Host-based backup of VMware vSphere VMs.
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jmentz
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Replication and Backup Overlap Nightmare

Post by jmentz »

Hi All

I know this topic has been covered a number of times, but I am still not clear on the best way to achieve the desired outcome. Let me quickly outline my situation.

We have a head office site running VBR which successfully backs up a large number of servers each night. Secondary backup copy jobs are successfully sending backup copies to an offsite storage location. We recently introduced replication to another office which the business has earmarked as a DR site. The topology was setup using the recommendations in the following best practice guide: https://bp.veeam.expert/job_configurati ... cation_job

In other words, we have a VBR server in the primary site which is responsible for daily backups and backup copy jobs. We have a second VBR server at the DR site which is responsible for the replication jobs. As per the best practice guide, it makes sense to have the replicating VBR server in the DR site in case the primary site suffers a failure to enable failovers to be initiated etc.

The problem we have run in to is that the VBR server in the DR site is not aware of the state of backup jobs in the primary site. As a result, replication jobs are initiated while some servers still have open backup snapshots and conversely backup jobs would initiate while servers have open replication snapshots. Consequently CBT is invalidated and backup and replication tasks take ages to complete and the VMs are running on snapshots for even longer than they should. Trying to limit the replication to a window outside the time the backups occur has only compounded the problem. Things eventually just get so bad that we just have to start from scratch and reseed the DR replicas. I have lost weeks of my life as a result of this ongoing issue!

I have seen a number of forum posts which seem to suggest using a PS script to check the state of the backups at the remote site. For example: powershell-f26/script-to-check-working- ... 25638.html. However, none of the posts and suggestions are detailed enough and properly explain how to implement this.

So my questions to other forum members who have a similar setup are as follow:

1) What is the best way to implement offsite DR replication of servers which obviously also need to be backed up locally? Is the Veeam supplied best practice guide the way to go?
2) What is the best way to avoid the overlap of replication and backup jobs?
3) Can anybody provide a bit more flesh around implementing the PS script to check the state of jobs at a remote site, if this is indeed a good way of overcoming the overlap issue?

I hope the description of my conundrum makes sense and I would really appreciate any advice or guidance provided!

Many thanks
John
foggy
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Re: Replication and Backup Overlap Nightmare

Post by foggy »

Hi John, the best way to avoid overlap would be to use a single Veeam B&R, if acceptable - in this case Veeam B&R will automatically make sure jobs do not affect each other (the one that starts second will wait for the VM to be released by the first one). For the PS stuff, feel free to ask in the corresponding subforum.
bdufour
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Re: Replication and Backup Overlap Nightmare

Post by bdufour »

ive noticed that isnt always the case, when i replicate a vm from vsan to vsan (primary site) at the same time that vm is replicating from vsan to the dr site in another job, all from the same instance of veeam, the jobs will overlap and cause that vm to fail. says something about dirty block info and deletes all the restore points at the primary site for that replica. it isnt that big of a deal bc i can stagger the jobs to prevent that from happening. but i thought veeam would have been smart enough, not to overlap, typically it is, just not in this case. may have something to do with the transport mode. havent really put that much attention on it, but it happens.
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Re: Replication and Backup Overlap Nightmare

Post by skrause »

I personally prefer to have the B&R server that orchestrates my backup and backup copy jobs (and if I had replication jobs that had overlap issues) in a "non-production" site. That way, if I have an issue with my production site, I don't need to first restore my B&R server before I can do anything.

It sounds like you already have a B&R server running in the secondary location, is there a reason you can't move all of your jobs to there? You can still use all the same proxies/repositories.
Steve Krause
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bdufour
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Re: Replication and Backup Overlap Nightmare

Post by bdufour »

agreed, running vcenter, veeam, and a DC at the dr/secondary site is def the way to go for maximum up time.
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Re: Replication and Backup Overlap Nightmare

Post by foggy »

bdufour wrote: Mar 22, 2019 3:26 pm ive noticed that isnt always the case, when i replicate a vm from vsan to vsan (primary site) at the same time that vm is replicating from vsan to the dr site in another job, all from the same instance of veeam, the jobs will overlap and cause that vm to fail. says something about dirty block info and deletes all the restore points at the primary site for that replica.
This is not expected actually. I'd appreciate if you could open a case if/when you see similar behavior again. Thanks!
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