Application aware processing - VMware Windows Servers

[out2getyou]

Hi All,

I know there are alot of articles around regards to AAP but they all give different answers. I would like to get some direct answers from the experts.
We are in the process of implementing DR using Veeam. We need to take a full backup of all servers from site A to site B and then start replicating the VM's using the full backup files on site B. I'm running version 8 of Veeam.

So questions:

1. We have domain controllers in Site A. Do we need to enable AAP on all of these? if so, would the defaults settings suffice?
or Should I check "require successful processing " under APPLICATIONS and check "Perform copy only (lets another application use logs)" under TRANSACTION LOGS. maybe the second bit doesnt matter as domain controllers dont have any transaction logs?

2. Our managed service provider for all our SQL server does 1 native full backup per day and native transaction logs every 15 minutes for a full recovery mode and dumps them on a local disk on every SQL server. These stay on disk for 2 days then get deleted and backed up to tape and we start over. Now for our DR solution, we want to initially take a full backup of each sql server using veeam and then start on going replication jobs to those veeam full backups. Now for the initial full and replication jobs in Veeam, do they need application aware processing enabled ? If so, Should I check "require successful processing " under APPLICATIONS and check "Perform copy only (lets another application use logs)" under TRANSACTION LOGS (since the managed service provider handles the native backup jobs?). If I set this to "process transaction jobs with this job, I have a feeling it will clash with the native backups that are performed on the SQL server.

3. We have other application servers/web servers/ windows 7 machines aswell. Should all of these have AAP enabled? so same as above, Should I check "require successful processing " under APPLICATIONS and check "Perform copy only (lets another application use logs)" under TRANSACTION LOGS?

Our exchange servers currently get backed up by Veeam and I have AAP enabled and let Veeam truncated the logs so this is OK. I'm more worried about the above.

Thanks!!! much appreciated.

[Vitaliy S.]

Hi,

1. Yes, you need to enable this option. Leave all default settings, logs actions do no matter, since you've correctly stated - DCs do not have logs to truncate.
2. Yes, use AAIP and select "copy only" option in order not to overlap with native backup process.
3. Yes, enable AAIP whenever possible, though please keep in mind that logs processing is only applicable to Exchange/SQL Servers.

Thanks!

[out2getyou]

Hi Vitaliy S,

Thank you so much for replying!
With the application aware processing options under the General tab and Applications, which one should I select:

- Require successful processing?
- Try application processing, but ignore failures?
- disable application processing?

I've gotten some other advice on this and they recommended to NOT choose "Require successful processing" in-case application aware processing fails, you would rather have a crash-consistent backup than NO backup. What are your thoughts?

Thanks

[Vitaliy S.]

Select require "successful processing", as you do want to have application consistent backups, don't you? And yes, this checkbox can be disabled, if you do application backups via native tools.