Veeam Backup and Restore of Snapshot

[sumitjha1]

Hi Team,

I need help or your guidance to how to Setup Veeam Backup and Replication on VMware ESXI

Currently we are doing snapshot and reverting for our VM to stay machine up to date and taking a Snapshot of that machine for Next time Revert and update, but this will be taking our space of ESXi host we want to minimize this space utilization of Snapshot. This step we are performing monthly basis for Dev VM machine to make machine up to date.

We are Looking for something that we will Take backup of All the VM available on VMWare host including Snapshot and once we take the backup of VM we will delete the Snapshot of all the VMs from the host machine so that it will increase some space in ESXI host and improve the performance of ESXi host and Same way when we required the VM restore than we will restore the entire VM and Refresh the VM and then take back up again of the machine. Can anyone help me to setup this like if you can share and process doc and video link it will greatly be helpful for me.

[tyler.jurgens]

From a high-level view - Veeam will create snapshots for your VMs, and back those VMs up to a repository of your choice. Read more about it here: https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... ml?ver=120

I'm not sure what your goal is in having the VM backed up and being able to restore the VM *and* the corresponding snapshot. It looks like you could simply take a backup of the VM, run your regular updates, and if you have a problem restore the VM.

You can also make this a multiple-step operation. Take a backup. Then take your own snapshot - run your updates and remove the snapshot. If you need to restore the VM from a pre-update standpoint you can either restore from snapshot (while it exists) or if you've already removed the snapshot, restore the VM from the backup. This keeps extra space used by snapshots to a minimum (since they only exist for a short time) and still gives you that point-in-time restore option.

[sumitjha1]

Hi tjurgens-s2d

We have a Dev Env where our Dev VM are available, and they are on VMware ESXi host, and all have VM have a fresh Snapshot created and that VM used for Dev purpose testing every month we revert the machine so that it came back to previous state and update the VM with new updates like Microsoft update other software update and take a new snapshot and deleting the older snapshot but this utilize our Host datastore space so we want to remove these snapshot from each VM so that we can make same space in Host datastore.
So I am thinking about Veeam Backup and Restore Process where we take backup of Snapshot including Snapshot and Restore the VM and revert snapshot and update and again take full backup I know this will time consuming and I have to do some extra work but our primary goal to minimize datastore space please correct me If I am wrong.

[Andreas Neufert]

If I understand it correctly you want to do the following:

1) Create VM with some specific configuration.
2) Create a "backup/snapshot"
3) Give VM to DEV for whatever they want to do with the VM.
4) Revert every month the VM to backup point from "2)".
5) Update the VM with Software Updates and repeat the cycle starting from "2)".

If this is the case I think the best action is the following.

Create a backup repository (can be the Veeam Server itself).
Create the "clean" state VM backup with a job.
Let the guys play with the VM.
When there is time for stage "4)" use "Restore to original" and enable "Quick Rollback". Quick Rollback will revert only the changes back. So it is faster than an entire VM restore. Other option is to use Instant Restore for ultra fast restore (and migrate to production).


I would like to mention that there might be additional interesting options.
For example you could backup VMs with a clean state.
Then define lab scenarios within SureBackup Jobs and Application Groups (like this lab need VM1, VM4 and VM6).
Then install Universal Restore client on their workstation. They can request there labs from specific restore points (the clean restore point might be the only one). Veeam would spin up a network sandbox environment and let the VMs run from the backup target.
When the lab is not used it will be reset (requestor can define timing).
This might need some specific configuration and it is a bit more complex to plan on the network side. You need a good Veeam partner that knows "Virtual Lab/SureBackup" inside out to help you with the implementation.

[Andreas Neufert]

Oh an additionally if you have a compatible storage system (we nearly support all major storages and product lines), you could create storage snapshots with Veeam and use them for running instant restore the VMs for your QA, then revert as you wish.

[tyler.jurgens]

Andreas presents a great option there with his steps 1 -> 5 using the quick rollback to bring you back to a new 'ready state'. Look into if you have a compatible storage system for storage snapshots as that would make your backup/restore process faster. I really like the idea of his quick rollback option as that perfectly suits your scenario, Sumit.