Need your thought on a new VEEAM 8 setup

[micmac]

Hi,

I'm new to VEEAM and I've been asked to setup a new VEEAM Backup and Replication solution for a client. I did take the time to read about VEEAM but I don't have much time left to deliver the solution. That's why I'm here and I would like to have your thought on how I should setup the whole thing.

Here are some details in the infrastructure:
- VEEAM 8 Backup & Replication Enterprise license has been purchased
- 4 different sites with ~50Mbps available bandwidth between them for VEEAM
- A total of around 60 VMs in the whole environment

SITE1
-----
5x ESXi 5.5 hosts standard edition
1x vCenter 5.5 server (virtual)
1x EMC VNX5200 used for VM datastores (iSCSI)
1x HP P2000 G3 used to store backups (iSCSI)
1x Physical server with HP MSL G3 Tape Library (SAS) and 10Gb NICs for iSCSI to connect to the HP P2000 storage unit

SITE2
-----
5x ESXi 5.5 hosts standard edition
1x EMC VNX5200 used for VM datastores (iSCSI)
1x HP P2000 G3 used to store backups (iSCSI)

SITE3
-----
2x ESXi 5.5 hosts standard edition (with local RAID5 storage that can be used to store backups)
1x HP P2000 G3 used for VM datastores (SAS-DAS)

SITE4
-----
2x ESXi 5.5 hosts standard edition (with local RAID5 storage that can be used to store backups)
1x HP P2000 G3 used for VM datastores (SAS-DAS)


I think the idea behind that setup was to use Backup proxies in each site to make local backups of the VMs on disk (on HP P2000 for SITE1 and SITE2 and on ESXi hosts' local storage for SITE3 and SITE4). Then after, the backups would be "replicated" to the VEEAM Backup Server (physical server) in SITE1 and then put on tape for off-site backups. Not sure about that since the guy that planned everything has left without leaving any info on his thoughts. Grrr...

Anyway, here's what I've done so far: I've already installed VEEAM Enterprise Manager and VEEAM Backup Server on the physical server in SITE1. The databases resides on a Windows SQL 2012 VM in that same site. I've configured the Backup Repository to be the 20TB NTFS volume that resides on the HP P2000 storage unit connected through iSCSI. I've also configured the Tape library in VEEAM.

Since I don't have physical servers available for VEEAM in SITE2, SITE3 and SITE4, the new VEEAM Backup Servers of Backup Proxies will have to be installed on Windows VMs.

Now, I'm still wondering if I should install other VEEAM Backup Servers in SITE2 (and maybe even in SITE3 and SITE4) or just use Backup Proxies with the single VEEAM Backup Server in SITE1.

Also, how should I configure the Backup Repository in SITE2. Should I use RDM to connect the P2000 volume directly to the VM that will be used as a Backup Proxy for that site? Same with the ESXi hosts' local storage in SITE3 and SITE4?

Another big question that comes to me is how will the VM backup data go from EMC VNX storage to HP P2000 Backup Repository. If possible, I would prefer if the local backups would not go through the LAN but only use the SAN to transfer VM data. Is that possible with EMC VNX5200 and HP P2000 G3 and my configuration and also with the Enterprise NOT Enterprise Plus license?

Thank you for you thought. Very much appreciated.

[Vitaliy S.]

Hi Charles,

Now, I'm still wondering if I should install other VEEAM Backup Servers in SITE2 (and maybe even in SITE3 and SITE4) or just use Backup Proxies with the single VEEAM Backup Server in SITE1.

You just need Veeam backup proxy servers configured to run in direct SAN access mode via iSCSI.

Also, how should I configure the Backup Repository in SITE2. Should I use RDM to connect the P2000 volume directly to the VM that will be used as a Backup Proxy for that site? Same with the ESXi hosts' local storage in SITE3 and SITE4?

I would not recommend using RDMs at all, since you will not have any performance increase compared to regular virtual disks or iSCSI initiated volumes.

Another big question that comes to me is how will the VM backup data go from EMC VNX storage to HP P2000 Backup Repository. If possible, I would prefer if the local backups would not go through the LAN but only use the SAN to transfer VM data. Is that possible with EMC VNX5200 and HP P2000 G3 and my configuration and also with the Enterprise NOT Enterprise Plus license?

In this case you need to configure direct SAN mode on your proxy and then mount HP P2000 volumes via iSCSI to the proxy and make it a backup repository.

In overall your plans looks good to me!

Let me know if you have any further questions.

[micmac]

Hi,

Thanks for your reply. Very appreciated.

Here's what I've done so far on the physical Backup server in SITE1:
- Configured the backup repository to be the HP P2000 LUN accessed via iSCSI (NTFS partition)
- Mapped the VNX LUNs (used as VMFS datastores for the VMs) for the Backup server (not only for the ESXi hosts) and put the newly discovered disks online

After that, I was able to confirm that the backups were not going through the LAN anymore but though the SAN. Since then, the performance of the backup jobs is much better (~46MB/s through LAN and ~215MB/s thought SAN). I think the my configuration of good for the physical server. does the performance seems good to you?

As for the backup proxies (VMs), I'm not sure I understand your proposition very well. How should I map the VM to the HP P2000 (to be used as backup repository)? Should I map the HP 2000 LUN to the ESXi hosts, format the LUN with VMFS5 and then create a HUGE VMDK on it and assign it to the backup proxy VM for the backu repository? I thought about RDM but I understand that you are saying that it would not give me better performance. You seem to be saying to use Direct-SAN access mode but I thought this was only possible with physical backup servers.

