MySQL Snapshot Backup with Veeam B&R 11

[sebkoe]

Hello all,

We are currently testing Veeam Backup & Replication (V11) and are dealing with the issue of MySQL backups at the moment.

I am currently looking for a reasonable solution to backup our MySQL instances consistently.

Some info:

- various virtual Linux machines (CentOS on VMware)
- MySQL 5.7 (Myisam)

We can't shutdown MySQL. So this falls away.

My initial idea was to first run a post script which applies a "write lock" to all tables, then the snapshot is taken and then an "unlock" via pre script is done. But of course this doesn't work, because the LOCK is only valid as long as the MySQL session in which it was set is active.

We would not like to use mysqldump. Then we have the data 1x in the snapshot and 1x additionally in a dump file. We can't exclude MySQL in the snapshot either.

So my question:

Is there a way with Veeam VMware snapshot backups to get consistent MySQL backups without shutting down MySQL or using mysqldump?

Many greetings
Sebastian

[Mildur]

You can use the veeam agent for Linux todo the mysql backup.
It won‘t use another license. The same license is used for vmimage and agent backup on the same vmware host.

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/agent ... tml?ver=50

[sebkoe]

so i would only use the agent backup for those servers instead of a snapshot backup (since i dont want to have a snapshot and a separate mysql backup) and create Full/Inc Backups?

[Mildur]

Yes, that will work.
There are some limitations you have to check. If you don't face them, it will work.
For DR, you should test Agent to VmWare Restore after the initial backup.
Or test the restore with the recovery iso.

Requirements and Limitations for MySQL Processing
- Veeam Agent for Linux supports processing of MySQL database system version 5.6 — 8.0.
- Configurations with multiple MySQL installations and/or instances on the same machine are not supported.
- MySQL Cluster versions are not supported.

[PetrM]

Hello,

One more option might be the usage of pre-freeze/post-thaw scripts to process VM at the level of vSphere. There are some examples for MySQL on VeeamHub. Nevertheless, from my point of view it's better to stick with Fabian's suggestion.

Thanks!