How to back up file servers with independent disks?

[rpatty]

There's probably a simple answer here, but I'm stuck in a loop. How do I back up a file server that has independent data disks attached to it? The disks are independent because we don't want them included in VMware snapshots during normal maintenance - no need to snapshot 3 TB of unchanging data files while we're patching the OS. But if they're independent Veeam can't snapshot to back them up. How is this normally handled?

[bdufour]

Guest level back up - simple answer. Look at veeam endpoint. Doesn’t leverage virtual infrastructure.

[foggy]

Correct, you should use Veeam Agent for Windows to back them up.

[jeffshead]

Does the job mode have to be Managed by agent or can it also be set to Managed by backup server ?

I have a VM that has a large independent storage disk. I want to use Veeam agent to back it up to an external USB HDD (attached to VM via PCI passthrough) but I also need to run a pre-job and a post-job script. It seems this functionality is only available in Managed by backup server mode.

[Mildur]

Or course, managed by backup server will work.

[jeffshead]

Or course, managed by backup server will work.

I dug a little deeper and created a Managed by backup server job and found that there is no option to backup to the external USB drive that is attached to the VM. You can only select a backup repository as the destination. So if I make that external USB drive a new repository and select it as the destination, will that create more overhead, use more resources and increase the backup window when compared to my current Managed by agent/Standalone backup?

Maybe I should create a separate post and give some detail as to what my requirements are and what I need to accomplish.

[Gostev]

Also since it's not really specific to vSphere at this point, please create it in the corresponding subforum where PMs responsible for agent-based backups live