Can SureBackup be used to test an installation?

[Morgenstern72]

We have a server that can only be taken offline for minutes. We need to install SQL 2008 on this server and migrate some databases there.
For testing if this worked we also need a Domain Controller.

My idea: just start the DC and the server from SureBackup, install the SQL server in the lab and test there. But I never used SureBackup, so I dont know if this will work.
Is SureBackup ok with me having servers run for several days and heavily modifying one while doing that?
I would copy the SQL install files, hotfixes, database backups etc to the hosts...but can I copy things on servers in the SureBackup lab? How do I access them, since they obviously cant have the same ip addresses as before?

The other option is to clone both DC and the server and then isolate them from our network, which will be quite difficult since we dont have a test ESX environment and I am not an networker.

Thank you for your ideas!

[widmerkarl]

Hi Joachim,

Yes, SureBackup can exactly do that!

You can use SureBackup to test your backups, or even to create a small "lab" environment where you test software patches etc. before you install it for example in production environment.

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... tml?ver=95

[Morgenstern72]

I read that you need a VMWare Distributed Switch if you plan to have more than one host running in the SureBackup lab:
coming from SureBackup: https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... tml?ver=95
pointing to SureReplica https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... tml?ver=95

Sadly we only have ESX 5.5 Enterprise license, not Plus, so we cant use DVS.

But then the article speaks of "replicas"...why is SureBackup talking about replicas?

[widmerkarl]

I think that's because you switched from SureBackup to SureReplica:
https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... tml?ver=95

It's basically the same. With SureBackup you test your backups, and with SureReplica you can do the same tests for your replica VMs.

At least in SureBackup there is no word of distributed switches:
https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... tml?ver=95

[Morgenstern72]

I think that's because you switched from SureBackup to SureReplica:

Yes, thats true. I just followed the link in the SureBackup Config and it pointed to SureReplica. So we can use SureBackup for our purposes

[widmerkarl]

Yes

SureBackup is a really great feature to test your backups automatically or setup a small lab to test a patch installation.

To keep the lab running, make sure that you keep the application group running after the job completes.

Look at step 3 - Create a SureBackup Job
https://www.driftar.ch/2016/11/27/veeam ... urebackup/

Hope that helps!