DR & Veeam

[mlucido]

Hi, this is my first post. We have been using Veeam for about 2 years. We are at version 6.5. I am trying to work out how to move away from tape as much as possible. Our current DR plan involves recalling one week old tapes from an offsite location. Once a week, a case of tapes is returned and a new one taken. This has been like this for the last 20 years (we used to be an iSeries shop). There are now 10-15 (Windows and Redhat) VMs and 5TBs of data.

I am moving to a DR plan (don't have it all worked out), that includes one large single DR server with 12 TBs of local storage. The link between sites is 10 Mbps. Right now, I am replicating one copy of our VMs there everyday (not all servers yet). My desire is to replace the library of tapes that goes off site every week. Maybe to the point where we no longer do that? There will still be monthly tape backups that go offsite for audit/archival purposes. Maybe Veeam v7 will be able to handle the tape backups directly (use Backup Exec now).

My Veeam backup jobs go to SAN storage at night. During the day, I run the replication jobs to the DR site. As well, I copy (robocopy) all the Veeam backups to a local NAS for extra security. I experimented with rsync to a Linux VM from the Synology NAS and that works, but sometimes we need to move 200 GB to 1 TB of data when full backups are taken. This is time intensive.

I am leaning toward taking multiple backups (one per day) of the replcated VM at the DR site. This will replace the weekly case of tapes. If storage permits , we can keep more data. Does this seem feasible? Do I need a Veeam license at the DR site? Any other ideas? Costs need to be low.

[foggy]

There will still be monthly tape backups that go offsite for audit/archival purposes. Maybe Veeam v7 will be able to handle the tape backups directly (use Backup Exec now).

It actually is.

As well, I copy (robocopy) all the Veeam backups to a local NAS for extra security. I experimented with rsync to a Linux VM from the Synology NAS and that works, but sometimes we need to move 200 GB to 1 TB of data when full backups are taken. This is time intensive.

You should definitely take a look at the new backup copy job introduced in Veeam B&R v7 right with this scenario in mind.

I am leaning toward taking multiple backups (one per day) of the replcated VM at the DR site. This will replace the weekly case of tapes. If storage permits , we can keep more data. Does this seem feasible?

No need to do this with backup copy jobs. Moreover, backing up replicated VMs is not among the best practices.

Do I need a Veeam license at the DR site?

No, only hosts you're backing up/replicating from need to be licensed.