Best practice for local ESXi with storage

[jeffshead]

Current configuration:
Daily backups, standard 1G network, one ESXi host (local storage for its VMs) and Veeam Availability Suite (all components) is installed on a separate, physical Windows file server along with the repository -- All on the same subnet. The ESXi host has under 20 VMs. There are also 4-6 physical Windows boxes (same subnet) being backed up to the same Veeam repository. This current configuration works just fine and the backups only take 30-40 minutes.

Proposed configuration:
I would like to reconfigure the file server to be a second ESXi host and virtualize the Windows file server. I still need to keep the Veeam repository on the reconfigured file server because it has a ton of storage space.

I have read that Veeam should not be installed on a VM in the same cluster that it is backing up so what is the best way to deploy Veeam so that it can back up both ESXi hosts? I could repurpose an i5 workstation for the installation of Veeam if that will provide enough horsepower but which Veeam components should be installed where and how will overall performance be impacted by this new configuration?

[PetrM]

Hi Jeff,

According to our best practices guide, the backup server should reside in the main datacenter alongside the virtual infrastructure hosting workloads you're going to protect. You can install Veeam server on whether virtual or physical machine, there are no performance considerations at this point since the main role of the backup server is to orchestrate jobs. However, I'd suggest to deploy a virtual proxy on each host after making re-configuration of the file server so that you can read data in Hot-Add mode. Also, keep in mind that you have a possibility to select a dedicated network for backup traffic going from a proxy to repository, it should be your current 1 Gb network.

Thanks!

[jeffshead]

Thank you for the fast response.

Just so it's crystal clear to me -- I need to install Veeam Availability on a third box ("alongside the virtual infrastructure"), since it's going to protect both ESXi hosts. I should not install Veeam Backup Server, in a VM, on either ESXi host because it is protecting them both. However, I should install a Veeam proxy on both ESXi hosts. Each proxy needs to be configured to backup the other host since it's not supposed to back itself up. Are my statements in this post correct or did I miss understand something?

[PetrM]

Hi Jeff,

You can place Veeam B&R server on whether physical or virtual machine on ESXi, the main goal is to preserve quick response times and to keep management traffic locally.

The proxy server reads data from production datastores, there is no requirement to install proxy on one host but process data from another host. Basically, if you had vCenter you could use just a single proxy, it just needs to have access to the datastore hosting VM disks. Please refer to this page on our help center to get the full list of requirements for virtual proxies.

Thanks!

[jeffshead]

Thanks again. Sorry for the back and forth. This 2016 Veeam blog post is one of the first things that I read.

I’ve generally encouraged people to make the Veeam backup infrastructure physical if there is only one vSphere Cluster.

This is why I was thinking a separate physical box would be better but I would prefer to install Veeam in a VM on one of the ESXi hosts.

...a virtualized backup server becomes a great option as long as it is not managing the Availability of the cluster it is in. For example, this means that if a virtualized backup server is backing up Cluster A, it should reside in Cluster B. Likewise, a virtualized backup server in Cluster B can manage the backups of Cluster A.

This is why I thought Veeam should not be installed in a VM on one of ESXi hosts.

[jeffshead]

Basically, if you had vCenter you could use just a single proxy, it just needs to have access to the datastore hosting VM disks.

Both ESXi hosts have internal datastores for their VMs. ESXi-1 will host the most active VMs. If I install vCenter, I am thinking I should install it on ESXi-2 which is also where Veeam B&R will be installed. So are you recommending I install a proxy on ESXi-1? When I install Veeam B&R on ESXi-2, do I install all components, including the proxy?

[PetrM]

Hi Jeff,

As it's mentioned in the requirements list for HotAdd:

The ESXi host on which the backup proxy is deployed must have access to the datastore hosting disks of VMs that you plan to process.

If I understood correctly both ESXi have internal datastores, therefore you should install proxy on ESXi-1 if you want to process workloads in HotAdd mode. When you install Veeam B&R server, all components are installed automatically and this server gets a role of proxy.

Thanks!

[jeffshead]

Thank you. Now I have a better grasp of how proxies are utilized.

As I stated earlier, I originally had Veeam installed on the physical Windows file server which is now ESXi-2. Since there were zero issues when I had all Veeam roles installed on the physical Windows file server, would there be any benefit of installing Veeam in a separate VM? Wouldn't that just be a waste of resources?

One of the arrays in ESXi-2 is a 16TB RAID10. This array will be shared by the file server and Veeam backup repository. I know it's not ideal but that is the way it will be set up. Since I want to use the entire array and don't care if the array gets filled with files from the file server or filled with Veeam backups, do I just over, thin-provision each VM (if I decide to put the file server and Veeam in separate VMs) with the full 16TB so that either has the ability to fill the array?

[PetrM]

Hi Jeff,

It's up to you to decide either you want to run Veeam server on physical or virtual machine. If you didn't have any issues in past, then you could continue running Veeam on a physical server. I wouldn't make the repository on VM, I'd suggest to store backups on the physical server.

Thanks!

[jeffshead]

It's up to you to decide either you want to run Veeam server on physical or virtual machine. If you didn't have any issues in past, then you could continue running Veeam on a physical server. I wouldn't make the repository on VM, I'd suggest to store backups on the physical server.

It seems my information and question was not properly worded. Let me ask a different way.

Theoretically, if you have only two VMs on an esxi host that has a total of 1TB of space -- Is it OK to thin provision each VM with 1TB so that either VM can use any amount of space until the 1TB of usable space is full?

[PetrM]

Hi Jeff,

I guess it depends on a specific need and use case but I'd recommend to have a dedicated storage for backups to avoid potential issues with free space.

Thanks!