Backup and Replica on 2 ESXi

[sinvim]

Hello everyone,

We have 2 ESXi hosts. One is the main and the other is for backup purposes in case the first one fails.

We also have another backup server where Veeam is installed. Veeam is scheduled to back up all VMs on the first host and then replicate them on to the second ESXi.

While replicating to the second machine the name of the VM is with its suffix defined as "_replica". So the VMs at the second Host are always named with the suffix. However, my confusion is the VM name on the second Host. Its name stays the same with the suffix. If the VM name on the first ESXi is "Win10" the name on the second ESXi host is "Win10_replica"

So when the replication job starts, the target host already has a VM with the same name. So it could even stay the same without the suffix.
So it overwrites it right?

And at the first run, it took one and a half hours to replicate, but on the next days, it takes only 6 or 7 minutes. I assume the veeam replication algorithm has a smart way of differentiating and only transferring new data.

I would like to hear from anyone who can enlighten me on this as I am new to this. Thanks in advance

[rennerstefan]

Hi

Correct, there is a logic behind it.
Your first replica is always a full and that is why it took more time.
After the first replica we only replicate changes which is much faster than the full.
Once a vm is replicated the _replica is added and the vm remains the same for every update of the replication. We don’t create a new vm every time an update is done but only inject the changes to the one that is already exists on the target.

So nothing to worry about, what you describe sounds good to me.

Thanks

[sinvim]

Hi rennerstefan,

Thank you for your timely response. I'm happy to hear that it's how I imagined. Now I don't worry. Thanks again!

All the best

[sinvim]

Hi again,

just a quick question arises suddenly.

What if I'd like to keep a daily replication of the VM. Can I edit the job so that it appends a "date" to the suffix such as "_replica_11.02.2022"

I know it wouldn't be very efficient(every time it will send a new VM) but it would enable us to keep a history.

[Mildur]

Hi

If you have on replica job with daily replication scheduled, replicas Name stays the same.
Veeam will use snapshots in your „_replica“ VM to store the different replication points. You can configure 28 as the maximum replication points. So it would be 28 days of vm history for your case.
You can see the snapshots when using vcenter (or esxi webgui) on the vm.

Do you need more replicated vms for your history goal?
Why not using instant vm recovery from a vm backup, instead of replicas older than 28 days?
Backups can be made immutable, but replicas are deletable. Backups would be my first choice to have a history for a particular vm.