Could you please confirm that my setup with the physical server seems good to you and clarify how I should setup the backup repository on my backup proxy VMs?

Thank you so much and sorry for my "not so good" English.

[Vitaliy S.]

- Configured the backup repository to be the HP P2000 LUN accessed via iSCSI (NTFS partition)
- Mapped the VNX LUNs (used as VMFS datastores for the VMs) for the Backup server (not only for the ESXi hosts) and put the newly discovered disks online

VMFS LUNs do not have to be online if you're planning to use direct SAN access mode. Check out this existing topic for more details > Disks offline or online?

I think the my configuration of good for the physical server. does the performance seems good to you?

Yes, it looks decent. Was it a full or an incremental job pass?

As for the backup proxies (VMs), I'm not sure I understand your proposition very well. How should I map the VM to the HP P2000 (to be used as backup repository)? Should I map the HP 2000 LUN to the ESXi hosts, format the LUN with VMFS5 and then create a HUGE VMDK on it and assign it to the backup proxy VM for the backu repository? I thought about RDM but I understand that you are saying that it would not give me better performance. You seem to be saying to use Direct-SAN access mode but I thought this was only possible with physical backup servers.

You should do the same as you've done in the SITE 1. Create a repository/proxy on your virtual proxy server, and then use Microsoft iSCSI initiator to connect to the NTFS formatted LUN on HP P2000 (this LUN will be used a repository) and mount VMFS volumes in order to use Direct SAN mode to retrieve VM data.

Direct SAN mode via iSCSI is possible with both physical and virtual proxy servers, as opposed to FC that can be used with physical servers only. Please check out our F.A.Q. topic for further reading > Direct SAN Access Mode

Could you please confirm that my setup with the physical server seems good to you and clarify how I should setup the backup repository on my backup proxy VMs?

Yes, I can confirm your physical proxy server is configured correctly, and please review my response above regarding virtual proxy servers. Hope this helps!

[micmac]

Hi again!

Thank you soooo much for your tips! Your help has been very helpful to me to setup VEEAM so far!

I've configured SITE backup proxy repository on a VM with iSCSI configured directly in Windows and it works like a charm.

Now my question is in regards of site 3 and 4. In these 2 sites, I've configured a VM to be a packup proxy but I yet have to setup their backup repository. Unfortunately, there is no iSCSI there. The setup is the following for each site:
- 2x ESXi hosts with a local RAID5 (not for ESXi since ESXi runs from an SD-CARD onboard)
- 1x HP2000 storage unit connected to the 2 ESXi hosts with Direct-Attached SAS cables.

The VMs' vmdks are positionned on a large VMFS5 datastore located on the HP2000. I have no dedicated storage planned for VEEAM backup repository and I don't understand what was the purpose of the local RAID5 in the servers. They are not used for now and maybe I can use them as backup repositories but I don't know how I could do that. Maybe I could create a VMFS5 datastore on the local RAID5s and add a huge vmdk for my backup proxy VM and use that VMDK as a backup repository in Windows? That seems to be a possible solution but I don't know if that is the best approach for me with the setup I have.

Be aware that in those 2 sites, there will only be 4 VMs (2 DCs, file server and backup proxy) for a total of 500-600 GB).

What would you do with my setup?

Thanks!

[veremin]

Hi, Charles,

Actually, storing backups on VMFS doesn't sound like the best idea. May be you happen to have some decommissioned server (or something) that can be stuffed with the disks consisting RAID that isn't used by the said ESXi and used that afterwards as a target repository?

Thanks.

[Vitaliy S.]

- 1x HP2000 storage unit connected to the 2 ESXi hosts with Direct-Attached SAS cables.

Can you present this storage as a CIFS share to your backup proxy servers though separate server would be still a preferred option?

[micmac]

Hi again,

Unfortunately, I have no physical spare server to present storage through iSCSI or CIFS.

What is the best way to use the local storage on ESXi hosts as backup repositories? Could I simply host my backup proxy VM on the first host, present the local storage to my backup proxy VM (RDM or VMDK?) and never do a vMotion of that VM since it uses local host storage?

Do I have any other option if I have no extra hardware?

Note that the backups will be replicated to a remote Datacenter every night.

Thanks

[veremin]

Could I simply host my backup proxy VM on the first host, present the local storage to my backup proxy VM (RDM or VMDK?)

You can, be aware, that restore might become complex, if the corresponding host goes down - new host will be needed before you access backup data. If you search through these forums, you've seen customers with RDM repositories, though.

Thanks.

[Vitaliy S.]

Agree with Vladimir, given limited hardware resources I would suggest choosing VMDK as opposed to RDM, there is no performance benefit of using RDMs these days.

[dellock6]

Not sure I follow this last reccomandation by Vitaliy.... We are talking about a backup target, not a new vmware volume. To, me it makes more sense to remove vmfs as an additional abstraction layer and use the storage as an RDM device formatted with NTFS.
Also, if anythin happens, I can connect the same storage to any physical windows box, scan and mount the ntfs volume, and start any restore activity from there.

[Vitaliy S.]

Yeah, but with virtual disk you can migrate this repository to any place (if something happens to the infrastructure).