Transport mode questions

[Zew]

Thanks for info foggy.

I was also wondering about this, in particular how one can setup a Veeam Backup Proxy in Direct SAN mode using storage snapshots.

According to https://helpcenter.veeam.com/backup/vsp ... proxy.html

"Depending on the type of backup proxy and your backup architecture, the backup proxy can use one of the following data transport modes: Direct storage access, Virtual appliance or Network. If the VM disks are located on the storage system and the storage system is added to the Veeam Backup & Replication console, the backup proxy can also use the Backup from Storage Snapshots mode."

And from your link

"SAN storage volumes presented as VMware datastores must be exposed to the OS of the backup proxy that works in the Direct SAN access transport mode."

I currently have a VNXe3150 as my SAN, current production setup is NFS 3 datastore on ESXi 5.5 hosts, 2 hosts in one cluster, all connected together through a switch with bonded NICs. My question is how does a windows VM get access to the datastores? In my Unisphere webGUI for my VNXe I can only configure VMware hosts for access control, how would one allow a windows VM? In my setup I also configured the Veeam VM to have a vNIC in the SAN subnet hoping it would allow this direct access mode using the default Veeam Proxy which is itself the Veeam Server.

The other thing I noted from your link was this.

"The Direct SAN access transport mode is recommended for VMs whose disks are located on shared VMFS SAN LUNs that are connected to ESX(i) hosts via FC or iSCSI"

As I mentioned my current setup is using NFS, does this mode work with this setup. I have just recently configured my test ESXI host to my VNXe using MPIO and iSCSI and was thinking of moving this design to production just to speed up svMotions when I need em. So the other question is can Direct SAN access work with NFS? (I think I might have asked this before in a diff thread.. can't remember now haha)

[foggy]

You seem to confuse different transport modes a bit. There's a direct storage access (direct SAN or direct NFS) and backup from storage snapshots. Hope these links help, otherwise, feel free to ask additional questions.

[Zew]

Thanks for clarifying that confusing.

Now per https://helpcenter.veeam.com/backup/vsp ... setup.html

1) Can I use the default Backup Proxy which is the Veeam server itself?

2) Done, I connected my vCenter server to Veeam from day one.

3) Only applicable to HP Storage server (Clicking on the link to step 4 confirms the support of the VNXe)

4) Step 4 adding storage server, now it checks for existing snapshots, from what I've checked it appears my VNXe already has a scheduled snapshot defined.

So now I'm assuming the following.

1) is a yes, so keep going.
2) done
3) N/a
4) Configure my current Veeam AD account that already has admin rights to vCenter, provide that account admin permissions to the VNXe (Since I configured AD auth on the VNXe already) I can then use the already stored Veeam account thats on Veeam in the Add Storage Wizard for step 4 (add admin creds for the storage unit).

Let Veeam scan the existing setup (Will it detect just my NFS datastores or my iSCSI(VMFS) datastores as well?) including existing snapshots.

At this point I'd assume I could just edit the default proxy and choose Direct NFS as its transport mode, at this point since the Veeam server is a VM in the cluster with a leg in the SAN network it would use this leg to read the storage snapshot, then write to the iSCSI based volume thats on my other SAN. I'm hoping since the two end connections would be two different IPS I'd hope that the bonded NICs would actually both be used, in the case full 1 gbps read from the VNXe (nic 1 lets say) and a full 1 gbps up (to the iSCSI based other SAN this VM has for a direct volume.)

Am I correct in this assumption?

[Zew]

Foggy? haha

[foggy]

Let Veeam scan the existing setup (Will it detect just my NFS datastores or my iSCSI(VMFS) datastores as well?) including existing snapshots.

All available datastores will be rescanned.

At this point I'd assume I could just edit the default proxy and choose Direct NFS as its transport mode, at this point since the Veeam server is a VM in the cluster with a leg in the SAN network it would use this leg to read the storage snapshot

Not sure I follow you here, since, again, you're mentioning two different transport modes: direct NFS and backup from storage snapshots.

[Zew]

Well another nice timeout session all typed stuff lost... sigh...

Sorry Foggy,

I didn't think it was a transport mode... I figured the Proxy still needs to transfer the data in either mode NFS, iSCSI however it needs to based on the source type and destination type.

Reading this great blog.... https://myitoverview.blogspot.ca/2016/0 ... ccess.html

I checked my backup jobs after reading and turns out my setup is already using DirectNFS (Go me setting up my all-in-one with a dedicated SAN leg).

However adding a storage unit to Veeam via the Veeam Storage infrastructure wizard I had assumed it would just use storage snapshots over vmware snapshots but transfer of the data would still use one of the aforementioned transport modes. If I am wrong in this assumption can you link me an article were the storage snap transport mode is used and how one see's this type of mode under the proxy settings?

Also side note, if you could break this Topic from the original submitters since I don't mean to hijack the post and it's gotten a bit off topic from the original post... (Sorry SimonGreen)

[foggy]

Backup from storage snapshots is enabled in the job settings, on the Integration tab of the Advanced settings at the Storage step.

[Zew]

A license for Veeam Backup & Replication Enterprise Plus edition must be installed on the backup server.

FUDGE, The enterprise grade is so useless all you get is "Sure Backup" which is terrible in any real life test enviro requirement. All the goodies I'd like to use WAN accelerators, storage snapshots, all the good stuff is on the Enterprise "Plus" which I find a really annoying marketing strategy!

Anyway thank you for the link... seems after all this investigation it all is going to make no difference as I don't have the licensing for it!