Host-based backup of VMware vSphere VMs.
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tthomas1@ebsco.com
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Best Advice for Backup of a Small VMware Environment

Post by tthomas1@ebsco.com »

Hello,
I have been using Veeam for years, but only to back up a few physical servers and a handful of VMs via the agent as opposed to VMware. Now we might be setting up a Veeam server to back up a small VMware environment for the first time (8-9 VMs) and I'm gathering information on how to do this. I've re-read relevant sections in the user guide. Here are a few questions:
  • Is it recommended that Veeam be installed on a VM or physical server? I seem to recall physical being recommended years ago, but the doc said virtual.
  • Would it make sense to do one backup job for all VMs? That seems to be the recommendation from the doc but would love to hear thoughts.
  • We may have to use a Synology for all or part of the repository (ugh). I know it's not officially supported, but can someone point me to the best message board post with tips for making it work as well as possible?
Any other tips would also be appreciated. Thank you in advance!
Mildur
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Re: Best Advice for Backup of a Small VMware Environment

Post by Mildur » 1 person likes this post

Hello Thomas
Is it recommended that Veeam be installed on a VM or physical server? I seem to recall physical being recommended years ago, but the doc said virtual.
Both is supported. Our recommendation is to have the repository server physical.
From a security point of view, keep the backup server away from your production environment/hardware. A virtual backup server won't be useful to recover from a ransomware attack if an attacker can access your backup server on the same hypervisor as your production VMs.
Would it make sense to do one backup job for all VMs? That seems to be the recommendation from the doc but would love to hear thoughts.
For 9 VMs use single backup job. Assuming they all have the same retention and backup schedule.
We may have to use a Synology for all or part of the repository (ugh). I know it's not officially supported, but can someone point me to the best message board post with tips for making it work as well as possible?
Synology as a backup device is fully supported. But we recommend against the cheaper home NAS products from Synology or any other NAS vendor. But they also have products more suitable for business use cases. If you contiuee with a Synology, I suggest to use one of those models.
And a NAS should not be used as a SMB repository. Use it as an iSCSI device. This will allow you to use our FastClone.
Any other tips would also be appreciated. Thank you in advance!
Get familiar with our best practice guide and Quick start user guide for vSphere:
Best Practice Guide: https://bp.veeam.com/vbr/
Quick Start: https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=120

For the backups, make sure to use a backup copy job to a immutable or air-gapped backup target. With your design to use only one Synology, your backups are not protected against accidental deletion or malicious attacks. You have multiple options to protect your backups against those situatons:
- Veeam Cloud Connect provider with insider protection
- immutable Object Storage
- Veeam's Hardened Repository (physical linux server with local disks)
- immutable deduplication appliances
- Tape
- cheap air-gapped option: rotated USB drives.

For just 9 VMs, I suggest to use a backup copy job to immutable object storage.

Best,
Fabian
Product Management Analyst @ Veeam Software
tthomas1@ebsco.com
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Re: Best Advice for Backup of a Small VMware Environment

Post by tthomas1@ebsco.com »

@Mildur, this is very very helpful!! Thank you very much, this was just what I was looking for.

Couple of follow up questions/points, if you have time:
  • Thanks for the tip on making it physical. I am hoping to do that. Unfortunately we have to work with their limited resources in the short term - long story - so I may not be able to. IF I end up having no choice but to do virtual short-term, is there anything special I need to do? Can it reside on the same datastore as the VMs it is backing up?
  • For the Synology I'm not sure what model it is. They want to spend as little as possible so we're stuck with it :). Hopefully it's one of the good ones. I think we'll have some DAS as well, so I may make a Scale-Out that includes the Synology but doesn't totally rely on it. Any thoughts on this strategy?
  • Thank you for the links! That is super helpful, especially the Best Practice Guide.
  • We'll definitely be doing backup copy, although we may not be able to do the immutable entirely I have a couple of possible safeguards that will hopefully prevent ransomware issues.
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