Would Like to Switch to Veeam

[jafnva]

I apologize if this is long but I have been driving myself crazy trying to get our environment on a stable backup solution.
We are currently using Micro Focus Data Protector for our backups. Since this was never setup correctly we plan on building a new backup server and basically start from scratch. I do not have much experience with this software so I’ve been reading up on how to set this up correctly and use all of the available features that was purchased. Unfortunately I found the software to be overly complicated and very hard to follow. I have used the free version Veeam in the past and really liked how it worked so I downloaded and tested the latest Backup & Replication but given all of the other tasks I have I was only able to test the backup & restore of a VM – which worked great. I have also read from various sites that Veeam is much more intuitive/user-friendly than some other solutions. I also am very interested in using the Sandbox feature as well.
If I can find that Veeam will do what we need then I have the “green light” to purchase once our licenses expire for Data Protector. Since I have not worked with backup software in years I’m not even sure some of these things are possible but am hoping some of you can provide some assistance.
We have 1 vCenter data center with 8 host and 60 VMs mostly running Windows 2012 R2 & 2016 and a couple of Linux VMs. We are running the “regular” apps – Exchange, SQL, SharePoint…
Below is what I am hoping to have:
Backup Server running as a VM on 1 dedicated host (no other VMs on this host) connected to a tape library.
Backups of our shares, applications, databases to where the backup software accesses the VMs via vCenter (not having to access the servers via our network – similar to how physical servers are backed up).
The ability to have the data flow to the backup server VM using transport modes other than our network so that our backup jobs are not taking multiple days to complete (which is how long some of our jobs take – when it’s working).
Restore at the file level rather than having to restore the whole VHD or VM.
Backup to Disk – we have a SAN that our datastores are stored on (iSCSI Dell Storage) to where I would configure the backup server VM to have the VHDs.
Certain full backups then go to tape for offsite storage.

Thanks!
John

[wishr]

Hi John,

First of all, welcome to Veeam Community Forums!

I don't see anything in your requirements that is not possible with Veeam. You will need to configure backup proxies accordingly to use the desired transport mode to satisfy your data transfer requirement. You need also to decide what will be the target for your backups.

Additionally, here is a link to our BP portal that should help to plan and design your B&R environment. You may also find lots of helpful articles and answers to potentially coming questions using forum search.

If you have any additional questions - don't hesitate to ask. Thanks.

[foggy]

Backup to Disk – we have a SAN that our datastores are stored on (iSCSI Dell Storage) to where I would configure the backup server VM to have the VHDs.

Hi John, does that mean you're going to store backups on the same array where the original VMs reside? That doesn't sound like the best practice - keeping in mind you also have tapes it's not that critical but still. Also, if your storage is SC Series, consider using storage snapshots for more optimal setup.