the backup job went fine! Quite slow but fine.
I relaunched the job and it worked fine again

I know there is a "config autosave" feauture in Veeam, so it's unnecessary to save the VM where it's running Veeam B&R instance. But i'm just curious about how it seems able to save the same VM where it's running. My idea is that it's using the other instance of B&R which acts as proxy and saves the VM "BAKa1" using Network Mode (cause of the relative slowness of process).

Am I right? Or completely wrong?

[foggy]

Alessandro, you're correct in an assumption that there's no need to backup/replicate entire Veeam B&R server as configuration backup is there. However, there are also no issues with backing up Veeam B&R VM actually. What it cannot do, is to hotadd itself, so either another backup mode (I guess, network, in your case) or another proxy server is used.

[tinto1970]

Alessandro, you're correct in an assumption that there's no need to backup/replicate entire Veeam B&R server as configuration backup is there. However, there are also no issues with backing up Veeam B&R VM actually. What it cannot do, is to hotadd itself, so either another backup mode (I guess, network, in your case) or another proxy server is used.

Thank you for your answer,
actually because i have VUM and Veeam toghether in one VM it's not mandatory but still nice to have that whole VM backed up

[IonutN]

Hi,

I have a question, probably an odd setup.
We have a small branch office, that needs backups. So we set them up with a DEll Server and a SCSI card, we connected a tape library to the server, installed veeam and setup backup.

Currently we have backups to disk from the VMs, and every week that backup is stored to tapes.
Since all this setup is rather old (old server, 5 years old tape library - but working flawless nevertheless) and also a physical server, we are thinking how to properly backup and restore this setup.

My intention is to have Windows Backup do a daily backup of the server (System state + c drive) - and we send that backup to tape, to a specific media set, only used for Veeam. Also we have configuration backups of Veeam stored on C: drive.
If disaster strikes, we just reinstall Windows on a working physical server, do restore from the backups using the ntbackup tool, or even setup a small instance of veeam, to restore itself.

Would this work, or do I need to look at other options?

[Shestakov]

Hi,
Your plan looks good.
Just a small mention:

...or even setup a small instance of veeam, to restore itself

In a case of disaster you can re-deploy the Veeam backup server, restore configuration data for the Veeam backup server from the backup and apply it to the re-built server.
Thanks.

[IonutN]

I was thinking that...the thing i am more worried is the restore from the tapes.
I mean, if my veeam, all of it crashes, all my disk backups are dead, so I am left with the "Backup to Tape" backups.

So the recovery would be like:
I setup Veeam on new box, restore my system state backup
OR
Restore just the Veeam config , then Import veeam config in the new veeam setup.

Then...for all the tapes that have "Backup to Tape" backups...I should Import/Catalog all the tapes, and Veeam will figure out that there are backup repositories there, so he will correlate with the information in his config, so I should be in a position to restore?


Thanks

[Shestakov]

In a case of disaster you need to install VBR to a new server, restore configuration data.
After the configuration data import into a database, VBR starts the rescan process for Hosts, servers, repositories, backups and replicas.

The VM restore process will contain 3 steps:
1) Input medium that has backup data written on it by production VB&R server.
2) Catalog medium in order to populate backup data.
3) Restore required data.

In a case you don`t have a backup of the configuration file, you can manually add hosts and tape library to VBR console and run 3 steps provided above.

Thank you.

[misterg]

I don't know if this is the most adequate way but I managed this by using VMware vMotion to clone B&R server VM to a new VM the use Veeam to backup the cloned VM.

[Vitaliy S.]

Hi Gilberto, you can use built-in capabilities of vSphere to clone the VM, but the recommended way would be to use configuration backup or self-replication to the offsite location. Thanks!

[jelcin]

Hello,

i would like to ask for an advice.

We are running a hyper-v core with 4 VMs. One of the VMs is running Windows 8.1 and Veeam Backup and Replication console which backups all the other VMs. Now my question is what is the best solution to backup the Veeam Backup and Replication Console VM? Can Veeam Backup the console VM it is running on? Or is it better to use the windows backup to backup the Veeam B&R Console VM?

Thanks in advance

[foggy]

You can back up the VM Veeam B&R is installed on.

Are there any other valuable services/applications running inside this VM or it is dedicated to just Veeam B&R? In the latter case, it is sufficient to use built-in configuration backup functionality.

[maygyver]

Hi,

im Im backin up my virtual B&R Server V8 with a normal Veeam job.

Problem:
I am monitoring the SQL Server installed on my B&R Server.
But the Veeam Backup Database is never getting backed up.

All other databases VeeamBackupReporting, master, etc. are backed up.

Is this a normal behavior?

Sven