Windows 2012 R2 Deduplication and VEEAM Server OS

[cffit]

I just enabled the native Windows 2012 deduplication on our file server and shortly after we had to restore a file for an end user. When trying this, the VEEAM file restore recognized that the volume had deduplication and says that the VEEAM server itself must be on Windows 2012 now. We are currently on Windows 2008 R2. Is there any way around this? I am going to have a lot of work to suddenly do if this is the case.

[PTide]

Hi,

Unfortunately there is no workaround for it. Here is the page with sys.req. :

1. If you plan to back up VMs running Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 and Data Deduplication is enabled for some VM volumes, it is recommended to deploy Veeam Backup & Replication on a machine running Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 with Data Deduplication feature enabled. Otherwise, some types of restore operations for these VMs (such as Microsoft Windows File Level Recovery) may fail.

Thank you.

[cffit]

After clicking OK to the message, we were able to do the restore. The snip you provided is king of confusing if it is required or not. Phrases like is suggested or recommended and some restore "may" fail seems confusing. So we are saying it might or might not work, but it's best to just have your VEEAM server at Windows 2012?

Is it saying that yes, you can restore files on a deduplicated volume if the file has not been deduplicated? Such as, I set my deduplication to run against files older than 30 days, but the file I need to restore is only 10 days old, so it's not dedupliated yet... then I can restore? But if I try to restore a file that is 60 days old and has been deduplicated, then I'm out of luck unless I setup VEEAM B&R on Windows 2012?

[foggy]

I just enabled the native Windows 2012 deduplication on our file server and shortly after we had to restore a file for an end user.

Most likely you needed to restore a file that was not subjected to deduplication yet.

[cffit]

Ok, so you can still restore files that haven't been deduplicated, but are on a deduplicated volume.

[foggy]

Correct. I didn't notice you've updated your previous post prior my reply. We do not block restore in this case, so if the file can be restored fine (was not deduped yet), it will be restored fine. But you can never tell whether it is deduped or not unless you have settings similar to your example and are sure the file was created in "non-deduped" period.

[Delo123]

Alternativly you could start instant recovery, but not boot the recovery VM.
In Vsphere you could then mount the instant recovery disk(s) on the veeambackup datastore to another 2012(r2?) host in your production environment.
Windows should regognize the disk, after recovery you can dismount it again...

[lowlander]

Hi,

Is it possible with Veeam 9 to install the console on a windows 2012 R2 virtual machine with dedup enabled, and then perform a FLR from the console started on the 2012 R2 vm ?

[foggy]

I'd assume that you will be able to browse files and perform restore via the Copy To option, however, restore to original location will not work in case backup server (or mount server, if specifically configured on the repository) does not have Windows deduplication enabled. During restore to original location backup is mounted to the backup server/mount server. I will post back after checking this assumption.

[foggy]

Confirmed.

[lowlander]

We have a repository server (Windows 2012) with dedup enabled. We store backups of windows 2012 and 2012 R2 vms.

Just to validate : using a vm with Windows 2012R2 and dedup configured together with the Veeam console installed. Can we perform a FLR of a Windows 2012 R2 virtual machine backup that is stored on the 2012 repository server with dedup enabled ?

[foggy]

If repository server itself is specified as a mount server, you will not be able to perform restore to original location for 2012 R2 VMs, since mount server should have the same or later OS with deduplication enabled to be able to perform FLR from guests with deduplication enabled (2012 will not "understand" the mounted guest 2012 R2 OS disks with deduplication enabled). You need to specify the 2012 R2 console VM as a mount server to be able todo that.

[Delo123]

VEEAM server itself must be on Windows 2012 now. We are currently on Windows 2008 R2. Is there any way around this? I am going to have a lot of work to suddenly do if this is the case.

Reinstalling your Server with 2012R2 and then restoring the veeam configuration shouldn't take very long. As Backups should be a critical part of each environment one could only advice you to update.
You may or may not be able to restore files depending on if they are already deduped yes or no, it's like russian roulette... The day will come were you will actually need a deduped file and maybe don't have aonther 2012r2 server ready so you might as well simply upgrade your veeam server. 2012R2 has much better troughput anyway