Veeam deployment kit indexation file

[matteu]

Hello,

I would like to know if It's "mandatory" to use "working" credentials when I enable indexing file on a backup job and I'm using Veeam deployment kit with persistent agent ?
And if I'm not using persistent agent ?

Thanks for your answer.

[david.domask]

Hi matteu,

Yes -- Deployment kit only installs the Deployment Service and reduces the necessary ports for connecting to a GuestOS, the service itself does NOT have privileged access to anything by design. However, as it runs with SYSTEM privileges, Indexing will be possible with a "dummy" account after initial installation of the Persistent Guest Agents.

You will still need to provide credentials in the UI however as the UI expects credentials when any feature on the Guest Processing tab of the job wizard is enabled.

So in-guest operations like Indexing & Application Aware Processing will still need credentials added in the wizard, but for Indexing only, a "real" account is not required after installation of the Persistent Guest Agents.

[matteu]

Thanks for your answer.

I'm sorry but based on my test, I don't understand the documentation ...

What I did :
Install veeam deployment kit on my domain controller
Create backup job for my DC (virtual machine on vsphere) and enable AAIP with persistent agent
I select as guest credential a non working account for this VM (I chose vsphere local account like svc_veeam@vsphere.local)

Without VDK (and persistent agent unchecked), this failed because svc_veeam@vsphere.local doesn't have permission to connect to admin$ share to inject veeam non persistent agent component
With VDK install and persistent agent checked, the backup job successfull end. I don't have any warning or error....

What I don't understand :
If persistent agent has no permission, I should have an error when the freeze VSS operation is asked because Veeam agent has no permission on it right and this should appears on backup job result somewhere...

So.... What is really hapened here ^^ ?

I give you all the steps for you to reproduce it ^^

[david.domask]

Edited: @matteu, hang tight I guess as there is some disagreement on my previous post, and some conflicting internal documentation. Allow me time to get this clarified and I will update & also have User Guide updated to be more clear.

[matteu]

Thanks

I think more clarification is needed yes

[matteu]

I hope you don't forget it ^^

[david.domask]

@matteu, not forgotten, just needed time to confirm a few things

I've amended my original post as I was indeed incorrect -- check the original post, but to state here, after initial installation of the Persistent Guest Agents, Indexing itself does not require "real" credentials. The UI however will require some credentials, so for machines where you only want Guest Indexing, it will work to set a "dummy" account.

[matteu]

Hello,
Thanks for your answer.
For AD the account is not used too I guess because it works too...
It's maybe an improvment gui to planned if perdistent agent is used to not ask for an account ?
Are there some scenario where a valid account is nexessary when using VDK and guest processing is enabled with persistent agent ? (Sql log, oracle log maybe ?)
The documentation should probably be updated to explain it more yes.

[david.domask]

Agreed, will discuss how to better handle this, but for the immediate future the UI is going to require _some_ credentials as it's needed for initial deployment, and yes it would be good if we could do truly credential-less Guest Processing