Limitations of VBR6

[nrothwell]

Hi all,
We have 2 EXsi box connected to SAN. Veeams is installed on a virtual server on the San, it backups to a Desktop NAS 8TB storage directly.
It takes 7 hours to back up to this NAS. See results below.
Success 6 Start time 20:30:09 Total size 1.4 TB Backup size 636.7 GB
Warning 0 End time 03:30:09 + 1 Data read 44.7 GB Dedupe 1.5x
Error 0 Duration 6:59:59 Transferred 27.0 GB Compression 1.6x

Within the backup Job we have 6 VMservers backing up. I need to change our DR process, and my ideal DR process would be Replication off to another SAN,
this is would be excellent, however we don’t have the funds to buy another SAN.

What I going to try, was to install a PowerVault NX300 Base NAS, but I am not sure if this will solve my backup speed issue.

I know that you cannot install Veeam Backup & Replication v6 on WSS 2008, but can the Backup Proxy and Backup Repository functionality, be installed on WSS 2008.
Can anyone suggest a good DR Process?
I attached image of what I was thinking, but I maybe completely on the wrong Page!. http://84.51.250.98:5006/New_NAS_Proposal.pdf

Thanks
Nigel

[foggy]

Nige, what does your job bottleneck statistics (available in the Realtime Statistics window on the job's shortcut menu) show and what backup mode is used for your backups?

[nrothwell]

Last backup:
14/02/2012 08:20:23 :: Load: Source 13% > Proxy 62% > Network 86% > Target 88%
14/02/2012 08:20:23 :: Primary bottleneck: Target

backup mode: Backup Repository created with Shared folder to Iomega storcenter ix4-200d 8TB NAS over 1GB network,

Name: VM_Servers
Target Path: \\Servername\Veeams_Images\VM_Servers
Type: Backup
Target repository: Backup Repository (This server, '\\Servername\Veeams_Images\VM_Servers')
Target repository host: This server
Target repository path: \\Servername\Veeams_Images\VM_Servers
Command line: "C:\Program Files\Veeam\Backup and Replication\Veeam.Backup.Manager.exe" backup 589d7f97-20b4-4a1d-968e-e22dcd1e1332

[dellock6]

I think Alexander is referring to the backup mode configured on the veeam proxy, or the one actually being use during the backup job, you can read it in the realtime statistics (san,hotadd,nbd).
We are missing the type of san you are using, network speed and so on, but anyway, if you are using a Iomega ix4-200, this is not a fast NAS usually so it could be the bottleneck. I do not know about the Powervault NX300, but it could be faster.
Also, you say you need to do Replication to another site but you are missing a second storage for it, but you also would need at least another ESXi on the DR site...

[foggy]

14/02/2012 08:20:23 :: Load: Source 13% > Proxy 62% > Network 86% > Target 88%
14/02/2012 08:20:23 :: Primary bottleneck: Target

According to this, your primary bottleneck is the target storage performance. If you are concerned about backup speed, I would suggest to get a faster device. Also, if you are using reversed incremental backup mode, then changing the mode to incremental will take off much extra load from your target storage (though at the cost of required disk space).

[nrothwell]

Here is the live backup Details: it uses Using source proxy VMware Backup Proxy [hotadd;nbd]

09/02/2012 20:31:23 :: Queued for processing at 09/02/2012 20:31:23
09/02/2012 20:31:23 :: Required resources have been assigned
09/02/2012 20:31:26 :: VM processing started at 09/02/2012 20:31:25
09/02/2012 20:31:26 :: VM size: 500.0 GB
09/02/2012 20:31:27 :: Using source proxy VMware Backup Proxy [hotadd;nbd]
09/02/2012 20:33:05 :: Indexing guest file system
09/02/2012 20:33:38 :: Preparing guest for hot backup
09/02/2012 20:33:50 :: Creating snapshot
09/02/2012 20:33:57 :: Releasing guest
09/02/2012 20:34:10 :: Saving '[SANStore01] Exchange 2007/Exchange 2007.vmx'
09/02/2012 20:34:32 :: Saving '[SANStore01] Exchange 2007/Exchange 2007.vmxf'
09/02/2012 20:34:59 :: Saving '[SANStore01] Exchange 2007/Exchange 2007.nvram'
09/02/2012 20:35:22 :: Hard Disk 1 (50.0 GB)
09/02/2012 20:48:29 :: Hard Disk 2 (450.0 GB)
09/02/2012 23:34:18 :: Truncating transaction logs
09/02/2012 23:34:23 :: Removing snapshot
09/02/2012 23:35:55 :: Swap file blocks skipped: 3.3 GB
09/02/2012 23:35:55 :: Saving 'GuestIndexData.zip'
09/02/2012 23:36:29 :: Finalizing
09/02/2012 23:36:29 :: Publishing catalog index
09/02/2012 23:36:43 :: Busy: Source 1% > Proxy 53% > Network 99% > Target 99%
09/02/2012 23:36:43 :: Primary bottleneck: Network
09/02/2012 23:36:44 :: Processing finished at 09/02/2012 23:36:43

dellock6 think you miss understood me, we dont have the funds to buy another SAN or EXSi host. I am trying to find another DR process..
Iomega ix4-200 is only a Desktop NAS, If I was to purchase Powervault NX300 which is an entrylevel NAS Flat bed, I am hopeing it will speed up the backup time.

can you tell if the Backup Proxy and Backup Repository functionality, can be installed on Windows Storage Server 2008,

Veeams seems limitied to what it can backup to. Looking to the future guess

[foggy]

can you tell if the Backup Proxy and Backup Repository functionality, can be installed on Windows Storage Server 2008,

Apparently, there are no limitations for installing Veeam B&R and its components on Windows Storage Server 2008.

Veeams seems limited to what it can backup to. Looking to the future guess

Veeam B&R is completely storage agnostic solution. The thing is that backup is quite resource intensive task for all the involved media: source, proxy, network, and target, and in your case your target storage is not capable of the imposed load.

[dellock6]

Nige, even if Veeam would not install on the Microsoft Storage Server, you can use it anyway as a CIFS share to send to it the backups you are doing right now on the Iomega, which seems to be the primary bottleneck looking at your logs.

Luca.

[nrothwell]

Foggy and Dellock6 thank you both for all you help, whith my questions.
I really appreacate it..

Most use the forum more often

Thanks again
Nigel