Backup transport mode to repository

[mariuszg]

Hello,

In VBR documentation I can read backup proxy can automatically choose transport mode or it is possible to select transport mode for proxy manually and this selected transport mode is used for data retrieval from source to proxy. For writing data to the target, Veeam Backup & Replication picks the transport mode automatically.

I would ask what criteria are used to picks specific transport mode from proxy to target (repository)?

In my lab I have two physical servers:
Server1: with Windows OS is backup proxy and is has direct connection via SAN to production VMware datastore and to LUN1 on my storage also via SAN.
Server2: also with Windows OS is backup repository with mounted LUN1 (the same as Server1) from my storage. On LUN1 I will keep my backups.
From datastore to Server1 backups transport is via SAN (direct access) and it is understandable for me.
But from Server1 to Server2 (repository) backup transport is via LAN and I don't understand why. Server1 has access to disk used as backups repository so why proxy doesn't choose SAN transport?

In this scenario I lose all SAN transport advantages because bottleneck is LAN.
Is any other option to have advantages from SAN transport than keeping backups locally on Server1?

Mariusz

[Mildur]

Hello Marius

The backup server puts the proxies in three groups by access type:
Group 1: SAN
Group 2: HotAdd
Group 3: Network

If proxies are available with free task slots of Group 1, we will use it. If all tasks are used, proxies from Group 2 will also be leveraged. Group 3 is only used when Group 1 and Group 2 does not have responding proxy servers.

But from Server1 to Server2 (repository) backup transport is via LAN and I don't understand why. Server1 has access to disk used as backups repository so why proxy doesn't choose SAN transport?

Backup transport mode does not affect the communication between Proxy Server and Repository Server. Proxy and Repository Server communicate over a LAN (ip4 or ipv6) connection.

Your proxy server 1 will need to send the backups to the repository server 2. You should make Server 2 your only proxy server if you want to keep traffic within a single server (server2).


Best,
Fabian

[mariuszg]

Thanks for answer.

So in case of recovery the communication between repository and proxy will be also over a LAN, am I right?

I also consider backup scenario with virtual proxies and physical repository on separate server. But in this scenario also LAN is bottleneck and only one option to speed-up backup is use fast LAN network between ESXi and repository.