[V13] Question regarding Veeam B&R 13.x

[Gostev]

Every time you come here to update on the progress and share that the environment keeps growing without any issues just makes my day!

Yeah you probably missed it because there's another thread complaining about wrong CPU/RAM values in VIA system requirements (erroneous copy/paste from VSA) therefore this documentation definitely exists. I know by heart that VIA is 2x 120GB, it's the legacy of managed hardened repository ISO and also the smallest flash drives still commonly available for servers these days.

Yes, VIA works for both deployment options because VBR V13 code is cross-platform. So one single codebase. The only difference is that with VSA this code is pre-installed on a Veeam-managed OS, while the alternative requires that you install this same code on a Windows OS yourself.

[Didi7]

Ok, holiday season begins very soon here for me, but I intend to extent this new environment still a little bit until Friday. I will possibly have a closer look at the full documentation during my flights, but I am very satisfied with what's running already.

Things will develop quickly I hope after my return and then the real party time begins with VSA, VIA Proxies and VIA Hardened Repositories, when they go into full production and soon with VDCV as well of course.

I already read about that erroneous copy/paste VSA requirements for VIA and cross-platform stuff (very well idea) as well.

As soon as VBR 13.x Windows-based gets released, I will start ditching all my Windows-based proxies here as well! Bye bye Microsoft Proxies.

Very nice development.

[Didi7]

Adding VIA-based Rocky 64-bit Linux VMs here takes a little bit more than 4 minutes (same VLAN). Is this expected behavior?

Ok, today I used the Windows Console instead of the VSA webpage. Compared to adding a VIA-based Rocky 64-bit Linux VM in the VSA, adding additional same kind of VIA-based machines in the Windows Console only takes 1 minute and 30 seconds.

Just a side-note.

Currently, that's one reason to use the Windows Console instead of the VSA for adding components, if you need to add a lot of machines, like I need to do now.

Linux deployment => I love those MSI-packages on Linux

[Didi7]

Addon to last post ...

During adding new VIA-based VMs I noticed at one of those machines an error or warning that updates cannot be checked. It worked for several machines before, so this must have something to do with this specific VM. So I decided to login via Host Management page and then I noticed that the DNS field was empty (I am absolutely sure I entered all 3 DNS servers there during installation), as it was double-checked as well. The same happened to the second machine of this location. I entered the 3 DNS servers and retried adding them to the VSA environment via the Windows console, same error and after checking again the DNS field was empty again, though I added the DNS servers and saved settings. Every time I enter them using the webpage on port 10443, the field is empty looking again. Then I decided to add those DNS servers via the console, that worked but as soon as I login to the website again and change the DNS servers and save them, the field is empty again. To me this means, this is a bug in the webpage, but there is a work-around.

Cheers

[Egor Yakovlev]

Linux deployment => I love those MSI-packages on Linux

Hi Didi.
Those .msi are needed for Windows machines guest processing using that Linux proxy, not for the proxy function itself. Just like there are some Linux components sitting on the Windows VBR server today.

[Didi7]

@Egor
I see.

[Didi7]

Addon to last post ...

During adding new VIA-based VMs I noticed at one of those machines an error or warning that updates cannot be checked. It worked for several machines before, so this must have something to do with this specific VM. So I decided to login via Host Management page and then I noticed that the DNS field was empty (I am absolutely sure I entered all 3 DNS servers there during installation), as it was double-checked as well. The same happened to the second machine of this location. I entered the 3 DNS servers and retried adding them to the VSA environment via the Windows console, same error and after checking again the DNS field was empty again, though I added the DNS servers and saved settings. Every time I enter them using the webpage on port 10443, the field is empty looking again. Then I decided to add those DNS servers via the console, that worked but as soon as I login to the website again and change the DNS servers and save them, the field is empty again. To me this means, this is a bug in the webpage, but there is a work-around.

Cheers

I think I now when DNS field is blank. I entered IP, Mask and Gateway, as well as 1 DNS server during initial installation and used the Advanced button to add 2 additional DNS servers, as I was unsure how to add more than 1 DNS server. So 3 DNS servers were added during installation. As soon as the webpage was available I double checked the DNS servers in the Host Management UI and probably because I saved this settings again, the entries for DNS server disappeared. I will check this again, as soon as I add the next VIA-based machines.

[Didi7]

Good morning,

today I finished installing and configuring a VIA-based Hardened Repository under Hyper-V (this time not VMware). I suppose the code-base is similar or the same.

One DNS server has been entered during initial installation, I added 2 additional DNS servers within the Advanced option, then I accessed the web page port 10443 the first time (didn't know that the Host Management UI had to be enabled first, but good => security). When I checked the network settings, I decided to add a fourth DNS server, saved the settings and re-entered the screen, the DNS field is blank now, so definitely a bug. Only way to get DNS servers back is by using the Console UI.

Cheers

[Gostev]

Yeah, that's specific to hardened repository deployment option. The UI will actually disable itself again after some timeout to reduce attack surface. @Dima P. now that I'm thinking about this, I think it's better to have it enabled by default but keep everything as is (so it shuts itself down normally N hours after activation). This way it will be immediately available for some hours after hardened repository deployment (which is the only time period when it's actually needed), so better experience.

[Didi7]

Ok, that's possibly a good idea to activate the WebUI in the beginning. I thought about some Firewall problems, as 443 (standard Rocky page was available).

Today, I re-checked the 'Software Update Summary' screen, which was sent by SMTP and noticed that machines are not in alphabetical order, maybe that would give a faster overview? Currently 22 machines, but the number will definitely rise beyond 70 or even more and then it's getting worser

[Gostev]

You mean you have 1 VSA and 21 VIA?

I agree it should be alphabetical. Perhaps start from VSA always as it's the most important, and then alphabetical VIA? VIAs are like cattle so some may be periodically offline or unreachable. And you probably want to see right away that VSA if fine, instead of looking it up within all the cattle.

[Didi7]

1 VSA, 1 vCenter, 20 VIAs (3 Proxies for an old Nutanix-cluster with ESXi using DirectNFS, 16 soon to become VMware Proxies, 1 Hardened Repository currently) and counting.

Yes, VIAs are periodically offline, e.g. during updates or when WAN-lines are not available, other than that they are mostly available.

Agreed => VSA first and the VIAs in alphabetical order => sounds good to me!

The 'Software Updates Summary' screen says 20 machines up-to-date (Hardened Repository was added today)